Dead Simple Backups vs HTTrack

HTTrack has been copying websites since 1998. It is free, open source, runs on Windows and Linux (and on a Mac with some effort), and given a starting address it downloads the pages and files it finds into a folder you can open offline. For a one-off copy by someone comfortable with settings dialogs, it is a good tool.

Where the two differ

Setup. HTTrack asks for a project name, addresses, depth limits, filters for what to include, and mirror options. The defaults work on many sites and produce surprising results on others (missing images from a CDN, thousands of unwanted files). Dead Simple Backups asks for an address.

Squarespace specifics. Squarespace serves images from a separate CDN and relies on scripts for layout. HTTrack needs filter rules to fetch the CDN files and cannot render scripts at all. We copy from the Squarespace CDN by default and take each screenshot in a real browser after the page has loaded.

Screenshots. HTTrack saves files, not appearances. If the copied page renders oddly (common with modern builders), you have no record of how it really looked. We save a full-page screenshot of every page, which is often the thing people open first.

Scheduling. HTTrack runs when you run it. Most people run it once, feel safe, and never run it again. We run on the 1st of every month and email you the link, whether or not you remember.

Storage. HTTrack's copy lives on the computer that ran it. Ours lives in private storage with 12 months of history, downloadable from anywhere, and you can also keep local copies.

Cost. HTTrack is free. We are $79 a year or $9 a month per site, or free for a single page.

Use HTTrack when

• You want one copy, now, on your own disk, and you are happy to configure it.
• The site is simple, self-hosted, and does not depend on scripts or a CDN.
• You are archiving a site you do not own and do not need to keep current.

Use Dead Simple Backups when

• You want next month's copy to arrive without doing anything.
• You want to know what the pages looked like, not just what files existed.
• The site is on Squarespace or another builder that trips up crawlers.
• Someone else (a client, a board) needs to be able to get the copy without your laptop.

Try both. HTTrack's site has the download; our free backup shows you one page from your site in a couple of minutes.

Q: Does HTTrack work with Squarespace?

Partly. It fetches the HTML, but images on the Squarespace CDN need filter rules, and script-driven layouts are not rendered, so the offline copy may not look like the site.

Q: Is HTTrack still maintained?

It still works and is widely used, though updates are infrequent. That does not matter much for a one-off copy.