{"slug": "kiwix", "name": "Kiwix", "category": "media", "category_name": "Media and creative", "description": "Offline reader for Wikipedia and other web content packaged as ZIM files.", "recommenders": 5, "commenters": 6, "warners": 0, "score": 4.651, "rising": -0.31, "first": "2025-11-09", "latest": "2026-08-25", "why": "Liked for browsing and searching offline copies of Wikipedia and other wikis, especially on trains and trips without reliable internet.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": ["Offline access", "Travel use"], "caveat": "Download size", "short_quote": "I use it all the time now that I have a dumb phone", "icon": true, "domain": "kiwix.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://kiwix.org", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["Kiwix"], "verdict": [{"text": "Liked for browsing and searching offline copies of Wikipedia and other wikis", "cites": [{"id": 791035504, "item_id": 49439719, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49439719", "by": "dlcarrier", "date": "2026-08-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Use Kiwix to parse and search the file.", "excerpt": "You can download a copy of Wikipedia here: https://dumps.wikimedia.org/kiwix/zim/wikipedia/ I highly recommend it (although wait until their servers aren't overloaded) especially if you can fit a copy on a phone or laptop, so you always have access to whatever article you need, even on the go and when you don't have internet access. Use Kiwix to parse and search the file.", "context": "", "use_case": "offline Wikipedia", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wikipedia and other sites slow or unavailable"}, {"id": 759652560, "item_id": 47478285, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47478285", "by": "kgeist", "date": "2026-03-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "with Kiwix I could browse pre-downloaded Wikis", "excerpt": "Also https://kiwix.org/en/about/ I used it on a long train trip. There was no internet due to drone attacks, and with Kiwix I could browse pre-downloaded Wikis", "context": "", "use_case": "offline Wikipedia browsing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Project Nomad \u2013 Knowledge That Never Goes Offline"}, {"id": 743041904, "item_id": 46440119, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46440119", "by": "kamranjon", "date": "2025-12-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use it all the time now that I have a dumb phone", "excerpt": "It'd be great if you could add it to Kiwix[1] somehow (not sure what the process is for that but 100rabbits figured it out for their site) - I use it all the time now that I have a dumb phone - I have the entirety of wikipedia, wiktionary and 100rabbits all offline. https://kiwix.org/en/", "context": "dumb phone user", "use_case": "offline Wikipedia and content", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Hacker Book \u2013 All the HN Belong to You 2006 \u2013 2025"}]}, {"text": ", especially on trains and trips without reliable internet.", "cites": [{"id": 759652560, "item_id": 47478285, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47478285", "by": "kgeist", "date": "2026-03-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "with Kiwix I could browse pre-downloaded Wikis", "excerpt": "Also https://kiwix.org/en/about/ I used it on a long train trip. There was no internet due to drone attacks, and with Kiwix I could browse pre-downloaded Wikis", "context": "", "use_case": "offline Wikipedia browsing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Project Nomad \u2013 Knowledge That Never Goes Offline"}, {"id": 746070800, "item_id": 46629425, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46629425", "by": "synack", "date": "2026-01-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I keep offline Kiwix snapshots of Wikivoyage and Wikipedia on my laptop. It mostly comes in handy on trains with intermittent wifi.", "excerpt": "Not strictly a mobile app, but I keep offline Kiwix snapshots of Wikivoyage and Wikipedia on my laptop. It mostly comes in handy on trains with intermittent wifi.", "context": "", "use_case": "offline travel reference", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What travel apps do you use while traveling?"}]}, {"text": " The only caveat raised is that full Wikipedia downloads need room on the device and the dump servers can be overloaded.", "cites": [{"id": 791035504, "item_id": 49439719, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49439719", "by": "dlcarrier", "date": "2026-08-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Use Kiwix to parse and search the file.", "excerpt": "You can download a copy of Wikipedia here: https://dumps.wikimedia.org/kiwix/zim/wikipedia/ I highly recommend it (although wait until their servers aren't overloaded) especially if you can fit a copy on a phone or laptop, so you always have access to whatever article you need, even on the go and when you don't have internet access. Use Kiwix to parse and search the file.", "context": "", "use_case": "offline Wikipedia", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wikipedia and other sites slow or unavailable"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Offline access", "summary": "Commenters keep whole wikis on their devices so articles are available without internet.", "quotes": [{"id": 791035504, "item_id": 49439719, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49439719", "by": "dlcarrier", "date": "2026-08-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Use Kiwix to parse and search the file.", "excerpt": "You can download a copy of Wikipedia here: https://dumps.wikimedia.org/kiwix/zim/wikipedia/ I highly recommend it (although wait until their servers aren't overloaded) especially if you can fit a copy on a phone or laptop, so you always have access to whatever article you need, even on the go and when you don't have internet access. Use Kiwix to parse and search the file.", "context": "", "use_case": "offline Wikipedia", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wikipedia and other sites slow or unavailable"}, {"id": 743041904, "item_id": 46440119, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46440119", "by": "kamranjon", "date": "2025-12-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use