19 Seriously Creative 404 Error Pages

These sites made error pages that are fun, beautiful, or even useful.

Wikipedia says the 404, or "not found error message," is standard response code used in Hypertext Transfer Protocal, or HTTP: the transport mechanism of Web pages. Basically, if you try to go to a page on a website that doesn't exist, you'll see the site's/server's 404 page instead.

We've all done it. It's made the 404 error one of the most recognized screw-ups anyone can do online. It was even listed as one of the most "popular" words of the year 2013 by Global Language Monitor (along with fail! and hashtag).

Naturally, most Web servers have some kind of automatic 404 generator. But the best sites do something special with their errors, so that when users don't find what they want, they're not utterly discouraged and filled with hatred or sadness toward the world. (It doesn't hurt that such errors can also help a site drive extra traffic to other pages on the site.) Some 404 pages even help the users do a search, to find what they were originally seeking. One organization, notfound.org, enlists sites to display pictures of missing kids on their 404s; likewise the 404Gotten Project does the same for kids living in poverty.

There are millions of websites out there, but here's a smattering of those with the best 404 pages we've ever seen. If we missed your favorite, chime in via the commentsâand make sure to leave a broken URL to follow so everyone can see the glorious error.

Whisply

Lovely, tranquil, inoffensive, and redirecting back to the main page of the site: that's just about everything you could ask for in a basic 404 like this one from Whisply.

Spotify's A Year in Music

The standard Spotify 404 is nice enough ("Shh! This page is sleeping.") but the Spotify: A Year in Music site—which helps you relieve the previous year's musical highs—has a 404 that riffs on a Justin Bieber joke to make it all the more musical to your eyes.

Magnt

A funny 404 is a lot less likely to make users tear out their hair. Magnt's manages that by utilizing the magic of a Venn Diagram to take some responsibility while also pointing out many users have all the typing skills of a drunk house cat.

Hot dot

The artists at hot dot made a 404 that responds to the mouse/trackpad. It reorients the number as you move the cursor, and explodes the dots when you click.

Airbnb

It's sad when you lose your ice cream, even animatedly. Airbnb knows that's how it feels to hit a 404 error, as well.

Tin Sanity

I have no idea what this is all about. Just visit it and turn up your speakers.

Amazon

You'd think Amazon would try to sell you something via its 404. Instead, it introduces you to a dog who "works" at Amazon's offices. Click the link and Amazon will try to sell you a calendar of the photogenic pups, or even recruit you and your canine to come work there. At least some of the proceeds of the calendar help the ASPCA.

HomeStar Runner

If you still miss Strong Bad and crew, stop by this 404 and listen to him yell it at you.

Bitly

Bitly's 404 looks pretty static and boring until you pass a cursor over the water where that sad creature floats, waiting to be pecked apart by vicious seagulls. (Now that I think about it, that would make for a much better 404 page.)

Starbucks

All Starbucks errors go to the same apology page, which would be boring in and off itself, except for the tell-tale coffee ring stains.

Blizzard

The game maker wants to shake you up just a bit, making it look like your page error broke their site, and your monitor, and probably the whole Internet.

Blue Fountain Media's Pacman

When you can't find a page, sites should give you a reason to stick around. Few do it better than this Web design company, which serves up a full version of Pacman with an extended game board.

Bluegg

I personally never get sick of the video of a goat that screams like a human, so I visit this web builder's 404 just for fun. That it plays on a loop you can leave running in your office cubicle as you go to lunch is just the gravy on the 404 steak.

ACM

The Web server at the Association for Computing Machinery at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign gets the sads when he can't find your page.

Steve Lambert

This is a really, really awkwardly long video telling you you're on a 404 and you don't need to stick around. You really don't.

Financial Times

Need a bunch of buzzwords to use in your next job interview at a Web company? The FT.com site serves up a 404 full of reasons why it may have 404ed in the first place.

Nouveller

If you're a fan of 1990's dinosaur movies, you're going to appreciate this one. Enter some passwords to get the full effect.

Klapp

Norway's Klapp knows to engage you with some old-school video game action, using a Space Invaders knock-off.

Full Pickle Media

Love the old-school text games like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? This venture put one they devised right on its 404 page. The problem is, the commands are incredibly hard to figure out after you initially go south, so good luck.

About Our Expert

Eric Griffith

Senior Editor, Features

My Experience

I've been writing about computers, the internet, and technology professionally since 1992, more than half of that time with PCMag. I arrived at the end of the print era of PC Magazine as a senior writer. I served for a time as managing editor of business coverage before settling back into the features team for the last decade and a half. I write features on all tech topics, plus I handle several special projects, including the Readers' Choice and Business Choice surveys and yearly coverage of the Best ISPs and Best Gaming ISPs, Best Products of the Year, and Best Brands (plus the Best Brands for Tech Support, Longevity, and Reliability).

I started in tech publishing right out of college, writing and editing stories about hardware and development tools. I migrated to software and hardware coverage for families, and I spent several years exclusively writing about the then-burgeoning technology called Wi-Fi. I was on the founding staff of several magazines, including Windows Sources, FamilyPC, and Access Internet Magazine. All of which are now defunct, and it's not my fault. I have freelanced for publications as diverse as Sony Style, Playboy.com, and Flux. I got my degree at Ithaca College in, of all things, television/radio. But I minored in writing so I'd have a future.

In my long-lost free time, I wrote some novels, a couple of which are not just on my hard drive: BETA TEST ("an unusually lighthearted apocalyptic tale," according to Publishers' Weekly) and a YA book called KALI: THE GHOSTING OF SEPULCHER BAY. Go get them on Kindle.

I work from my home in Ithaca, NY, and did it long before pandemics made it cool.

The Technology I Use

My first computer was a Laser 128, an Apple II-compatible clone with an integrated keyboard, matched with an eye-straining monochrome green monitor. I used it to type papers in college for other people for money...until I discovered the Mac SE in the college computer room. That changed my life. My first cellphone was a Samsung Uproar—the silver one with the built-in MP3 player from the Napster days (the pre-iPod era).

I use an iPhone 15 Pro hourly and an iPad Air infrequently (but I'm always in the market for a cheap Android tablet). I have a PlayStation 5 just to play Spider-Man, and several Windows machines, including a work-issued Lenovo ThinkPad. I talk to Alexa and Siri all day long. I do the majority of my computing on a 15-inch LG Gram laptop attached to a Thunderbolt hub to run a multi-monitor setup—I overdid it on the power needed to simply work from home.

I'm most at home in Microsoft Word after decades of writing there. More and more, I turn to services like Google Docs, using tools like Grammarly. I use Google's Chrome browser due to an addiction to several extensions I think I can't live without, but probably could. I use Excel extensively on data-intensive stories, but for chart creation, we've switched over entirely to using Infogram for interactive features that are hard to find elsewhere. I do a lot of graphics work for my stories, but limit myself to the free and amazing Paint.NET software to edit images.

I'm a firm evangelist for using the cloud for backup and syncing of files; I'm primarily using Dropbox, which has never failed me, but I also have redundant setups on Microsoft OneDrive, plus extra picture backups on Amazon Photos and iCloud. Why take chances? For entertainment, mine is a streaming-only household—my kid has never seen network TV and barely been exposed to commercials, thanks to Roku and Amazon Music. The house is peppered with smart speakers from Amazon for instant gratification and control of smart home devices like multiple Wyze cameras and Nest Protect smoke detectors. I've got accounts on all the major social networks, to my horror. I have a robot vacuum for each floor of the house. I want a 3D printer, but not sure what I'd use it for.

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