shouldiuse.io

VERDICT

Should I use SingleFile?

Save an entire web page — images, CSS, fonts, frames — as a single HTML file - getsinglefile.com

Worth it. Buy it if you want a free, reliable way to snapshot web pages as single offline HTML files. Skip it if you need to crawl linked pages, archive large complex sites, or get vendor support.

Confidence

Medium. Based on 9 usable public sources; many search results were irrelevant noise. No pricing page exists — product is open source and free.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support qualityNo support evidence in sources
  • Security posture

Pricing

Free

SingleFile (open source)

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes

Best for

  • Personal web archiving
  • Researchers preserving sources
  • Data hoarders
  • Docs authors embedding site snapshots

Not for

  • Bulk archiving whole sites with linked pages
  • Large, complex, JS-heavy webpages
  • Teams wanting a hosted, supported archiving service
  • Anyone expecting enterprise security documentation

Gotchas - check before you buy

medium

Large dynamic pages produce bloated, inefficient files.

medium

You save pages one at a time; linked subpages are not crawled.

medium

No security documentation page exists — expect no enterprise assurances.

low

It's free and open source — no paid support; issues go through GitHub.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Saves complete pages — CSS, images, fonts, frames — into one HTML file
  • Free and open source with 22,488 GitHub stars
  • Works as a browser extension and a CLI tool
  • Trusted enough that archivists pair it with ArchiveBox and Wayback
  • Long-standing; users embedded snapshots in guided walkthroughs for years

Cons

  • Horribly inefficient on larger, more complex webpages
  • Only snapshots the page itself; doesn't capture linked content
  • Its own security page is a 404 — no documented security info
  • Cybercriminals have used it to clone login pages for phishing

Sources & method

Analyzed 9/26/2026 - 9 sources - No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

official x4review x4security x1
  • Abused in phishing campaigns (2019), Trend Micro documented cybercriminals using SingleFile to copy legitimate login pages as part of a phishing campaign. This is tool misuse, not a vulnerability in SingleFile.

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • Free

    Starting price

  • 9

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Free, open source, no paid tiers
  • Ease of use: 4/5. One-click page save; users report easy snapshots
  • Feature depth: 3/5. Strong single-page capture; weak on complex pages
  • Support quality. No support evidence in sources
  • Security posture: 4/5. No known CVEs; phishers abused the tool
  • 22,488 GitHub stars gildas-lormeau/SingleFile
  • Free Price Open-source extension and CLI
  • Yes Free tier The whole product is free
  • Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari Browsers Plus a CLI tool

Pricing

SingleFile (open source)

Free

  • Browser extension: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari
  • Command-line CLI version
  • Community support via GitHub

Security

No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

  • Abused in phishing campaigns (2019)Trend Micro documented cybercriminals using SingleFile to copy legitimate login pages as part of a phishing campaign. This is tool misuse, not a vulnerability in SingleFile.⁹

What users say

Archivists and hobbyists praise SingleFile for clean single-file snapshots but report it bogs down on large, complex pages and won't grab linked content.

“SingleFile is good if you want to deal with static webpages. But is horribly inefficient when you're dealing with larger, more complex webpages.”
Reddit, r/DataHoarder
“I was able to get a complete snap of the page itself, but whatever options I tried…”
Reddit, r/chrome_extensions
“I found SingleFile a year or two ago, and used it to take "HTML Screenshots" of third party sites I could embed in guided walkthroughs”
Hacker News
Full analysis

Based on 9 usable public sources; many search results were irrelevant noise. No pricing page exists — product is open source and free.

Free open-source extension that saves whole pages as one HTML file. Great for personal archiving; weak on big complex sites.

Methodology

Based on 9 usable public sources; many search results were irrelevant noise. No pricing page exists — product is open source and free.

Sources

  1. SingleFile – Effortlessly Save and Preserve Web Pagesgetsinglefile.com
    official
  2. gildas-lormeau/SingleFile on GitHubgithub.com
    official
  3. SingleFile - Chrome Web Storechromewebstore.google.com
    official
  4. SingleFile for Safari - App Storeapps.apple.com
    official
  5. SingleFile: Save a complete web page into a single HTML file (HN)news.ycombinator.com
    review
  6. ArchiveBox, Wayback or something else? (Reddit)reddit.com
    review
  7. Another question on saving webpages (Reddit)reddit.com
    review
  8. Saving webpages but also want all linked content (Reddit)reddit.com
    review
  9. Phishing Attack Uses SingleFile in Malicious Log-ins (Trend Micro)trendmicro.com
    security

Rate this review

Anonymous. You can change your vote.

Loading votes…

Comments

One queue. No nested comments. Give a display name first. Limit: 200 words per comment and 7 comments per day. You can edit or delete yours.

Save a name to write a comment.

0 / 200 words

No comments yet.