Text-Only Websites for a Lighter Web

Some websites work better when there is less website. Text-only and low-bandwidth pages load quickly on slow connections and usually avoid pop-ups, autoplaying video, and several megabytes of decoration.

This is a collection of lightweight sites I found useful or interesting. It was assembled in 2021, so a few links may since have changed or disappeared; that is unfortunately true of any list about the web.

• World Wide Web — The original World Wide Web project page at CERN.
• Hacker News — Technology links and discussion in a famously plain interface.
• Low-tech Magazine — A solar-powered site that can go offline when its battery runs low.
• Pinboard — An independent bookmarking service built around speed and privacy.
• NPR — NPR’s text-only news pages.
• CNN — A lightweight version of CNN.
• Usenet Archives — A collection of Usenet posts maintained by Norman Yarvin.
• NOS Lite — A lightweight Dutch news site.
• RFC Index — A compact index of Internet RFCs.
• Wiby — A search engine for smaller, older-style web pages.
• Goosh — A command-line-style interface for Google Search.
• CBC Lite — A lightweight Canadian Broadcasting Corporation site.
• Teddit — A lightweight alternative front end for Reddit.
• Post Online — The text-only version of Post Online.
• Lobsters — A computing-focused link and discussion community.
• Skimfeed — A compact collection of technology headlines.
• Mataroa — A minimal blogging platform focused on writing.
• Popurls — A long-running news aggregator.
• Readspike — A simple news aggregator.
• Alterslash — An unofficial digest of Slashdot discussions.
• is.gd — A small URL-shortening service.
• Connected — An encyclopaedia of Internet topics.
• Manpages — Practical Unix manual pages.
• Bear Blog — A privacy-minded, lightweight blogging platform.
• JimmyR — A one-page mash-up of links from around the web.
• Two Arms and a Head — The Death of a Newly Paraplegic Philosopher.
• LIES — A journal produced by a queer feminist collective.
• XXIIVV webring — A directory of hand-built wikis and portfolios.
• San Jose Scrabble Club No. 21 — Three-letter tournament words, as accepted in 2009.
• MARC — Searchable mailing-list archives.
• Human Universals — Donald E. Brown’s list of human universals.
• The List — A web version of Steve Koepke’s San Francisco Bay Area concert guide.
• txti — A service for publishing very small web pages.
• Berkshire Hathaway — The company’s unusually plain official site.
• Vulfpeck — Vulfpeck’s official site.
• wttr.in — Weather reports in a terminal-friendly page.
• DuckDuckGo Lite — A lightweight DuckDuckGo search interface.
• Tilde Town — An online community living on a shared Linux server.
• Daywreckers — A compact list of interesting links.
• Dan Luu — Dan Luu’s technical blog.
• Gwern — Gwern Branwen’s writing on psychology, statistics, and technology.
• IPCalf — A page that reports your IP address.
• Odie — A service that turns a published Google Doc into a web page.
• Prof. Dr. Style — Ten web-design styles from 1993.
• Ascii — A site about ASCII design.

The list is varied on purpose. Some of these sites are useful services and some are simply reminders that a web page does not need much machinery to be worth visiting.

Suggestions are welcome on Twitter at @ronaldsvilcins.