it all the time now that I have a dumb phone", "excerpt": "It'd be great if you could add it to Kiwix[1] somehow (not sure what the process is for that but 100rabbits figured it out for their site) - I use it all the time now that I have a dumb phone - I have the entirety of wikipedia, wiktionary and 100rabbits all offline. https://kiwix.org/en/", "context": "dumb phone user", "use_case": "offline Wikipedia and content", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Hacker Book \u2013 All the HN Belong to You 2006 \u2013 2025"}, {"id": 746070800, "item_id": 46629425, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46629425", "by": "synack", "date": "2026-01-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I keep offline Kiwix snapshots of Wikivoyage and Wikipedia on my laptop. It mostly comes in handy on trains with intermittent wifi.", "excerpt": "Not strictly a mobile app, but I keep offline Kiwix snapshots of Wikivoyage and Wikipedia on my laptop. It mostly comes in handy on trains with intermittent wifi.", "context": "", "use_case": "offline travel reference", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What travel apps do you use while traveling?"}]}, {"label": "Travel use", "summary": "Users rely on it during train trips with spotty or no connectivity.", "quotes": [{"id": 759652560, "item_id": 47478285, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47478285", "by": "kgeist", "date": "2026-03-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "with Kiwix I could browse pre-downloaded Wikis", "excerpt": "Also https://kiwix.org/en/about/ I used it on a long train trip. There was no internet due to drone attacks, and with Kiwix I could browse pre-downloaded Wikis", "context": "", "use_case": "offline Wikipedia browsing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Project Nomad \u2013 Knowledge That Never Goes Offline"}, {"id": 746070800, "item_id": 46629425, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46629425", "by": "synack", "date": "2026-01-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I keep offline Kiwix snapshots of Wikivoyage and Wikipedia on my laptop. It mostly comes in handy on trains with intermittent wifi.", "excerpt": "Not strictly a mobile app, but I keep offline Kiwix snapshots of Wikivoyage and Wikipedia on my laptop. It mostly comes in handy on trains with intermittent wifi.", "context": "", "use_case": "offline travel reference", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What travel apps do you use while traveling?"}]}, {"label": "Packaged content", "summary": "Ready-made ZIM packages cover sites like Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, Wiktionary, iFixit and ArchWiki.", "quotes": [{"id": 780577137, "item_id": 48786071, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48786071", "by": "sunshine-o", "date": "2026-07-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "they do package already valuable sites likes Wikipedia, iFixit, archwiki, etc.", "excerpt": "Thanks you so much this is highly very valuable information. > Thanks to pointing out kiwix. I'll give it a try. I see YaCy works with ZIM files [0] packaged by Kiwix so this is great. In theory if you run YaCy kiwix is not necessary but they do package already valuable sites likes Wikipedia, iFixit, archwiki, etc. [0] so you do not have the worry of your crawler to be blocked and have local copy anyway [1]. So a lot", "context": "", "use_case": "offline copies of sites", "switched_from": "", "story": "SearXNG: A free internet metasearch engine"}, {"id": 743041904, "item_id": 46440119, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46440119", "by": "kamranjon", "date": "2025-12-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use it all the time now that I have a dumb phone", "excerpt": "It'd be great if you could add it to Kiwix[1] somehow (not sure what the process is for that but 100rabbits figured it out for their site) - I use it all the time now that I have a dumb phone - I have the entirety of wikipedia, wiktionary and 100rabbits all offline. https://kiwix.org/en/", "context": "dumb phone user", "use_case": "offline Wikipedia and content", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Hacker Book \u2013 All the HN Belong to You 2006 \u2013 2025"}, {"id": 746070800, "item_id": 46629425, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46629425", "by": "synack", "date": "2026-01-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I keep offline Kiwix snapshots of Wikivoyage and Wikipedia on my laptop. It mostly comes in handy on trains with intermittent wifi.", "excerpt": "Not strictly a mobile app, but I keep offline Kiwix snapshots of Wikivoyage and Wikipedia on my laptop. It mostly comes in handy on trains with intermittent wifi.", "context": "", "use_case": "offline travel reference", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What travel apps do you use while traveling?"}]}, {"label": "Search", "summary": "It can parse and search downloaded Wikipedia dumps.", "quotes": [{"id": 791035504, "item_id": 49439719, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49439719", "by": "dlcarrier", "date": "2026-08-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Use Kiwix to parse and search the file.", "excerpt": "You can download a copy of Wikipedia here: https://dumps.wikimedia.org/kiwix/zim/wikipedia/ I highly recommend it (although wait until their servers aren't overloaded) especially if you can fit a copy on a phone or laptop, so you always have access to whatever article you need, even on the go and when you don't have internet access. Use Kiwix to parse and search the file.", "context": "", "use_case": "offline Wikipedia", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wikipedia and other sites slow or unavailable"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Download size", "summary": "Full Wikipedia copies need space on the device, and the download servers can be overloaded.", "quotes": [{"id": 791035504, "item_id": 49439719, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49439719", "by": "dlcarrier", "date": "2026-08-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Use Kiwix to parse and search the file.", "excerpt": "You can download a copy of Wikipedia here: