8 Best URL & Link Shorteners in 2023 [Free & Paid]

In the era of social media, text messages, and emails, having a long link is a real pain. Whether you want to share your new website or video content on social media, send a link via text message, or in an email newsletter, longer links are not only hard to type but also fail to fit the character limit.

URL shorteners are the perfect way to overcome this issue. These shorten long URLs into short ones that can be easily shared and tracked.

In this article, we have handpicked an extensive list of 7+ best URL shorteners for you to use in 2022 We rely on URLs every day, whether it’s to share a link on social media, for marketing purposes, or even just to educate your customers about a new offer. But long URLs can be inconvenient and look cluttered.

Shortening links is the best solution, but how do you pick the right URL shortener? There are hundreds of options out there, so finding the right one can be tricky. We’ve put together this list of the 7+ best URL and link shorteners to help you find one that’s perfect for your business.

We rely on URLs every day, whether it’s to share a link on social media, for marketing purposes, or even just to educate your customers about a new offer. But long URLs can be inconvenient and look cluttered.

Shortening links is the best solution, but how do you pick the right URL shortener? There are hundreds of options out there, so finding the right one can be tricky. We’ve put together this list of the 7+ best URL and link shorteners to help you find one that’s perfect for your business.
 

 

Best Link Shortener – Introduction

There are many link shorteners out there, but if  you are going to choose the best link shortener for your business, then you need to make sure that you have the right tools.  

First of all, you need to look at how easy it is for you to use the service. Some link shorteners can be very complicated and require a lot of technical knowledge in order to operate them properly. 

This means that they  do not necessarily offer the best service for your needs. The best link shortener will provide a very simple interface and a simple interface is always better than one that requires a lot of technical knowledge. 

This can be something as simple as having a few buttons on the site and a couple of pages where you can enter your link details. A good service will also provide other features like statistics on how many people clicked on your links and which links are being used most often by your visitors. 

These statistics can help you analyze what type of traffic is going to your site and what types of links work best for your business. With these features in place, the best link shortener will also have a few tools. 

What is the Best Link Shortener? 

Link shorteners are the perfect solution for managing and organizing your links. They are easy to use; anyone can shorten a link in seconds. 

Link shorteners also allow you to edit them, add a password/expiration date, and customize the call-to-action button (CTA). The most popular link shortener is bit.ly. Bit.ly has been around since 2008. 

It allows you to shorten, share, and track your links. Bitly also offers a free version that allows you to shorten up to 500 links per month, with unlimited clicks and analytics reporting.  

If you want more features, they offer a premium service with advanced features such as retargeting pixels and branded links. 

Bitly is not the only link shortener out there; there are many other options on the market today. In this article, we will discuss the best link shorteners available on the market and how they compare to one another. 

1. Rebrandly 

Rebrandly is the easiest way to create, manage and track branded links. The service allows you to create and brand a single link that you can use and share across multiple channels. 

You can also attach UTM parameters and analytics tags to your branded link. At its core, Rebrandly is a URL shortener but  it is anything but basic. 

As users shorten URLs with Rebrandly, they are able to customize the domain name and customize their link slug (the words after the forward slash in a URL) to create a branded link. This means that users can make their links look like http://rebrand.ly/Learn-More rather than http://bit.ly/2Gki6Zz or http://ow.ly/CnKj30l0oq3.  

Features 

Rebrandly helps you brand, manage and share branded links using a custom domain name. There are a lot of great rebrandly features that make this process quick, easy and secure. 

Shorten URLs and Track Clicks Rebrandly is a powerful link management platform that allows you to create and track branded domains, subdomains, folders and links for your business or personal use. You can shorten URLs using our rebrandly API or simply use the Rebrandly Chrome Extension to shorten links on the fly. 

Each URL will be assigned an automatic redirect code of 301 (permanent redirect) or 302 (temporary redirect). You can also upgrade to a paid plan to enable the automatic detection of multiple redirect codes such as 303 and 307. 

You can also enable click tracking on your branded short links by simply logging into your free Rebrandly account. In addition to tracking clicks on your branded domain names, you can view click analytics for your links by device type, operating system, country and more. 

