A URL shortener is an online tool that takes a long, hefty URL and provides a shortened URL that sends a person to the exact same web page. Some URL shorteners can also help track and manipulate those links, with features like click analytics,support, and retargeting.
Ten best URL shortener services:
Bitly is a powerful (and popular) tool for shortening URLs. It’s been considered the best URL shortener by many people for a while – and for good reason!
The free option lets you shorten up to ten links per month using the Bit.ly domain name, while the second tier premium plan lets you use your own custom domain name with up to 1,500 shortened links per month.
Features ⚙️
- Connect custom domain
- Analytics dashboard
- Audience intelligence
- Custom URL
Price 💵
Bitly offers its basic service for free. After that, premium plans start at $8 per month (paid annualy, at a cost of $96 per year). If you want additional features like a custom domain, plans start at $35 per month with monthly billing, or $29 per month with annual billing.
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Tiny.cc is a well-rounded platform. Apart from being one of the best free URL shorteners, it also comes with highly versatile paid packages that make it a serious contender for the title of “best premium URL shortener”.
The tool itself operates as a multi-faceted link management platform. It allows you to not only shorten URLs, but also share, edit, organize, personalize, track, and monetize them. Its job is to make your links short, meaningful, and profitable. You even have the option to convert your URLs into customizable, low-DPI QR codes for printing and distribution.
Features ⚙️
- Supports high-volume commercial URLs.
- Shortens links using your brand or custom domain.
- Generates shareable, user-friendly URLs.
- Manages links.
Price 💵
While Tiny.cc offers one of the best free URL shortener platforms, you’ll be limited to 500 URLs – which, when you think about it, is more than enough for individual users.
Otherwise, if you’re looking to leverage the shortened URLs for marketing purposes or in your media publications, Tiny.cc will expand your capacity – but for a price.
- Basic – $5 per month
- Business – $25 per month
- Pro – $44 per month.
3. Sniply:
If you’re setting out to achieve big on conversions using content curation, there’s a good chance that Sniply is the tool for you. You can use Sniply to create short, branded customs links of articles/ blog posts/ web page. These links are easy to share on social media. When users click on these short ‘Snips’, they are taken to the relevant content, but the web page now also displays the Snip you created along with your Call-To-Action.
That’s not all. You can reuse the CTA as many times as you want, or create new CTAs for different campaigns. The metrics pertaining to clicks, conversions and campaigns can be viewed on the analytics dashboard.
Features ⚙️
- Custom URL shortener
- Customized CTAs on each shortened URL
- Embeddable on articles and pages you share
- Dashboard monitors to track user interaction
Price 💵
Three main plans are available for Sniply:
- Basic – $9 per month
- Pro – $29 per month
- Business – $59 per month
4. Blink:
Blink isn’t just one of the best URL shortener options on the market, it’s an entire link management platform that provides a comprehensive solution for managing, monitoring, and measuring every touch point in your engagement journey. It lets you analyze link performance using reports or you can integrate it with web analytics tools such as Google and Adobe.
The platform also offers a range of additional integration options, allowing you to connect with other tools using its open API. It’s also scalable to support your entire organization, from small one person operations to global teams with endless campaigns.
Features ⚙️
- Shorten and customize links for better branding and tracking
- Dynamically route clicks by date, time, language, device, and location
- Analyze link performance using Blink reports or integrate with web analytics tools such as Google and Adobe
- Enable user permissions to ensure the right team members have access to what they need
Price 💵
Blink has four main plans, and a fifth Enterprise option that requires you to reach out to them for pricing. Each plan comes with a 21 day free trial.
- Expert – $48 per month
- SMB – $99 per month
- Team – $299 per month
- Business – $599 per month.
5. TinyURL:
TinyURL is the best URL shortener for those who require a decently high volume of shortened URLs, but are still looking for something budget-friendly. And by budget-friendly we mean free. One of the nice features of their free URL shortener is that it allows you to customize the part of the URL that comes after the backslash.
Features ⚙️
- Fast redirection
- Option to customize the shortened URL
- No expiration date on shortened URLs
- Easy-to-use
fuck you
Price 💵
TinyURL has a 100% free basic URL shortening service for individual users. It allows you to customize your links and keep track of your link history. For advanced features like analytics, you’ll need to upgrade to their premium plans, which are priced as follows:
- Pro – $12.99 per month
- Pro 5K – $35 per month
- Pro 50K – $249 per month
6. Cuttly
As do several of the other options on this list, Cuttly also goes beyond URL shortening to offer an all-in-one link management platform that offers a variety of features for managing and analyzing short links. It is an advanced URL shortener with link analytics that allow you to monitor clicks on shortened URLs and measure how effective they are. You can also generate QR Codes (even on the free plan), which can be used to combine offline and online solutions for your business.
