Comparison of software saving Web pages for offline use
Appearance
A number of proprietary software products are available for saving Web pages for later use offline. They vary in terms of the techniques used for saving, what types of content can be saved, the format and compression of the saved files, provision for working with already saved content, and in other ways.
HTML Content
Name | Technology | Completeness of saved content | Support for collections | Ease of adding to existing collections | Navigable between saved pages in offline | Format of saved files; open/proprietary | Compression | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
wget | command line application | images and CSS (if -p option is used), but no client-side generated HTML content
|
Yes | ? | Yes, if -k option is used
|
Open (HTML or WARC) | Yes, if WARC files are used | |
HTTrack | command line application has WinHTTrack for Windows and WebHTTrack for Linux/BSD/Unix GUI front-ends | ? | ? | ? | Yes. Links all remade so open your locally stored pages for the site you download | Open. Standard HTML pages saved in a folder. Click on index.html to open home page | No | Many options to let you refine what you save. |
Tenmax's Teleport | windows desktop application and scriptable tools for web crawling and archiving | multimedia (except streaming files), CSS, limited support for javascript events and cookies; shockwave/flash content is downloaded but not crawled | ? | ? | Yes | Open. Standard HTML pages saved in a folder. Click on index.html to open home page | No | supports advanced filtering options and authentication |
ScrapBook | Firefox extension | See note[ScrapBook 1][1] | Yes | Easy | Yes IF those pages were saved in scrapbook | Proprietary catalog; regular HTML and content for each page | No |
See note[ScrapBook 2] |
Mozilla Archive Format | Firefox extension | Images, CSS and other static content; clientside-generated HTML content saved fine | Yes | Impossible | No | MAFF (=ZIP of regular HTML and web content) | Always | The Mozilla Archive Format add-on is no longer maintained since September 5, 2018.[2] |
Read Later Fast | Google Chrome extension | Stylesheets are saved incompletely or not at all | No | N/A | No | Proprietary; restricted to Google Chrome profile location | No | |
PageArchiver | Google Chrome extension | Video and audio files (via Flash or HTML5) are not saved | Yes | Yes (import/export features) | No | Open; regular HTML for pages, regular zip file for catalog | Yes for catalog | |
Archia's Web Page Archiver[3] | E-mail based on-line service | See note[Archia 1] | No | No | No | Open | Yes |
Notes
ScrapBook
- ^ Saved content:
Default:- images, CSS and other static content; clientside-generated HTML content—all saved fine
- sound (MP3, WAV, RAM, WMA)
- video (MPG, AVI, MOV, WMV)
- archives (ZIP, LZH, RAR, JAR, XPI)
- java - but can be problematic
- custom document extensions (e.g. PDF)
- ^ Extra features:
- Search across collections
- saved pages embedding TED.com presentations (incl. pages on TED.com) cannot be played even when online
- selecting a piece of page will save only selected piece — inconvenient when you change page title with a quote from the page
- doesn't work with Firefox Quantum at the moment
Archia
- ^ Saved content:
Images, CSS and other static content, sound (MP3, WAV, RAM, WMA), video (MPG, AVI, MOV, WMV), archives (ZIP, LZH, RAR, JAR, XPI), custom document extensions (e.g. PDF)
Video
To save video embedded on web sites (e.g. YouTube), there are video download extensions for Firefox (including Download Helper) and Chrome.
See also
References
- ^ Zhang, Gary. "Best Ways to Save Webpage for Offline Viewing (#3 is Awesome!)". Garyzzc. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
- ^ "Documentation". mozdev.org. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
- ^ "Archia: Web Page Archiver". Archived from the original on 2015-02-19. Retrieved 2015-02-19.