Manage Links Using Folders: You can choose to organize your branded short links by creating folders on your Rebrandly dashboard. You can also set up user access so that other members of your team have access to specific folders they need within the company. 

Pros 

Rebrandly Pro is a premium support service for Rebrandly users. The program is designed to empower agencies and brands, who may wish to use Rebrandly at scale, to move faster and accomplish more by using our team of link-building experts to manage their Rebrandly accounts. 

Rebrandly Pro subscribers benefit from a range of services, including: Priority support – dedicated email and telephone support with guaranteed response times. 

Team training – on-site and virtual training sessions with your team (in English only)  

Custom features – access to the Rebrandly DevOps team to discuss special requirements. The Rebrandly Pro subscription is available globally at €99 per month or $99 per month, however local taxes may apply. 

2. Bit.ly 

Bit.ly is a URL shortening service. The company Bitly, Inc. was established in 2008. It is privately held and based in New York City. 

Bitly shortens 600 million links per month, for use in social networking, SMS, and email. Bitly makes money by charging for access to aggregate data created as a result of many people using the shortened URLs. 

The company was initially funded by angel investors including Ron Conway and Kevin Rose and was later funded by Union Square Ventures, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Founder Collective, Ron Conway’s SV Angel and others. In October 2010, it raised $2 million from Khosla Ventures. 

The domain name bitly.com attracted at least 67 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com survey. 

As of 2009, it was ranked ninth overall among all sites worldwide and first among URL shortening services. In 2014 Bitly partnered with Twitter to provide custom link shortening services on the twitter platform. 

Features 

Bitly is a URL shortening service and a link management platform. The company Bitly, Inc., was established in 2008. 

It is privately held and based in New York City. Bitly shortens 600 million links per month, for use in social networking, SMS, and email. Bitly makes money by charging for access to aggregate data created as a result of many people using the shorten service. 

Bitly enterprise is aimed at businesses that want to make use of such data. The company was established in 2008 by Peter Stern and John Borthwick; in 2009 it won TechCrunch’s “Crunchies” award for Best Bootstrapped Startup. 

In addition to link shortening and bookmarking services, Bitly’s products include Bitmarks Bookmarklet, Bitly Pro and the main bitly URL shortening service.  

With the release of its first mobile app in 2010, bitly also launched the “j.mp” URL-shortener service (both provide similar functionality), which allows users to create custom shortened URLs with fewer characters than those generated with the main “bit.ly” service In 2011, bitly introduced its first paid product to the market: Bitly Pro, which offers advanced stats, branding capabilities and support for non-English. 

Pros 

Bit.ly is a popular link shortening service that has been around since 2008. It has received a lot of positive reviews, and  it is no surprise that many people are using it for their link shortening needs. 

However, we believe that some of the Bit.ly reviews  you have seen may have been written by people who  are not familiar with all of the Bit.ly features and alternatives. So today  we are going to go over some of the pros and cons of Bit.ly so you can decide for yourself whether or not  it is right for your needs. 

There are three main things that make Bit.ly an attractive option for many people:  It is free to use  It is relatively easy to use It has a large user base. 

3. TinyURL 

TinyURLs are the URL shorteners of the Internet.  They are used by Twitter and Facebook, to provide shorter links to posts, tweets and status updates. 

But you can use them yourself in your online marketing efforts. The TinyURL.com website allows users to create custom URLs for sharing pages and documents. 

For example, if you want to share a blog article with your followers on Twitter or Facebook, you can create a custom URL for them instead of using the official link at http://tinyurl.com/y7j5zg . TinyURLs are tiny, friendly and easy to share.  

This URL shortener makes it easy to create links that can be shared with your friends and followers, so  they will never have to remember your long link again. 

TinyURLs are a great way to make sure you always have your link handy, even if you  do not want to remember it. TinyURLs are also a great tool for sharing the link of an article or process on social media, because people can just copy the short URL and paste it into their message and social media streams. 

Features 

It is Free – TinyURL was created as a free service to make posting long URLs easier, and may only be used for actual URLs. Using it for spamming or illegal purposes is forbidden and any such use will result in the TinyURL being disabled and you may be reported to all ISPs involved and to the proper governmental agencies. 

