Five tools for downloading websites

Rip It!

Article from Issue 285/2024
Author(s):

Companies and private users sometimes need to back up their own online content. We examine five free solutions for Linux that can download and store web pages or whole websites.

A company's website is often the first point contact with new customers, which means that a website is an important business card for Internet users. The more complex and extensive the website is, the more important it is to have a backup in order to ensure a continuous presence on the Internet in the event of a disaster or cyber attack. A backup can also facilitate the migration of a website from one host to another, and backups taken at regular intervals ensure an archival record of the state of the site.

Conventional browser extensions have some capacity for backing up web pages, but they usually don't have the capacity to secure a complex website with numerous hierarchical levels. Browsers and their extensions typically only save the content currently visible in the browser in a single file. The need for a more complete backup solution has led to the development of native website rippers or website grabbers. This article examines some free alternatives.

Functionality

Website grabbers are always the tool of choice when you need offline access to a complete website. It does not matter whether you want to save a website for documentation purposes or just need a regular backup.

[...]

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