Today’s consumers rely on digital tools to access and share information, so businesses need an efficient way to promote and share links to online marketing assets. Link shorteners make it easier to share long URLs by transforming them into short, impactful links.
TinyURL is a popular link shortener, but it’s far from the only option on the market. There are many TinyURL alternatives to choose from, each with its own unique features. Reviewing all the available options will help you find the best link shortener for your needs.
How does a link shortener work?
Link shorteners take long, complex website URLs and convert them into concise custom URLs. These shortened URLs are easier for customers to remember and type into their browsers.
These tools automatically redirect visitors from the shortened URL to the original website address. Each shortened URL contains a unique identifier that maps it to the intended address for seamless navigation.
Benefits of using a link shortener
There are plenty of reasons for businesses to use link shorteners, especially in digital marketing campaigns. Here are some of the benefits of shortening your links.
Enhanced aesthetics
Short URLs are much more visually pleasing than long links. Using short, customized links immediately makes your brand appear more professional to consumers.
Say you want to share a news story about your product. A link like https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/2022/02/10/amtrak-deal-valentines-offer-sale/6741296001/ is awkward-looking, impossible to remember, and takes up too much space in your marketing assets.
With a URL shortening service, you can create a custom URL like https://bit.ly/amtrak-valentines, which looks neater and more professional.
Improved click-through rates
Shortened links consistently result in higher click-through rates than full-length URLs, and branded links can even help increase click-through rates.
Consumers trust shortened links, which helps drive more clicks. Short links are also simple and easy to use, whereas visitors might be turned off by a long link full of random letters and numbers.
More manageable
Short links are simple and easy to manage, which is key when developing your digital marketing campaign. By customizing each link to match the landing page, you won’t have to worry about accidentally sharing the wrong link.
Better use of character limits
Many digital platforms have character limits for each post. For example, Instagram posts have a limit of just 2,200 characters, and X (formerly Twitter) famously only allows 280 characters—so you have to use them wisely. When putting together an Instagram post, a short link ensures that you’ll have enough room for your copy and hashtags.
Improved user experience
Today’s consumers expect a streamlined, intuitive experience when navigating the web, and shorter URLs are more effective for sharing on social media. Link shorteners often break your URLs down to less than 20 characters, making them easier for people to type into their browsers.
What should you consider in a good link shortener?
Not all custom URL shorteners are created equal. Here’s what to look for when choosing your link management tool.
Alignment with your goals
Consider what your biggest goals are when shortening links. Are you looking to save space in your social media profiles, increase brand visibility, or track web traffic?
Look for a tool with features that support your goals. For example, Bitly offers straightforward link shortening as well as advanced branding and analytics to cater to a variety of people.
Customization and branding
Your URL shortener should give you the option to customize each link. Not only does this make each link more recognizable, but it also creates consistency across your brand’s links. Thoughtful branding will help your customers immediately recognize your shortened links, which builds trust.
This helps you create a consistently professional social media presence—something customers value. In fact, 81% of people believe that social media has increased accountability for businesses, so having a strong presence is vital.
Integration with other marketing tools
Ideally, your link shortener should integrate seamlessly with the marketing tools you already use. This makes it easy to place your short links directly into your ad campaigns, email newsletters, and social media posts. For example, Bitly integrates directly with Hubspot, Salesforce, Sprout, and Canva.
Detailed data and analytics
The best URL shorteners go beyond just creating links—they also have features to help you analyze their performance. Bitly provides detailed analytics so you can see the location and type of device each visit comes from. Monitoring click-through rates and conversions for your links can help you fine-tune your marketing strategy.
Scalability
As your business grows, so will your link management needs. Look for a link-shortening tool that can scale with your marketing efforts. Bitly offers multiple tiers to choose from, ranging from a free version that’s ideal for solopreneurs to enterprise options for large businesses.
The best alternatives to TinyURL
TinyURL is just one way to create shortened links. Here are some other top link-shortening tools.
1. Bitly
Bitly is a powerful marketing tool for creating custom short links, QR Codes, and Link-in-bio pages. When compared with other URL shortening tools, Bitly offers more advanced features that are ideal for businesses scaling their marketing efforts.