It is Easy – Just type your URL in the box above and click Make TinyURL! Your new, tiny URL will appear in the box below it.  It is Fast – Our service is very fast, served from our own servers with no external third party dependencies or slow database lookups so you get your tiny URL immediately. 

It is Safe – We use a randomized character set in our URLs so they are much safer than using sequential numbers.  It is Secure – We use https:// URLs by default to ensure your traffic is encrypted. 

Pros 

TinyURL is like the OG of link shorteners.  It is been around for the longest, and it has a pretty good reputation. 

The interface is very user-friendly and easy to navigate, and  it is compatible with any web browser you could think of. The main thing that TinyURL does is that it saves a lot of space when you post links on social media sites such as Twitter, which only allows 140 characters per tweet. 

People often have to shorten their tweets when they add links to them, so TinyURL comes in handy there. Another pro of TinyURL is that it can be used on any device (computer, laptop, tablet, mobile phone) and with any operating system (Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android). 

4. Ow.ly (Hootsuite) 

Ow.ly is a free URL shortener provided by HootSuite, a social media management platform. It allows you to shorten URLs and share them on social networks. 

You can also track how many clicks your URLs receive, and how many people visit your website as a result of following your links. Ow.ly allows you to change the custom image associated with a link, so that when it is shared on Twitter or Facebook it includes an image  that is relevant to the content  you are linking to. 

There are also options for disabling tracking and opting out of the link shortening service altogether.If  you are new to Ow.ly, welcome! 

 We are so glad you made the switch to Hootsuite’s free link shortener. You can now track your links and gain insights on your social media engagement. 

In this blog post  we will show you what the new Hootsuite link shortener has to offer. The Hootsuite Ow.ly URL shortener makes it easy to share and track short links on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. 

Share. Hootsuite automatically shortens URLs with ow.ly so you can share links across multiple social networks. 

Features 

Ow.ly (Hootsuite), which is owned by Twitter, is a popular platform for scheduling, tracking and publishing content. It boasts more than 300,000 users and has more than 1 million tweets per day. 

The networking site has a wide variety of features to keep users engaged, including polls, games and video sharing. The social network hosts dozens of apps that can be used to boost your online presence. Here are some of the most unique: 

Audience Network allows you to interact with about 55,000 users in the Ow.ly community who have similar demographics as you do. This feature creates “lookalike” audiences that can be targeted with ads or promoted on the site’s homepage. 

You can also use Audience Network to find people in your local area who will help spread the word about your brand by posting relevant content on their own sites and blogs or sending emails through their email addresses. Labs is an analytics tool that lets you discover your audience’s interests and behavior across multiple platforms — websites, mobile devices and social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn — by comparing content published on those sites with your own marketing campaigns. 

Pros 

Easy to use; Great for social media sharing;  Good statistics overview; Lets you share on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn; Ow.ly is a URL shortener that was designed by Hootsuite. It has been used by many users among the Hootsuite community. 

Ow.ly lets you integrate your social media accounts so that you can share easily on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It also gives you an overview of statistics such as clicks, shares, location and device used to access your link. 

5. URL Shortener by Zapier 

You can get a shareable link for any project, task, or folder in your workspace by clicking the “copy” button next to the URL. You can also create a new project or task using the URL Shortener by Zapier integration, which will automatically shorten the link to make it easier to share. 

To use this, first set up your URL Shortener by Zapier integration, then follow these steps: In Asana, click on the plus sign (+) in your top bar menu and select the option to create a new project or task. 

Select “URL Shortener by Zapier” from the list of integrations displayed. 

The Zapier URL Shortener is a simple, easy to use custom URL shortener created just for you and your team.  Here is how it works: 

First, connect your favorite cloud apps and services to Zapier ( here is how). You can create a free Zapier account if you  have not already! Next, create a Zap with the app you want to use to shorten URLs. 

