38 brilliantly designed 404 error pages

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If you're starting a blog or website, don't forget the all-important 404 page – a standard response code in HTTP telling the user, in effect, that they've clicked on a broken link.

It's traditionally been an immense source of frustration. But in recent years, creatives have taken up the challenge of designing bespoke 404 pages that use humour, great UX or beautiful design to at least sweeten the pill of finding out that you're in the wrong place.

Done really well, a 404 page can become a mini-ambassador for the website itself. It might even be shared on Twitter or relevant blogs as an example of the site's keenness for customer service or unique approach to design. The 404 error pages we present here have achieved all this and more, so take a look and be inspired to create your own.

01. Cloud Sigma

Cloud Sigma is a cloud server and cloud hosting service operating in the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific region. While flexible cloud servers sound useful, they're not exactly fun, which we guess is why the company has had so much fun with its tongue-in-cheek 404 error page. We wonder how long it'll be before this helpful-looking junior developer gets poached by the competition.

02. Bluepath

Another website to use humour on its 404 error page is Atlanta-based data strategy consulting firm BluePath. We appreciate the way it keeps its jokes topical, using a data-driven map of reported crimes in Atlanta to illustrate the fact that you're way off the map. "Why? Because it’s a crime you haven’t hired us yet!" is its cheesy punchline. Ah, these whacky data analysts.

03. The Australian

Australian national newspaper The Australian, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp Australia, has just redesigned its 404 error page. And what a corker it is. Poking fun at politicians' language, personas and public mess ups, it invites you to select a politician to explain away the error like only a politician can. On point and lots of fun.

04. Kualo

Prefer a bit of Pac-Man? Sorry

Hosting company Kualo has been in business for over 15 years – an eternity in internet time – and its 404 page reflects its venerable status, treating you to a game of Kualo-themed Space Invaders.

It's not perfect. The key strategy of picking off the fleet's outer edges to slow the invaders' descent doesn't work, for starters. But it is fun, and it can earn you a discount on your hosting deal if you manage to score over 1,000 points.

Its inclusion in this article has also inspired US pest control company Pointe Pest Control to include its own Pest Invaders game on its 404 error page, complete with different flying and crawling bugs to spray. As Chloe Zollinger from Pointe says, "Beware, if you choose to play you may be distracted all day!"

05. The Useless Web Index

This meerkat-based 404 page is incomparable

Even the world's largest index of useless websites can have an off day. And when the Useless Web Index can't find what you're looking for, it's ready with the next best thing: video of meerkats, doing meerkat peering and stuff for your amusement. 

06. Waaark

Very NSFW; put your headphones on first

French studio Waaark's 404 page is nice enough to look at, but it's better to listen to – although maybe not at work. Inspired by Stephen Hawking, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Portal, it uses a JavaScript text-to-speech tool called meSpeak to subject you to a sweary robotic tirade.

07. Steve Lambert

Yep, this is definitely awkward

New York-based artist Steve Lambert describes this as "the most awkward 404 not found page on the internet", and you know, he may well be right. It features an excruciating piece to camera that just goes on and on. We defy you to get to the end of his video without any part of your body clenching.

08. Dan Woodger

Guys, it's a cheeseburger on skates. What's not to love?

Some 404 pages are technical masterpieces, and some – specifically Dan Woodger's, which features a drawing of a cheeseburger on roller skates – are not. But while it might not push any technical boundaries, it does give you a clear idea of Dan's style, and encourages you to click through to the rest of his work.

09. Figma

Messing with vectors is so much fun when it's not actual work

Even though we have a copy of Adobe Illustrator right here, and could play with anchor points and Bézier curves literally any time we want, we're still entranced by Figma's 404 page, in which the big 404 is rendered in vectors that you can reshape to your heart's content.

10. Bloomberg

This one is absolutely bonkers

Bloomberg's 404 page initially looks pretty ordinary, until it suddenly pans out from the 404 error into a bizarre animation involving an off-the-shelf 3D model of a businessman smashing his broken PC into bits. 

11. Hot Dot Production

Hot Dot's 404 page is seriously addictive

Hot Dot Productions has applied its 'where design meets technology' tagline to its impressive 404 page, which features the three numbers made up of hundreds of tiny dots that change direction in response to mouse movements. Seriously cool.

