FIREFOX ADD-ONS · COMPARED 19 OCTOBER 2026
Three Firefox add-ons open the Wayback Machine’s copy of the page you’re on. The Internet Archive’s own extension is the one to get if you want to save pages and browse a page’s history. Web Archives searches many archives at once. ByeWall, ours, opens archive.today first and keeps the Wayback Machine one right-click away, with the least access of the three.
WHICH ONE FITS
Get the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine extension. It saves the page you’re on, shows its oldest and newest copies and a calendar, and checks for a copy when a page returns an error. The catch: it asks for access to all websites, and its Firefox version hasn’t been updated since January 2023.
Get Web Archives. It searches the Wayback Machine, archive.today and other archives and caches from the toolbar, the right-click menu or the address bar, and it’s open source. The catch: it also asks for access to all websites.
Get ByeWall. One click opens archive.today’s copy; right-click and choose ByeWall → Try Wayback Machine for the Wayback copy, on the page or on a link. The catch: the Wayback Machine isn’t its first choice, it has no history calendar or auto-save, and it’s new, with 20 daily users.
SIDE BY SIDE
| ByeWall | Wayback Machine (Internet Archive) | Web Archives | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Archive it opens first | archive.today | Wayback Machine | Wayback Machine, or the archive you pick |
| Wayback Machine lookup | Yes, right-click a page or link → Try Wayback Machine | Yes, toolbar or right-click | Yes, toolbar, right-click or address bar |
| Other archives and caches | archive.today | No | Yes, a list you can reorder in its options |
| Saves new copies | Only as a separate step you choose, on archive.today | Yes, Save Page Now; auto-save can be turned on | Not listed |
| Checks broken pages automatically | No | Yes, on 4xx and 5xx errors | Offers a search from the address bar on a server error |
| Oldest, newest and calendar views | No | Yes | Not listed |
| Access it asks for | The active tab when you click, plus the right-click menu | All websites, plus cookies and notifications | All websites, plus notifications |
| Last updated on Firefox Add-ons | 7 Sep 2026 | 5 Jan 2023 | 1 Jul 2026 |
| Daily users on Firefox Add-ons | 20 | 38,585 | 68,570 |
| Made by | Basalt | Internet Archive | An independent open-source developer |
Features, access and numbers for the other two extensions are from their own Firefox Add-ons listings on 19 October 2026: Wayback Machine and Web Archives. “Not listed” means the listing doesn’t mention it, not that the extension can’t do it.
WHAT ACCESS MEANS
An extension with access to all websites can read and change every page you open, which is how features like automatic error checks work. ByeWall asks for activeTab and contextMenus only, so it sees a page’s address at the moment you click and nothing else.
Whichever extension you use, the address you look up is sent to the archive, which is how any archive lookup works.
ByeWall’s privacy details ↗A FEW THINGS TO KNOW
Yes. The Internet Archive publishes one called Wayback Machine on Firefox Add-ons. It saves pages, shows the oldest and newest copies and a calendar, and can check automatically when a page returns an error. Its Firefox listing was last updated in January 2023.
ByeWall asks for two permissions, activeTab and contextMenus, and reads a page's address only when you click. The Internet Archive's extension and Web Archives both ask for access to all websites.
No. ByeWall looks pages up. Its only save option opens archive.today's own save page, as a separate step you choose. To save to the Wayback Machine, use the Internet Archive's extension or Save Page Now on web.archive.org.
It only has pages someone or its crawler saved, and some sites ask it not to keep copies. Try archive.today, or try again later if the Wayback Machine is slow or down.
All three are free on Firefox Add-ons. ByeWall has no account, no subscription and no paid version.