For example,  here is how to automatically create a new row in a Google Sheets spreadsheet whenever you get a new email with an attachment: Finally, add the URL Shortener step to your Zap.  Here is what that looks like: 

Features 

Zapier’s URL shortener has everything you need to shorten links, share them, and track click analytics. The easiest way to create your own branded short URLs to share on social media or anywhere else. 

Your own domain name Customize the end of each shortened link with any word or phrase you want. Analytics and trends Track clicks, referrers, countries, browsers, and operating systems for each link. 

Use these stats to measure your marketing efforts and improve ROI. Link retargeting: Add pixels from Facebook, Twitter, Adwords, or any other platform so you can retarget users who click on your links. 

Pros 

Zapier  is not the only app to offer a URL shortener, but  it is probably the best known. 

– The URL Shortener can be used as a standalone app, or in combination with other apps in your Zaps. 

– URLs are shortened through Bitly, and  you will have access to Bitly analytics when you use the Zapier integration. 

6. BL.INK 

BL.INK is an online tool to manage, track and measure short links.  it is easy to create and remember short URLs with BL.INK, which can be shared across all digital channels. 

Short links are used by a variety of users, but if they are particularly useful for businesses. By creating a short link, you can boost the performance of your marketing campaigns and make them more memorable for customers, leading to more clicks, conversions and sales. 

BLINK can help you: Improve brand recall with custom branded domain names and vanity URLs, Improve click-through rates with optimized links that are clean and easy to type on mobile devices, Measure campaign performance using real-time analytics, Track user behavior over time with click maps that show where clicks are coming from. 

Features 

All BL.INK features are included in every plan. Check out the list below to learn more about each feature. 

Custom URLs: A custom short domain name is a great way to build brand recognition, increase traffic, and gain credibility. The best part is that a custom short domain name is free with BL.INK, and you can set it up in less than five minutes. 

Learn more about setting up your custom short domain here. UTM Parameters UTM Parameters allow you to track your links on any third-party analytics tool. 

You can track your links on Google Analytics or another analytics platform by adding UTM parameters at the end of your link. To learn more about UTM parameters, check out this article. 

Link Retargeting. It allows you to retarget users who click through your link using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Ads or another ad platform with a retargeting pixel that  you have added to BL.INK. Learn more about how to set up link retargeting here.  

Bulk Shorten Links Generate hundreds or thousands of short links at once using our csv upload tool or our Bulk Shorten API call. 

You can specify the destination URL for all of these links (e.g., 

Pros 

All BL.INK features are included in every plan. Check out the list below to learn more about each feature.  

The best part is that a custom short domain name is free with BL.INK, and you can set it up in less than five minutes. Learn more about setting up your custom short domain here. 

UTM Parameters UTM Parameters allow you to track your links on any third-party analytics tool. You can track your links on Google Analytics or another analytics platform by adding UTM parameters at the end of your link. 

To learn more about UTM parameters, check out this article. Link Retargeting Link retargeting allows you to retarget users who click through your link using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Ads or another ad platform with a retargeting pixel that  you have added to BL.INK. 

Learn more about how to set up link retargeting here.  Bulk Shorten Links Generate hundreds or thousands of short links at once using our csv upload tool or our Bulk Shorten API call. You can specify the destination URL for all of these links (e.g., 

7. Firebase Dynamic Links 

Features 

Firebase Dynamic Links are smart URLs that dynamically change behavior to provide the best experience across different platforms and channels.  

Dynamic Links have a number of features, some of which are only available for paid plans: Send users directly to specific content in your app, such as a product page or an article. 

Get new users by sending them to any location within your app from social media posts, ads, or emails. Grow your existing user base by sending them content based on their preferences in your app. 

Measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns on iOS, Android and web with free analytics. 

Pros 

Firebase Dynamic Links are free. You can generate up to one million short links per month, and you  will not be charged anything. 

Firebase Dynamic Links are easy to create, implement and track using Google Analytics. The deep links can be created in the Firebase console or programmatically using the REST API – which makes them suitable for a variety of use cases. 

Firebase Dynamic Links work across platforms, including iOS, Android and Web. 

