Self-hosted link archive with tags and monitoring
Free
Tool review — Self-hosted · Updated
ArchiveBox Review (2026)
Self-hosted web archiving in HTML, PDF, and WARC
Free
- Open source
- App
What is ArchiveBox?
ArchiveBox is an open-source, MIT-licensed web archiving tool you run on your own server or machine. Instead of sending pages to a cloud service, it fetches URLs you feed it — one at a time, from browser bookmark or history exports, RSS feeds, Pocket, Pinboard, or plain text files — and saves each one in multiple durable formats: raw and single-file HTML, PDF, PNG screenshot, WARC, extracted article text, and media downloaded via yt-dlp. Under the hood it drives headless Chromium, wget, SingleFile, and Readability, storing everything in an SQLite database plus plain files on disk. It is a mature, community-maintained project with over 28,000 GitHub stars, offering a CLI, self-hosted web UI, Python API, and a browser extension.
Key features
- Saves each URL in many formats at once: HTML, single-file HTML, PDF, PNG screenshot, WARC, article text, and media
- Imports from browser bookmarks/history, RSS feeds, Pocket, Pinboard, JSON/CSV, and plain text lists
- Multiple interfaces: CLI, self-hosted web UI with admin dashboard, Python API, REST API, and a Chrome extension
- Built-in scheduled archiving of RSS feeds and sites, with static HTML/JSON/CSV exports of the whole archive
- Installs via Docker Compose, Docker, pip/uv, Homebrew, or apt, with support for S3/NFS/SMB storage backends
Where it saves to
Your own server (self-hosted archive folder) · SQLite database + on-disk snapshot files · Optional remote storage backends (S3, NFS, SMB)
Pricing
ArchiveBox is completely free and MIT-licensed, with no official paid tier — you supply your own server and storage. If you don't want to run it yourself, third-party managed hosting providers such as PikaPods and StellarHosted offer ArchiveBox instances starting around $3/month.
Best for
Self-hosters, researchers, and archivists who want permanent, local copies of web pages in open formats rather than links stored in a third-party cloud service. Comfort with Docker or the command line is expected.
Pros
- Free and open source (MIT), with no vendor lock-in — archives are plain files and SQLite
- Captures each page in many redundant formats, including WARC and full-page PDF/screenshot
- Imports from a wide range of sources: bookmarks, history, RSS, Pocket, Pinboard
- Mature, actively developed project with a large community (28k+ GitHub stars)
Cons
- Requires running and maintaining your own server; no native Windows installation is supported
- Storage-hungry: roughly 1-50 GB per 1,000 snapshots depending on media
- Archiving pages behind logins needs careful configuration, and exposed cookies/session tokens are a security risk on shared instances
Alternatives to ArchiveBox
Simple Go bookmark manager with offline article archiving
Free
FAQ
Is ArchiveBox free?
Yes. ArchiveBox is open source under the MIT license with no paid tier; your only costs are your own server and storage. Third-party managed hosting is available from around $3/month if you don't want to self-host.
What formats does ArchiveBox save pages in?
Each URL is saved in multiple formats: raw HTML, self-contained single-file HTML, PDF, PNG screenshot, WARC, extracted article text, favicons, headers, and media files downloaded via yt-dlp.
Does ArchiveBox work on Windows?
Native Windows installation is not supported. Windows users typically run ArchiveBox through Docker; Linux and macOS are supported directly via Docker Compose, pip/uv, Homebrew, or apt.
Can ArchiveBox import my browser bookmarks?
Yes. It imports URLs from browser bookmark and history exports, RSS feeds, Pocket, Pinboard, JSON/CSV files, and plain text lists, and can run scheduled imports automatically.
Where ArchiveBox fits
- Category: Best Self-Hosted Web Archiving Tools (2026)
- Also in: Best Free Save-to Tools (2026)
- Also in: Best Open-Source Save-to Tools (2026)
- If it ever shuts down: Save tool graveyard
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