12. Airbnb

If you drop ice cream on the floor, clean it up, right?

This 404 page from couch-surfing behemoth Airbnb features a delightful animation that holds lessons for us all about the inadvisability of dropping ice cream. It also brings to mind stories about people who have rented out their homes on Airbnb, only to come back to a disaster area. Look, if you drop ice cream on the floor, clean it up, right?

13. Lego

Lego can do no wrong in our eyes – we love this cute little tableau for its website's 404 page

Lego can do no wrong in our eyes (Have you read our piece on How Lego reinvented itself as a super-brand yet?). We love this cute 404 page, which proves that you don't need a lot of technical-sounding text to get your error message across.

14. Falvey Memorial Library

Villanova University's Falvey Memorial Library in Pennsylvania may not have international stardom, but it does have dragons. Created by Laura Bang and Chris Hallberg, this 404 page just makes you smile with its amusing "Careful!" title and clear instructions and options to get you back on track and away from these dangerous beasties (don't worry, they're just beautiful illustrations from a library book).

15. GitHub

What better way to appeal to geeks than through a simple Star Wars parody with parallax effect?

Coding website GitHub is the home of geeks, and what better way to appeal to geeks than through a simple Star Wars parody with parallax effect when you move your mouse? GitHub also has a nice 500 page for when the server breaks.

16. CSS Ninjas

CSS Ninjas is another example of the web design world's love of ninjas

The web design world loves ninjas. Falling in with the trend (and, we guess, its name), the 404 page for CSS Ninjas features a clean, simple illustration that reflects the site's general approach to design.

17. Daniel Karcher Film

This 404 page employs a beautifully rendered subway station complete with empty train that rolls in

As you'd expect for a movie design professional, this website makes excellent use of animation and sound. Its 404 page employs a beautifully rendered video of a subway station, complete with 'missing' and 'lost'-themed movie posters and an empty train that rolls in, which you can click to board. As with many of the examples here, the page diverges from the overall site aesthetic to great effect.

18. MailChimp

Don't make the monkey angry...

The designers at ultra-hip email newsletter service MailChimp have morphed the company's well-known monkey into a Hulk-type character – complete with animated smoke – to signify a broken link. The style of the 404 page fits the rest of the site design nicely, reflecting the same lighthearted approach that turns an otherwise boring task into something fun and endearing.

19. Emirates

When you're an international airline known for chic styling and expectations of high quality, you don't want a sub-par 404 page. Luckily for Emirates, its page ties in beautifully with the rest of its website, nailing its brand voice to a tee and providing ample opportunities to get back on track with ease. Great UX; great customer service.

20. Repair Pal

Proving that 404 error pages don't have to be funny to be well done, US auto repair company Repair Pal uses beautiful imagery to brilliant effect. Like the Emirates error page, it also provides large buttons and a search box to help users to find the content they needed nice and quickly – much more user-friendly than the bog standard home page button offered by most.

"Stumbling on a 404 page can be a frustrating experience, so we wanted to take a lighter tone from the start," the design team tells us. "The team landed on the nighttime van photograph as a no-brainer to relating back to the automotive nature of the site. We went through a few variations on the text, but our team ultimately went with 'Off The Grid,' as it's easily understood and relates to being out in the wilderness of our website. It also still serves a functional purpose as it provides a few, quick links back to our most popular pages."

Next page: More brilliant 404 pages...

21. Everipedia

Everipedia is a wiki site that has a vision to become "a pillar of the Internet, by connecting people to information about anything and everything," its executive editor Romi tells us. With its information-sharing purpose in mind, "We thought we could give people a much more relevant user experience by helping people learn about 404 errors if they ever came across one on our site," says Romi, who sent us this GIF to illustrate the 404 error page in action. Telling you everything you need to know about 404 pages, it's pretty meta, and totally in keeping with the site's aims.

22. Tin Sanity

This dancing cup and straw screams its way across the page around the text

Tin Sanity features an incredible animation of a dancing cup and straw that screams its way across the page around the text: "You just got 404'd". The screaming is accentuated with a drumroll and funky bass soundtrack, all of which leaves an excellent impression.

23. Audiko

This 404 page is worth a visit just for the artwork

The free ringtone-making service's 404 page features a beautifully rendered illustration of London, including the obligatory red bus and telephone box, as well as Big Ben's Tower, Sherlock Holmes and a hint of Tower Bridge. The site's worth a visit just for the brilliant artwork.

