Overview

Social Archiver is a personal archive for saving permitted social posts and other online content in a searchable library. It is a strong fit for people who want to organize material across sources while keeping it primarily on their own devices. The main trade-off is that capture varies by source, and syncing or sharing changes where archive data goes.

Key features

Profile crawling and scheduled subscriptions support ongoing collection, while a searchable timeline, tags, places, collections, and advanced search help make a growing archive usable. The service covers 21 platforms and sources, spanning social networks, podcasts, publishing platforms, and RSS blogs. That breadth is useful for people collecting across several parts of the web, but capabilities vary by source; the source count does not mean every source supports the same capture options.

Archives can include rich metadata and images or video where supported. The Obsidian client can create Markdown output, and Markdown and ZIP exports offer ways to take records elsewhere. These options suit users who value structured, portable archives, though media capture is not uniform.

Web, mobile, Chrome extension, and Obsidian clients cover different saving habits. The browser extension handles supported URLs and web-page clipping. The mobile app integrates with Immich, Raindrop, Notion, Readwise Reader, and Karakeep; Karakeep is beta, and some integrations depend on app rollout or build availability.

Saved posts, notes, and media are primarily stored on-device by default. Enabling sync or web sharing can send related content and metadata to Social Archiver’s servers, so users who want the local-first model should weigh that before turning those options on. AI comments can run through desktop CLI tools, Apple’s on-device model, or Cloud AI. Cloud AI sends the archive text needed for an action to the service’s server and requests consent the first time. It supports summaries, glossaries, translation, and tag suggestions; very long archives may exceed its length limit, and other comment types require desktop tools or supported Apple Intelligence.

Pricing

The Free plan is free, billed forever. It allows 10 successful archives per month, with duplicates and failed attempts excluded from the quota, and includes local browsing and search plus mobile, browser extension, and Obsidian access. It is a practical way to build a small personal archive, but regular collectors may quickly need a paid plan.

Premium Monthly costs 3.99 USD per month, billed monthly. It removes the monthly archive limit while active and adds authorized personal archive processing, sync across signed-in devices, and monthly Cloud credits for AI and supported paid cloud services. Choose it if you need ongoing capacity and cross-device access without an annual commitment.

Premium Annual costs 39.99 USD per year, billed yearly, or about $3.33/month. It provides the same Premium access and sync support, making it the lower monthly-equivalent option for people confident they will use the service over the year.

Lifetime costs 69.99 USD per once, billed one-time. It provides no monthly archive limit and no subscription renewal, plus monthly Cloud credits for AI and supported paid cloud services. Fair-use and acceptable-use rules still apply, so “lifetime” is not an exemption from those limits. Premium plans remain subject to rate limits.

Social Archiver is for lawful personal archiving; it does not provide access to other people’s private accounts, credentials, devices, or restricted data. Web checkout questions go to support by email, while App Store and Google Play purchases follow the relevant store’s refund process.

Platforms

Social Archiver is available on Android, iOS, macOS, the web, and as an extension. Its separate web, mobile, Chrome extension, and Obsidian clients make it a flexible choice for people who collect from several devices or workflows.

Who it's for

Choose Social Archiver if you want a personal, searchable record across supported social and web sources, value local-first storage, or use Obsidian and portable Markdown exports. It is less suitable if you require uniform capture across every source, want a small free quota to cover frequent archiving, or need organizational compliance controls rather than personal archiving.

Pros and cons

Pro: Profile crawling, scheduled subscriptions, and several organization tools support ongoing archives rather than only one-off saves.
Pro: Local-first storage and Markdown and ZIP exports give users more control over where their personal archive lives.
Pro: A permanent free plan with 10 successful archives per month allows a modest archive without subscription renewal.
Con: Source capabilities vary, so users cannot assume equivalent capture across all 21 platforms and sources.
Con: Sync, sharing, and Cloud AI can send archive content or metadata to the service’s servers, which matters to privacy-focused users.
Con: The free quota is limited, and Premium remains subject to rate limits; Cloud AI also has a length limit for very long archives.

Alternatives

Browse the Social Media Archiving Software directory to compare options. Aleph Archives is a paid web and self-hosted alternative with a free trial and monthly Basic and Standard plans; consider it if you want a self-hosted option or customizable feature bundles. MessageWatcher Social Media Compliance is a paid web service with a free trial and per-account monthly plans, making it a more relevant choice for account-based social media compliance. CloudAlly SaaS Backup offers a free trial and custom quotes tailored to storage requirements, user count, and budget; consider it when SaaS backup needs drive the decision. Proofpoint Email DLP and Encryption is a paid option for Android, iOS, web, and Windows. Jatheon Cloud offers per-user monthly pricing billed annually, with unlimited storage and no egress fees at exit. Smarsh Archive is a paid API and web option. COMPLY Communications Archiving is a paid web option with demo-based sales. Global Relay Archive is designed for enterprise-scale recordkeeping and offers API and web access.

Verdict

Social Archiver is an appealing choice for individuals who want a searchable, cross-source personal archive with on-device storage as the default and useful export options. Its breadth of capture and flexible clients are the reasons to choose it; source-by-source variation and the data-sharing implications of sync and Cloud AI are reasons to look elsewhere or keep those options off.

	Smarsh Archive	Social Archiver
Free plan		Yes
Paid from		$3.33/mo
Platforms	api, Web	Android, extension, iOS, macOS, Web
Retention options	configurable	permanent
Legal hold	Yes
Advanced search	Yes	Yes
Export formats	PST, EML, HTML, XML, EDRM	Markdown, ZIP
Free plan		Yes
Social sources		21

Smarsh Archive vs Social Archiver

Smarsh Archive

Social Archiver