You can reduce your Internet costs by browsing the Web while offline with an offline browser. Consider it a “save now, read later” feature that applies to entire websites, including all of their internal layers and links. You can browse the website and its pages later, even without an Internet connection, because the contents and their resources will be downloaded and cached.
This is useful, for example, if you’re a research student who needs to conduct experiments locally without an Internet connection or if you’re travelling abroad and have spotty Internet access. Using these offline browsers, you can save the books or travel guides you need and access them later.
Ten of the top offline browsers are listed below. Our focus is on the versions that are freely accessible, even though some are premium software. Be aware that while a few of these offline browsers operate on other platforms as well, the majority of them are Windows-only.
How to Download and Read Websites Offline
Internet might be a blessing, but like all blessings, not everyone or everything can use it.
1. HTTrack Website Copier
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The most well-liked free offline browser is HTTrack Website Copieri. Recursively downloading an entire website to your computer creates a copy of the online version. The only difference between the replicated website and the online version is that without an Internet connection, the external links would not function.
HTTrack is portable and runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, in contrast to PageNest, which is only compatible with Windows.
2. WebAssistant Proxy Offline Browser
Although HTTrack is more sophisticated than the competition and can follow links even inside Applets or Flash files, it cannot track complex links or server-side image maps.
Parts of a website may not download until the robots exclusion settings are turned off on the web server because it respects the preferences in robots.txt. It includes a sophisticated download manager with update and resume capabilities.
Compared to other offline browsers, WebAssistant Proxy Offline Browser functions differently. As opposed to an offline browser, it functions more like a caching proxy server. Although it does not immediately download the complete website, it automatically creates a cache of recently visited pages that can even be shared between other workstations.
3 Getleft
Both online and offline modes are supported by the WebAssistant Proxy Offline Browser. Online mode loads freshly downloaded web pages, while offline mode only displays previously saved web pages. Links to cached resources are color-coded for easier viewing, and cached pages are archived according to their original hierarchical order.
It even displays a directory of all the cached pages and indicates the changes in the refreshed web pages. Only personal usage of WebAssistant Proxy Offline Browser is free. It runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Unix, and Solaris and is built on Java.
Getleft is a website grabber that downloads entire websites so that users can browse them offline. It converts internal links to relative links so you can navigate the local website just like you would any other online page. It is available for several operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Solaris, just like HTTrack and WebAssistant Proxy.
4. WebCopy
Getleft only reads HTML and does not comprehend embedded Java objects or JavaScript scripts, making it less potent than HTTrack. What it does is provide choices for resumable downloads, filtering and personalising downloads, the ability to provide sitemaps before downloading a website, etc.
It is available for free for both personal and business use, and it may even follow external links.
WebCopy saves websites, in part or in full, to your hard drive. When you supply the necessary URL, its servers retrieve the web pages and the resources on them. Its filters and sophisticated configuration settings help you specify what and how to replicate the resources if you want to bypass specific sections of the websites.
5. PageNest Free Offline Browser
In contrast to HTTrack, WebCopy has limited JavaScript compatibility and is unable to find all of the webpage if JavaScript is used to dynamically create links. For smooth offline browsing, it automatically connects and remaps the stylesheets, pictures, and other page resources of the websites.
In order to build a passable approximation of the supplied website, it crawls the entire page and downloads everything. It is available only for Windows and is free for both personal and business use.
PageNest Free Offline Browser copies the text, graphics, and styles of a full website or a subset of its pages. Just entering the necessary URL causes the necessary resources to be downloaded to your computer’s hard drive. It speeds up the download process by combining various files from the web using powerful multi-threading download technology.
6. BackStreet Browser
You can use PageNest to browse the downloaded website or pages inside of its own browser or you can use any other web browser of your choice. It even refines newly added content to the downloaded pages’ online counterpart.
For personal use, it is totally free; however, there are fees associated with commercial use. It’s only compatible with Windows.
BackStreet Browser is an effective offline browser with a multi-threaded, high-speed download engine similar to PageNest. The full or a portion of a website, including HTML, graphics, Java Applets, sound files, and other resource files, can be downloaded rapidly. To conserve storage space, it keeps the downloaded websites in both their original format and archives.
7. WebReaper
Backstreet Browser’s unique zip/unzip functionality enables you to reduce your storage needs without sacrificing usability because any zipped website may be browsed straight in the offline browser that is already built-in. The identical can be unzipped for viewing in your preferred web browser.
Any website’s original directory structure is duplicated, making it simple to move the website to a different host. Other capabilities include the ability to update and resume, access password-protected websites, and more. Even for commercial usage, it’s free, but it’s only compatible with Windows.
For offline viewing, WebReapercrawls a website and downloads its pages, images, and objects. It can download websites twice, unlike other offline browsers. Any web browser can be used to see the version that was downloaded as a local directory because it functions as a fully functional website.
8. WinWSD WebSite Downloader
The second is a cache for Internet Explorer that can be accessed while offline. The latter method of website download only supports Internet Explorer and functions more like WebAssistant Proxy. WebReaper supports ShockWave Flashit and employs multi-threaded downloading. It downloads and repairs SWF videos for local browsing.
You may quickly configure which parts of the website should get collected for offline use thanks to its filter construction wizard and collection of 12 filters. Even proxy and web authentication are supported for accessing prohibited or secured websites. It is only compatible with Windows and is free for both private and business use.
WinWSD Webpage Downloader has a straightforward user interface and may download full websites or just the bits you want for offline use. The downloaded website can be browsed within the software itself or using any web browser. You could believe WinWSD Webpage Downloader to be inferior to other offline browsers because it does not alter all internal links to their download location.
9. Local Website Archive Lite
But, it offers five useful download options: download the entire site, skip the multimedia files, download only photographs, download only multimedia files, and download only executables. Additionally, it has settings that let you decide which files to download.
One of its useful features is a free but Windows-only option that immediately terminates the application or your machine after the download is complete.
Other offline browsers differ from Local Website Archive Lite. Only individual web pages and documents from websites can be saved. The connected applications can open saved pages and documents, and desktop search programmes can also index saved pages and documents.
10. NCollector Studio Lite
To automatically download updated web pages, Local Website Archive Lite can be connected to Website Watcher. It works with many popular web browsers and online tools. Powerful search tools are also included, which make it easy to locate information in locally saved sites or documents.
It is only compatible with Windows, and the limited-featured light edition is free for personal use.
It’s simple to download entire websites or select files with NCollector Studio Lite. Offline browser, crawler, search, and mirror website are its four available modes. In offline browser mode, websites are downloaded for offline viewing, and all internal links are converted to local links.