24. Bret Victor

This is not a page. It's a picture of something that's not a page. Or is it?

Bret Victor's 404 page, inspired of course by René Magritte's iconic painting, The Treachery of Images, confronts the viewer with some challenging philosophical questions. If this is not a page, then what is it? What constitutes a 'page'? Is it a thing that can be truly said to exist? What is the 'this' that this apparent non-page is referring to? Is anything truly real? Makes you think, no?

25. Home Star Runner

This 404 page features amusing characters and shouts "404'd" at you

Audio can be very effective when used in a 404 capacity. This error page for Home Star Runner, which features amusing characters, downloads and games, shouts "404'd" at you when you first arrive on the page. The hand-drawn illustration fits the rest of the site well in terms of style and theme.

26. Duoh!

Duoh uses bright colours and negative space in its 404

Duoh is the collaborative partnership between illustrator Veerle Pieters and partner Geert Leyseele. Their business is based on strong design principles,  so you'd expect a well-realised 404 page – and they don't disappoint. In characteristic bright colours and negative space, this page looks and feels in keeping with the rest of the site.

27. Bit.ly

Bit.ly's cute creature responds to your mouse movements

Link shortening service Bit.ly needs a special URL for its 404 page as bit.ly.com/404 has already been used as a shortened link. The page itself features a cute little creature bobbing up and down in an interactive sea, and responds to your mouse movements.

28. ApartmentHomeLiving

Why is a sheep sitting on the lavatory in this 404 error page?

This letting agent website's 404 page features a strange interior shot with a sheep sitting on the lavatory. Creative and wacky at the same time, it's a great (if abstract) example of how to do it well.

29. DropBox

DropBox has a very simple but effective 404 page featuring an Escher-esque impossible box

Replacing the Escher-esque impossible box that adorned its 404 page for years, DropBox has gone for a similarly quirky illustration to represent things all going wrong – the wheels coming off, if you like. It's a nice, simple hand-drawn illustration that gets the message across well, with plenty of helpful navigation links for usibility.

30. Wufoo

Wufoo's 404 page is a simple, static affair that uses the branding effectively to convey the message

Form-building tool Wufoo's 404 page is a simple, static affair that uses the branding effectively to convey the message. It's a good example of a clean approach to handling errors.

31. eHarmony

Is eHarmony's 404 suggesting you should just get plastered?

The last thing you want to find when you're looking for love is that it can't be found, but eHarmony's 404 page softens the blow with this adorable image and a suggestion that you sign up for its dating service. Or maybe it's suggesting that you should just get plastered? That works for us, too.

32. Walk with You

Bold typography makes this 404 page come alive

This simple illustrative design for a site promoting life coaching uses existing assets from the overall site design, including a waterfall, to convey the 404 message. Bold typography makes this page work well.

33. LimpFish

No time-wasters, please

One of the best examples of a newspaper metaphor, Dave Barton's personal site manages to inject a little humour into its error message.

34. Starbucks

Careful, that might stain

Starbucks, like Heinz, makes good use of its primary product to illustrate the 404 message. In this instance, the tell-tales signs of a missing coffee cup are used to tell the story.

35. Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard's 404 page is just smashing

Video game developer Blizzard takes an original approach to its 404 page that fits in with its general style, using broken glass as a metaphor for the broken link. What makes this example stand out is the clean design aesthetic beneath the glass.

36. NPR

Actually, we think you'll find he's called Wally

The US's National Public Radio website's 404 page presents an amusing wiki-style list of missing people or things, from Amelia Earhart to your luggage.

37. CSS-Tricks

Don't worry. You can't really rip a hole in the fabric of the internet

The superb tips, tutorials and advice blog CSS-Tricks is loved by all in the web design community because despite its dry subject matter, it manages to exude enthusiasm, humour and personality. And this cheeky 404 page is an excellent example of that.

38. Magnt

Magnt's clever 404 page demonstrates a keen sense of wit and a clear call to action

Magnt enables you to create a business card-themed web page in minutes. Its clever 404 page demonstrates the company's keen sense of wit with its Venn diagram showing the two main reasons why you've landed on the site’s error page: “we broke something” and “you can’t type.”. At the same time it also provides a clear call to action to take you where you need to go.

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