Features ⚙️
- Provides extensive link analytics that allow you to track clicks on short links and measure their effectiveness
- Allows you to create you own Link-in-Bio microsites and generate QR Codes
- Comes with advanced features like UTM codes, A/B/C testing, pixel retargeting, and mobile redirects
- Enhanced security features like two-step verification to access your account
Price 💵
Cuttly has an extremely generous free URL shortener because it not only shortens your links, but comes with a host of other link management features. The Cuttly free plan includes:
- One free branded (custom) domain
- Up to 1,000 links monthly
- One link-in-bio page with five links
- QR code generation
7. Ow.ly:
Hootsuite is a popular social media management tool. Ow.ly is a specific feature within Hootsuite that lets you shorten your links to use on social media or in other places.
If you are already a Hootsuite user, then this is easily the best URL shortener option at your disposal. You can access Ow.ly from the Hootsuite dashboard. From there, you’ll also be able to view analytics for your shortened URLs.
Features ⚙️
- URL Performance metrics
- Link retargeting
- Trackable short links
- Mobile platform supportive
- Rank monitoring
- Demonstrate social ROI
Price 💵
Ow.ly is included with both free and premium Hootsuite plans. So, while you do need to create a Hootsuite account to take advantage of it, you don’t need to pay extra to specifically use it. Hootsuite plans start at $99 per month (billed annually) and come with a 30-day free trial.
8. Rebrandly
Rebrandly offers advanced URL shortening technology packed with tons of features. You can use this digital tool to create custom/branded (and shorter) memorable links. You can use this URL shortener for both building and sharing short links across various social networks.
Rebrandly also lets you create separate workspaces and teammates, which might make it the best URL shortener for teams, and it also includes advanced features like link retargeting support.
Features ⚙️
- Bulk link creation
- UTM parameters
- API access
- 100+ app integrations
Price 💵
Rebrandly offers a limited free plan that supports 500 links and 5,000 clicks per month. After that, there are various paid plans:
- Essentials – $24 per month
- Professional – $75 per month
- Teams – $417 per month
9. T2M
Another unique contender in our best URL shortener list is T2M. You will love the usability of this link shortening solution. To make the URL tracking easier, they have two separate dashboards. One is for location analytics and the other is for device or platform. It even generates a QR code along with the short URL.
T2M has dedicated instances, meaning the server response will be 100% dedicated to a single user. This ensures fast redirection to your destination URL. You can create short, branded URLs that will get more clicks or even decide where the link should work
Features ⚙️
- No spam policy
- Personalized short URLs
- Full-scale analytics
- One-click domain mapping
Price 💵
If you just want to use the basic T2M service, T2M offers a basic tier for a $5 one-time fee. The $5 is just for verification and to cut down on spam – there are no ongoing fees.
After that, there are four premium plans. The prices below reflect the month-to-month costs:
- Standard – $9.99 per month
- Pro – $29.99 per month
- Premium – $89.99 per month
- Dedicated – talk to sales
10. ClickMeter
ClickMeter is less of a URL shortener and more of a click-rate optimizer. There are many features to help you create a URL with tons of clicks. ClickMeter is more for advertisers and agencies who use Google AdWords or other advertising networks.
It works like a charm for webmasters with a global audience and multiple languages. In addition to location-based targeting, you can easily integrate with popular content management systems like WordPress and Shopify. Clickmeter’s dashboard provides an in-depth analysis report.
Features ⚙️
- Multilingual support
- Geotargeting
- URL encryption
- Bulk link creation
Price 💵
ClickMeter has three premium plans, all of which offer a 30-day money-back guarantee:
- Medium – $29 per month
- Large – $99 per month
- X-Large – $349 per month
Conclusion
Using a URL shortener service can help you not only create cleaner, more user-friendly URLs, but also track and analyze how those URLs subsequently perform.
Therefore, if you’re the type to share posts, you might want to get the best URL shortener for your blog.
For your convenience, below is a quick recap of the ten URL shorteners we featured in this article:
1. Bitly – Advanced URL shortening, QR code generation, and link-in-bio features.
2. Tiny.cc – The best URL shortener if you don’t want to register for an account.
3. Sniply – Optimized for conversion campaigns.
4. Blink – Best URL shortener for larger organizations with more complex needs.
5. TinyURL – Free plan with link customization and easy-to-scale premium plans.
6. Cuttly – Arguably the most generous free link management platform on this list.
7. Ow.ly – Popular among Hootsuite users.
8. Rebrandly – Lets you use a custom domain name for free.
9. T2M – Get short URLs plus QR codes.
10. ClickMeter – Perfect URL solution for advertisers