https://dumps.wikimedia.org/kiwix/zim/wikipedia/ I highly recommend it (although wait until their servers aren't overloaded) especially if you can fit a copy on a phone or laptop, so you always have access to whatever article you need, even on the go and when you don't have internet access. Use Kiwix to parse and search the file.", "context": "", "use_case": "offline Wikipedia", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wikipedia and other sites slow or unavailable"}]}], "who": [{"by": "kamranjon", "context": "dumb phone user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46440119", "date": "2025-12-30"}, {"by": "akho", "context": "parent of a 9-year-old", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45867174", "date": "2025-11-09"}], "tags": ["for travelers", "for dumb phone users", "for air-gapped machines", "pairs with YaCy search"], "use_cases": ["offline wikipedia", "offline copies of sites", "offline wikipedia browsing", "offline travel reference", "offline wikipedia and content", "offline content for child's laptop"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49438560", "title": "Wikipedia and other sites slow or unavailable", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48779454", "title": "SearXNG: A free internet metasearch engine", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47476821", "title": "Project Nomad \u2013 Knowledge That Never Goes Offline", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46628969", "title": "Ask HN: What travel apps do you use while traveling?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46435308", "title": "Show HN: Hacker Book \u2013 All the HN Belong to You 2006 \u2013 2025", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45864732", "title": "Ask HN: How would you set up a child\u2019s first Linux computer?", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 791035504, "item_id": 49439719, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49439719", "by": "dlcarrier", "date": "2026-08-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Use Kiwix to parse and search the file.", "excerpt": "You can download a copy of Wikipedia here: https://dumps.wikimedia.org/kiwix/zim/wikipedia/ I highly recommend it (although wait until their servers aren't overloaded) especially if you can fit a copy on a phone or laptop, so you always have access to whatever article you need, even on the go and when you don't have internet access. Use Kiwix to parse and search the file.", "context": "", "use_case": "offline Wikipedia", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wikipedia and other sites slow or unavailable"}, {"id": 780577137, "item_id": 48786071, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48786071", "by": "sunshine-o", "date": "2026-07-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "they do package already valuable sites likes Wikipedia, iFixit, archwiki, etc.", "excerpt": "Thanks you so much this is highly very valuable information. > Thanks to pointing out kiwix. I'll give it a try. I see YaCy works with ZIM files [0] packaged by Kiwix so this is great. In theory if you run YaCy kiwix is not necessary but they do package already valuable sites likes Wikipedia, iFixit, archwiki, etc. [0] so you do not have the worry of your crawler to be blocked and have local copy anyway [1]. So a lot", "context": "", "use_case": "offline copies of sites", "switched_from": "", "story": "SearXNG: A free internet metasearch engine"}, {"id": 759652560, "item_id": 47478285, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47478285", "by": "kgeist", "date": "2026-03-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "with Kiwix I could browse pre-downloaded Wikis", "excerpt": "Also https://kiwix.org/en/about/ I used it on a long train trip. There was no internet due to drone attacks, and with Kiwix I could browse pre-downloaded Wikis", "context": "", "use_case": "offline Wikipedia browsing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Project Nomad \u2013 Knowledge That Never Goes Offline"}, {"id": 746070800, "item_id": 46629425, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46629425", "by": "synack", "date": "2026-01-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I keep offline Kiwix snapshots of Wikivoyage and Wikipedia on my laptop. It mostly comes in handy on trains with intermittent wifi.", "excerpt": "Not strictly a mobile app, but I keep offline Kiwix snapshots of Wikivoyage and Wikipedia on my laptop. It mostly comes in handy on trains with intermittent wifi.", "context": "", "use_case": "offline travel reference", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What travel apps do you use while traveling?"}, {"id": 743041904, "item_id": 46440119, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46440119", "by": "kamranjon", "date": "2025-12-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use it all the time now that I have a dumb phone", "excerpt": "It'd be great if you could add it to Kiwix[1] somehow (not sure what the process is for that but 100rabbits figured it out for their site) - I use it all the time now that I have a dumb phone - I have the entirety of wikipedia, wiktionary and 100rabbits all offline. https://kiwix.org/en/", "context": "dumb phone user", "use_case": "offline Wikipedia and content", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Hacker Book \u2013 All the HN Belong to You 2006 \u2013 2025"}, {"id": 733874784, "item_id": 45867174, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45867174", "by": "akho", "date": "2025-11-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "with music, kiwix,  music-experimantation stuff, programming things, and onlyoffice", "excerpt": "I have a 9-yo. We experimented with time limits &c, but that just leads to endless discussions on the size and applicability if thise limits. Now he has a mostly-airgapped Thinkpad (with music, kiwix, music-experimantation stuff, programming things, and onlyoffice), and doesn't know the ipad's passcode. The laptop has nftables set up so that only an ssh connection to my laptop works, which I use to update it, add con", "context": "parent of a 9-year-old", "use_case": "offline content for child's laptop", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: How would you set up a child\u2019s first Linux computer?"}]}