Two products. One archive.
The core library is AGPL and free forever. The desktop app is a one-time purchase. No subscriptions, no recurring fees.
The scraping and archiving engine is open source under AGPL-3.0-or-later. Clone it, build it, run the CLI. Full archiving power, no GUI required.
- Full scraping engine (sitemap-first)
- Multi-domain support
- Recursive crawling
- Clean snapshots on disk
- On-the-fly overlay injection
- Local web server for browsing
- Rust binary, no runtime needed
- Unlimited sites, unlimited snapshots
- Community support on GitHub
The desktop app wraps the core library with a friendly UI, auto-updates, and cross-platform builds for macOS, Windows, and Linux. One-time purchase, no subscriptions. Closed source — the app funds the open core.
- Everything in the open source core
- Native UI for macOS, Windows, Linux
- Auto-updates
- Drag-and-drop scraping
- Built-in snapshot browser
- Priority support
- One-time payment, no recurring fees
- All future versions included
Frequently asked questions
Is the core library really open source?
Yes. The scraping and archiving engine is licensed under AGPL-3.0-or-later. You can fork it, audit it, and build on it. If you operate a network service that uses it, you must share your modifications under the same license.
What does the desktop app add?
The desktop app wraps the core library with a graphical UI, cross-platform builds (macOS, Windows, Linux), auto-updates, and convenience features. The wrapper is proprietary and a one-time purchase funds ongoing development of the open core.
Can I use just the CLI without the desktop app?
Yes. The Rust binary works standalone. Clone the repo, cargo build, and you have a full archiver with no GUI required. Free, forever, AGPL.
Does anything leave my machine?
No. webChronicle fetches pages from the web during scraping, but the archives, snapshots, and indexes all live on your machine. No cloud, no uploads, no telemetry.
Why isn't the desktop app open source?
The core library is AGPL and always will be. The desktop app is a separate product that wraps the core with a native UI, auto-updater, and cross-platform build pipeline. Selling the app funds development of the open source core. You can always use the CLI for free instead.