Short URLs Short links are great for sharing on social media, in emails, and anywhere else that your audience is likely to be using a mobile device. With Firebase Dynamic Links, you can create a shareable link that will send users directly to your app, or to the App Store or Google Play Store if they  do not have it installed on their device.  

Deep linking : As well as sending users straight to the app itself, deep links allow you to take them to a specific page or feature within the app. For example, if  you are advertising a new product or specific event within your app, you can include a deep link to that particular page in the shared link. 

This is even more useful when combined with analytics, as you can use this information to tailor your content and narrow down who sees what within your marketing campaigns. Data analysis If  you are not analyzing your data then  you are missing out on a huge opportunity to improve how you market and develop your apps. 

Firebase Dynamic Links allows you to get real-time analytics so you can learn more about how users are interacting with your app and where  they are coming from. With that information, you can optimize your campaigns 

8. YOURLS 

YOURLS stands for Your Own URL Shortener. It is a small set of PHP scripts that will allow you to run your own URL shortening service (a la TinyURL or bitly). 

Running your own URL shortener is fun, geeky and useful: you own your data and  do not depend on third party services.  It is also a great way to add branding to your short URLs, instead of using the same public URL shortener everyone uses. 

Please understand YOURLS is not a service, and never will be. 

This software is provided as-is without any guarantees and is meant to be hosted on your own server. YOURLS is free and released under the MIT License:​ YOURLS stands for Your Own URL Shortener. 

It is a small set of PHP scripts that will allow you to run your own URL shortening service (a la TinyURL or bitly). Running your own URL shortener is fun, geeky and useful: you own your data and  do not depend on third party services. 

It is also a great way to add branding to your short URLs, instead of using the same public URL shortener everyone uses. YOURLS is a small set of PHP scripts that will allow you to run your own URL shortening service (a la TinyURL or Bitly). 

Running your own service means you will be able to know exactly who is clicking your links,  it is 100% under your control. You can make it private or public, you can pick custom keyword URLs, it comes with its own API. 

You will love it. 

Features 

Bookmarklets: easy one-click bookmarklets to shorten and share any page  you are currently visiting, or auto-magically grab the page title as the default YOURLS short link title  

Stats: track each and every click on your short links: referrers, visitors country & browser, timestamps, platforms (iOS/Android) & devices (iPhone/Nexus), … all that in real time and with the ability to filter on date range or referrer domain name. 

QR Codes: display a QR code for any short URL so people can scan it with their phone Robust API: an API to be able to manage your short URLs programmatically, so you can easily integrate it into your own web applications or scripts. 

Password protection: you can password protect any short link so only people who know the password can visit the link. 

Private links: mark any link as private, and it will not show up in the stats nor will be listed in public interface Pretty. 

Pros 

You can make it private or public, you can pick custom keyword URLs, it comes with its own API. 

You will love it. 

Free and Open Source software** YOURLS is 100% free and open source. No ads, no tracking, no BS. 

** YOURLS users are just as important as contributors** Each and every user of YOURLS counts, whether  you are running your own instance or using someone else’s.** No outside influence** YOURLS is not affiliated with any company, or enterprise initiative. 

It is just a bunch of regular people who love their work.** No time limit** No one is going to shut down this project in 6 months or a year because money ran out, or because the original developers lost interest.** 

9. AdFly 

Partner with us and earn more! AdF.ly is an innovative service that allows you to earn money from each visitor to your shortened links. How it works: Visitors click on an AdF.ly link and view a full page ad for 5 seconds before being able to click a skip button and continue to their destination. 

You can shorten any URL with our IP Logger or Link Redirect Trace systems, which will provide you with detailed statistics about the clicks your generated links receive! 

The Shortener Pays You! CPM: $1-$12, CPC: $0.0001-$0.005 Adf.ly is a URL shortening service. Users can earn money by placing the service’s links to their own content on the Internet. 

Adf.ly displays full page advertisements before redirecting users to their intended destination. Adf.ly is a URL shortener service which pays out $4 per 1000 views to its publishers. 

This service is used by many bloggers and Youtubers in order to earn money from their work. But many people thinks that they  cannot earn much money from this site, especially in India because of the low CPM (Cost Per Mile) of adf.ly links. But  it is not true. 

