As we prepare for Rhizome’s 30th anniversary, we’re taking an important step in the evolution of our approach to dynamic web archiving. 

Rhizome’s software infrastructure for digital preservation—which represents more than $3M of investment over the past decade, and an annual server bill that rivals what other organizations spend on rent—allows us to offer an unrivaled set of services to institutions around the world, and powers access to our own public archives.

For nearly a decade, a key part of this offering has been cloud-based web archiving tools that have helped thousands of people capture and access dynamic web content. 

Beginning in 2015, with the visionary support of the Mellon Foundation, we incubated Webrecorder, a service for archiving the dynamic web created by Ilya Kreymer. When Webrecorder spun off as a standalone entity in 2020, we continued to operate Conifer as a hosted service based on that software.

Our intention was to integrate Webrecorder updates into Conifer on an ongoing basis. However, Webrecorder’s offerings had to undergo significant technical change to keep up with an ever-evolving web, and can no longer be meaningfully integrated into the hosted service as initially envisioned. 

The result is that Conifer’s ability to archive modern websites is increasingly limited. Capturing web pages that require logging in to a platform has become nearly impossible, as platforms are ramping up security measures and bot protection. In response, the Webrecorder team has focused on developing more viable approaches, such as their flagship archiving service Browsertrix. 

In June 2026, Conifer will enter a “twilight” phase: it will no longer allow new captures to be made, but all existing collections will remain accessible and hosted by Rhizome, with clear options for export or migration. (For a full explanation, see the longer post on conifer.rhizome.org) Rhizome will offer workshops for Conifer users throughout the spring to support their adoption of alternative approaches to web archiving. 

Our transition away from Conifer reflects a deep sense of responsibility towards everyone who has entrusted us with their collections and to the larger mission of making digital preservation more accessible to artists, archivists, and communities everywhere.

Conifer has served us—and many of you—extremely well. As we move into its twilight, we’re excited to focus on the next generation of preservation infrastructure that will support the field for years to come.