Archivarix alternative: what changes when URLs must survive
Archivarix downloads archived files from the Wayback Machine: $10 per 1,000 files, self-service, minutes. We rebuild archived sites into WordPress where every original URL — including ?p=123 and ?cat=5 — resolves with a byte-exact canonical, plus a documented 301/410 map and a QA report. Two different jobs. This page shows the difference with facts and their own published statements.
Last updated: 2026-09-23
Comparison, facts only
| Criterion | Archivarix | WP Service Lab |
|---|---|---|
| What you buy | Raw archived files (zip) + their flat-file loader/CMS; optional WXR export of articles for WordPress | Installed WordPress package, turnkey |
| Price | $0.25 up to 200 files · $10 per 1,000 files · +$1 per extra 1,000 | $99–149 per site · $69–89 white-label |
| Time | Minutes (automated) | 3–5 days |
| WordPress path | WXR import of extracted articles — in their words: “When importing articles, the design of the original site is not copied, nor are the url addresses of the articles copied.” | Native WordPress site: original design, original URLs, original IDs |
| ?p=, ?cat=, ?tag= URLs | Served as static captures by their PHP loader — not WordPress routes | Each resolves 200 with original content inside WordPress, before WP query parsing |
| rel=canonical | As captured in the snapshot | Byte-exact match of the served URL |
| Missed pages | Absent; their CMS logs requests to missing URLs | 301/410 map with a reason per URL (redirects.csv), shipped with the package |
| QA report | — | qa/report.html: % restored, reason per miss, source timestamps |
| White-label docs | — | install.md / editing.md branded for your agency |
Sources: archivarix.com — pricing; archivarix.com/en/wordpress/ — WordPress import note (both checked 2026-09-23). The quote above is verbatim from the second page.
Where Archivarix wins
- Price per file. $10 per 1,000 files — if you only need raw captures, nothing on this page competes with that.
- Speed. Automated download in minutes; our turnaround is 3–5 days because a human checks every URL.
- Self-service. No conversation needed — paste a domain, pay, download.
- Static restores. If you don’t need WordPress at all, their flat-file loader keeps the captured URL tree and is cheap to host.
- Experimenting. For a quick look at what the archive holds, a zip is the cheapest possible probe.
Files ≠ an installed WordPress site
A zip of captures is a starting point. Making it a WordPress site means: a fixed WP version, a router that serves ?p= URLs before WordPress rewrites them, canonicals corrected byte-for-byte, a sitemap from live pages, a robots.txt that isn’t the archived one, forms that render but don’t leak, and a ledger saying which URLs came back and which didn’t — with a reason each. That is the job we do, and the only one.
If you need raw files — use Archivarix, they are good at it. If you need the site — start with the free coverage audit.