tinykoiHow to archive a web page so it never disappears
· Guides · 5 min read
To archive a web page, save a copy you control: print it to PDF, save it to the Wayback Machine, save it as a single HTML file, or use a bookmark manager that keeps a copy for you. No method is perfect, and the right one depends on how many pages you save and how much effort you want to spend on each.
This guide compares the four, including where each one falls short. If you want the background first, read why bookmarks stop working.
Before you start: what "archive" means
A bookmark is an address. An archive is the content. Pages disappear when sites close, redesign, or edit things out, and a bookmark cannot bring any of that back. Pew Research found that 25% of the pages it sampled from 2013 to 2023 were no longer accessible by October 2023, which is why a copy is worth having for anything that matters.
Decide first what you need. A reference you will quote needs the exact text and ideally a date. A recipe needs the text. An interactive tool cannot be archived by any of these methods.
Option 1: Print to PDF
Every desktop browser can do this. In Chrome, open the print dialog with Ctrl+P (Cmd+P on a Mac) and choose Save as PDF as the destination instead of a printer. Chrome's print help lists the shortcut.
Good: nothing to install, one file, opens anywhere, easy to attach to a document.
Not so good: the print stylesheet decides what you get. Pages often drop navigation, images or entire sections when printed, and long pages split awkwardly. You also end up with a pile of PDFs with names like Untitled (3).pdf, and nothing helps you find them later except the file system.
Use it for one-off pages you want to keep next to a project.
Option 2: The Wayback Machine
The Internet Archive's Save Page Now saves a page to the Wayback Machine. According to the Internet Archive's help page, you put a URL into the form, press the button, and get a permanent URL for the page. It saves the page including images and CSS, but only a single page, not the outlinks or the whole site. The Archive says it does not keep your IP address, so the submission is anonymous. There is also a Wayback Machine Chrome extension.
Good: free, public, citable. A permanent link you can share, and it will outlive your own storage.
Not so good: the Archive lists exceptions itself: some sites prohibit crawling, and a few have security settings that make the method fail. The copy is public, so it is the wrong place for anything private, and you do not control it. You also have no search across what you saved.
Use it for public pages you want to cite or link to.
Option 3: Save the page as one HTML file
SingleFile is a browser extension and command-line tool that saves a complete page as a single HTML file, with text, images and styling inside it. It lists Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari and several others as supported browsers. Output can also be a self-extracting ZIP, MHTML or a Safari webarchive.
Good: the closest thing to the page as you saw it, stored on your own disk, readable offline.
Not so good: it is a file per page, so the filing is up to you. Search depends on your operating system's file search. It is also a manual step each time, and manual steps get skipped.
Use it when fidelity matters and you are happy managing files.
Option 4: A bookmark manager that archives
The idea is to remove the manual step. You save a page once, and the tool fetches and keeps its own copy, then lets you search it.
tinykoi does this on Pro. It keeps a copy of every page you save, so the page stays readable after the site changes or goes away, and you can filter your library to show only pages with an archived copy. You can also find the page by any word in it: full-text search covers every saved page on the free plan too.
Alongside that, Pro checks your links about once a month and flags the ones that stopped working, with a link to the archived copy. A reader view shows the page without the clutter, and you can highlight passages and add notes.
Limits worth knowing:
- Archiving is Pro only, at $3 a month or $24 a year. The free plan keeps the title, cover, tags and notes.
- Not every page can be archived. tinykoi's terms say so directly, and sites that block fetching or sit behind a login are the usual trouble.
- If you leave Pro, archived copies are deleted 30 days later.
- tinykoi saves from a Chrome extension or a pasted link. There are no mobile apps.
Comparison
| Print to PDF | Wayback Machine | Single HTML file | Bookmark manager | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Free | Free | Free plan, archiving on Pro |
| Effort per page | Several clicks | A few clicks | A click or two | One click |
| Private | Yes | No, public | Yes | Yes |
| Searchable | By file name | No | By file system | Full text |
| Works on every page | Mostly | Not all sites | Mostly | Not every page |
| You control the copy | Yes | No | Yes | Within the service, with export |
A sensible combination
Most people end up with a mix.
- Save everything to a bookmark manager, so it is searchable and filed.
- For anything you may need to cite publicly, also run it through Save Page Now.
- For a page you cannot afford to lose, add a PDF or a single-file copy to your own storage.
Export your bookmark library from time to time as well. tinykoi exports HTML or CSV from Settings. Uploaded files are not part of the export.
Archive as you save
The cheapest time to archive a page is the moment you find it. The tinykoi free plan needs no card, and you can compare it with Pro on the pricing page or the features page.