For years, 12ft Ladder was the go-to paywall bypass tool. You'd prepend 12ft.io/ to any URL and get the full article instantly. Simple, fast, free. Then in July 2025 it went offline permanently — and millions of users were left searching for alternatives.
We've tested every alternative and put together this updated guide. Here's what actually works in 2025.
12ft Ladder used Google's cached versions of articles to serve paywall-free content. The News Media Alliance — a US trade association representing major publishers — put legal pressure on the operator, citing that the service was using Google's infrastructure to circumvent publisher paywalls without authorization.
The site went offline in July 2025. Unlike similar services, 12ft.io was operated by a single developer without legal resources to fight the takedown. The operator issued a brief statement confirming the permanent closure.
This left roughly 10 million monthly users looking for alternatives — which is exactly why tools like Bypass Paywall Reader, Archive.is, and Smry.ai have all seen significant traffic increases since July 2025.
The most complete replacement for 12ft.io. Paste any article URL and get access through 6 different archive methods — Wayback Machine, Archive.is (newest and oldest snapshots), RemovePaywall, Smry.ai, 1ft.io, and Archive.ph. The article loads directly on the page so you never leave the site.
No installation, no signup, works on mobile and desktop. If one method fails, you have five more to try immediately.
Use it: bypasspaywallreader.com
Archive.is stores webpage snapshots and is consistently the most reliable tool for hard-to-bypass sites including financial and business publications. Unlike 12ft.io, it doesn't rely on Google's cache — it stores its own independent copies.
It operates across multiple domains (archive.is, archive.ph, archive.fo, archive.today) so if one is slow, another works. Use archive.ph/newest/[URL] to jump straight to the latest snapshot without going through a search page.
Use it: archive.ph
Takes a completely different approach from 12ft.io — uses AI to summarize and retrieve article content. This means it can bypass paywalls that archive-based tools can't, because it doesn't need an existing snapshot.
Simply prepend smry.ai/ to any article URL. Free to use with a daily limit. Over 350K users have switched to Smry.ai since 12ft.io closed.
Use it: smry.ai
A community-built direct replacement for 12ft.io. Works the same way — prepend 1ft.io/ to any URL. It's actively maintained and uses a similar Googlebot approach to how 12ft.io worked. Not as reliable as archive-based methods but the closest experience to the original 12ft.io.
Use it: 1ft.io
The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine stores over 800 billion web pages. For articles that are a few weeks old or more, there's often a snapshot available from before the paywall was applied. Go to web.archive.org and paste the article URL.
Use it: web.archive.org
Searches multiple archive sources and tries several bypass techniques automatically. Works on over 100 tested news sites. A solid fallback option when other methods fail.
Use it: removepaywall.com
A hosted version of the Ladder proxy — the same open-source project that 12ft.io was based on. Fetches pages server-side with a clean reader view, stripping ads and overlays. Works best for soft paywalls where the article is on the page but visually blocked.
Use it: periscope.corsfix.com
| Tool | Soft Paywalls | Hard Paywalls | No Signup | Mobile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bypass Paywall Reader | ✓ | ✓ (multiple methods) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Archive.is / archive.ph | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Smry.ai | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 1ft.io | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Wayback Machine | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| RemovePaywall.com | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Periscope | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 12ft.io (defunct) | Shut down | Shut down | — | — |
Try all 7 methods in one place — no switching between sites.
Try Bypass Paywall Reader →Permanently shut down as of July 2025. The operator confirmed closure after legal pressure from the News Media Alliance. The domain no longer resolves and there are no plans to reopen.
For a like-for-like experience, 1ft.io is the closest. For overall reliability and more methods, Bypass Paywall Reader gives you access to 6 different archive approaches in one place. Archive.is is the most reliable for specific sites.
The archive-based tools (Archive.is, Wayback Machine) have been operating for decades and are well-established. Archive.is in particular has resisted legal pressure from publishers before. Smry.ai and 1ft.io carry more uncertainty, which is why having a tool like Bypass Paywall Reader that uses multiple methods is useful — if one service goes down, you have fallbacks.
Bypass Paywalls Clean (BPC) is available on GitHub and does similar work via browser extension. It requires manual installation since it's been removed from official extension stores. Our web tool requires no installation at all.
It works better — instead of relying on a single method (as 12ft.io did), Bypass Paywall Reader tries 6 different archive sources. So even if one service doesn't have a snapshot of a specific article, you have 5 more options to try immediately.