105 Weird and Wonderful 404 Error Pages

105 Weird and Wonderful 404 Error Pages

404 error pages are important. In fact, for some visitors, they are the most important pages on your site.

When someone lands on a 404 error page, there is only one of two things they can do. They can either give your site ANOTHER shot. Or they can just back out and disappear. Most just disappear.

But a good 404 page just might convince them to stick around.

If you have a run-of-the-mill 404 page, then you can pretty much forget about it. But if you have a creative 404 page, then there’s a possibility you might just get your increasingly frustrated visitor to stop for a moment and say, “What’s this?”

If nothing else, the creativity of the following 404 pages should get a visitor’s attention. Perhaps these examples will offer a little inspiration. If you can couple a little creativity with a 404 page that can actually help your visitors find what they’re looking for, then you up your chances of turning a frustrated visitor into a happy surfer.

Frazzled woman using a desktop keyboard.
Another 404 error page…seriously?

Editor’s Note: Some of the sites listed below have moved, changed, or no longer exist. We’ve decided to leave them here unlinked instead of removing them (and losing a bunch of weird and wonderful 404 page examples that might inspire you). Also, some sites may have changed the design of their 404 page since we published this article. To view the site’s current 404 page, just type a non-existent address after the URL (e.g. domain.tld/asdfasdf“).

In alphabetical order …

1. 45Royale


2. Abduzeedo


3. Afeedapart


4. AListApart


5. AmCharts (animated)


6. Amorphia- Apparel


7. Apadeloup


8. ApartmentHomeLiving


9. Bdsm-Berlin


10. Bellaminettes


11. BlackMoonDev


12. Blizzard


13. BlueDaniel (animated)


14. CarolRivello


15. Carsonified


16. Centerd


17. CentreSource


18. ChelmsfordLibrary


19. CheshireScouts


20. Chi.mp


21. ChrisGlass


22. ChrisJennings


23. CubanCouncil


24. D20srd


25. Dainese


26. DDZ


27. DeliciouslyCreative


28. DesignFusions


29. DeviantArt


30. DMCloud


31. Dribbble


32. Etsy


33. Flurther


34. Forrst


35. FromMyBottomStep


36. FryeWiles


37. FutureOfWebDesign


38. Gdzl.la (animated)


39. GitHub


40. Gog


41. GriffinTechnology


42. Heinz


43. HenrikHedegaard


44. HermanCain


45. HomeStarRunner


46. Huwshimi


47. Iamww


48. iFolderLinks


49. ILoveTypography


50. IrrationalGames


51. JHuskisson


52. JTBullitt

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53. JustCreativeDesign


54. Kochatelier-Berlin


55. KrystalArchive


56. LarkNews


57. LeapAnywhere


58. LightPostCreative


59. LimpFish


60. Livadaru


61. LiveJournal


62. LookItsMe (animated)


63. Lumino.us


64. MailChimp


65. MakeMedia


66. MarkDijkstra


67. MergeWeb


68. Mozilla


69. MuirSkate


70. Nclud


71. NewsPond


72. Nosh (includes YouTube video)


73. Notaniche


74. ObjectAdjective


75. OddComments


76. OdoPod


77. PatternTap


78. PopScreen


79. ProductPlanner


80. RealMacSoftware


81. Reddit


82. RetardZone


83. Retechtv


84. SendCoffee


85. ShelfWorthy


86. Slonky


87. SouthParkStudios


88. Spore


89. StlToday


90. SuspendedAnimations


91. Swiss-Miss


92. Tele2


93. TheWebMotel


94. Tinsanity (animated with VERY annoying sound)


95. ToyMania


96. Turbomilk.ru


97. Twurn


98. Unitinteractive


99. UrbanOutfitters


100. Vasamuseet


101. Vod.Shaw


102. YepLike


103. Zanami


104. ZapD


105. Zeldman


>> Do you have any favorites?

Photo: Woman Frustrated with her Computer from Bigstock.  Some sources used for this post: blogmarks, smashingmagazine, hongkiat, patterntap.