In this post  i am going to show you how you can easily earn $100 per month with Adfly as a student or new blogger. 

Features 

A global, high-quality user base on desktop and mobile .Precise targeting based on location, operating system, browser, device and more.  

The ability to target by keyword and category. 

An excellent price per click, with the potential to generate huge returns from your marketing spend! 

Publishers Access to global advertisers. Your visitors can be paid for being redirected to our advertiser’s websites. 

Real-time statistics. You can login at any time and check how your links are performing and how much  you have earned. 

Security. We take security very seriously, so we monitor all of our links 24/7 for suspicious activity. 

If we detect any bots or automated traffic on your link you will not be paid for it. 

Pros 

The price is right. You can get started earning cash immediately without spending a dime. 

It is easy to use and understand. Anybody can use AdFly as long as they have access to the internet.  

No special training is needed. 

It is good for beginners who are just getting started making money online. AdFly offers different ways to make money in addition to link shortening like banners and popunders. 

What is a URL Shortener or Link Shortener? 

A URL shortening service is sometimes called a link shortener.  It is an online utility that converts a long URL into a shorter one, making it easy to share and tweet links, as well as to track clicks and other metrics online. 

This type of service was originally created to help people tweet links longer than the Twitter character limit of 140 characters. Popular URL shorteners include bitly, goo.gl and ow.ly. 

URL shortener is a service that converts long URL to short URLs. 

These short links are used for sharing on social media platforms, where the character limit is very high. A shortened URL can be used in email marketing and SMS marketing campaigns, and it can also be published on websites, blogs, forums and mobile apps. 

Since the number of characters in a Tweet is limited to 280 characters only, a URL shortener can create more space for the text in a Tweet. Link Shorteners also provide you with additional features like click tracking, shortened link branding and link expiration date. 

What Features Should You Look For in a Link Shortener? 

Link shorteners are a great way to customize your links and make them more memorable for your audience. They also provide you with some analytical data about the clicks that  you are getting each day. 

But, you need to know what features to look for in a link shortener in order to get the most out of linking to a website or blog post. There are many different link shorteners on the market, but only a few really have the features that you need. 

So,  let us take a look at those features and see which ones are going to be the best for you and which ones you can do without.  

Analytics: When it comes to tracking clicks on your links, you want something that will give you some analytical data. 

This way, you can track how many people are clicking on your links as well as when they click on them. You can then use this information to determine how many conversions  you are getting from each link that you create. 

Tracking clicks is very important because it helps you determine the success of each link and where it is placed. For example, if you have a link in your blog post, and  it is not getting any traffic, then maybe  it is time to remove it from 

Link Shortener – Frequently Asked Questions 

Q: What is a link shortener? 

A: A link shortener is a tool that takes a really long URL and makes it into something shorter and easier to remember. 

Q: How do I create a link? 

A: To create a link, copy the page URL you want to make into a shortened link from your browser’s address bar. Then, paste the URL into the “Paste long URL” box on the home page. 

Your shortened link will be generated and appear in the “Your shortened link” box. 

Q: How can I share my links? 

A: You can share your links by copying them and pasting them wherever you want people to click. For example, you could paste them into social media posts, emails or text messages. 

Q: How long will my links remain available? 

A: Your links will not expire unless they are deleted from our database. If you have deleted a link but wish to restore it, please contact our support team at help@yaaar.com for assistance. 

Q: How do I use my custom branded domain? 

A: To start using your custom branded domain, you must first set it up on your account settings page. Once set up, go back 

Best Link Shortener – Wrapping Up 

Link shorteners are great tools to implement on any website. They help you track link clicks and find the most popular content on your site. 

They also make sharing links on social media easier and more effective. 

Which link shortener should you choose? The best option is to use a link shortener  that is integrated with your existing analytics software or CMS, so that you can track the clickthroughs from multiple platforms in one place. 

But if that  is not possible for you, then go with a third-party service like Bit.ly or Rebrandly. 

Both of them offer paid plans with advanced features that are worth checking out if you want something more than just link shortening. If  you are looking for the best free option, then Bit.ly is the way to go.