Top features
- Link analytics: With Bitly’s analytics, you can track the performance of each of your links and QR Codes through a detailed analytics dashboard. This includes metrics like performance over time, referral information, and the location of each click or scan. Those with a paid plan also have access to an upgraded analytics dashboard in addition to the basic analytics available on individual links and QR Code scans.
- Custom short links: Bitly offers fully customized branded links. With this feature, you can tailor your links to match your messaging for specific campaigns or products.
- QR Code generation: Bitly also allows you to generate custom Dynamic QR Codes in addition to your short links. Like short links, Bitly QR Codes are customizable, with a variety of color, shape, and layout options to match your brand.
- Integrations: Bitly offers integrations with a variety of marketing tools, including Salesforce, Twilio, Hubspot, Zapier, and more. There are also plugins available for WordPress and Chrome, Edge, and Firefox browsers.
- User management: Bitly is designed for businesses, with features that allow your entire team to work together. Role-based access ensures that the right people can easily create and access shortened links.
Considerations
While Bitly offers many advanced features, it may not be the right link management platform for everyone. Here are some considerations to keep in mind.
- Limited free version: Bitly has both paid and free versions available, and the free plan offers limited features. However, if you only need to create a few links each month and don’t need the full analytics suite, a free account will still work well.
- Business focus: Bitly’s features cater to businesses, so some features may not be necessary for individual people. However, this business focus does mean that Bitly’s offerings are always in alignment with current digital trends.
- Simplicity: Bitly prioritizes simplicity and ease of use, so it might not be the right fit if you’re looking for a highly technical platform. However, this also makes it more accessible to a wide variety of people.
Pricing
- Free: Two QR Codes and 10 links per month, plus one Link-in-bio page
- Core: $8/month (annual billing only), five QR Codes and 100 links per month, plus one Link-in-bio page
- Growth: $29/month (annual billing) or $35/month (monthly billing), ten QR Codes and 500 links per month, two Link-in-bio pages
- Premium: $199/month (annual billing) or $300/month (monthly billing), 200 QR Codes and 3,000 links per month, five Link-in-bio pages
- Enterprise: Custom pricing; includes all the services in Premium plus multiple user seats, at-scale link generation, a dedicated account manager, group permissions, and 99.9% SLA uptime
2. Rebrandly
Rebrandly is a link shortener service that turns URLs into branded links. This platform caters to businesses that need a high volume of custom links.
Top features
- Multiple custom domains: Rebrandly allows people to create shortened links with multiple personalized domains. This means you can create unique domain names for each campaign.
- Emoji links: With Rebrandly, you can add emojis to your shortened links to make them more visually interesting.
- Link retargeting: Connect your links to your Google AdWords and social media accounts for link retargeting. After people interact with your links, they’ll see retargeting ads for your business while surfing the web.
- Traffic routing: This feature sends consumers to specific links based on their location and device. For example, the same link could send people to either a mobile app or the homepage of your website, depending on the device they’re using.
Considerations
- Dashboard: Some find Rebrandly’s dashboard unintuitive, making it difficult to locate and understand link analytics.
- Few integrations: Rebrandly offers few integrations, and doesn’t offer a custom API for building your own.
- Domain length: The Rebrandly domain name is longer than the default domains of other link shorteners.
Pricing
- Free: Includes 25 branded links/month and one custom domain
- Lite: Starts at $13/month and includes 250 branded links/month and one custom domain
- Essentials: Starts at $32/month and includes 1,500 branded links/month and three custom domains
- Professional: Starts at $99/month and includes 3,500 branded links/month and five custom domains
- Enterprise: Starts at $625/month and includes 20,000+ branded links/month and 20+ custom domains
3. Ow.ly
Ow.ly is a URL shortener that is part of Hootsuite, a social media management platform.
Top features
- Integrates with Hootsuite: If you’re already using Hootsuite to manage your social media accounts, Ow.ly allows you to create shortened URLs in the app.
- Detailed analytics: Ow.ly tracks your link activity, so you’ll see who’s engaging with your links, where they’re coming from, and if they lead to conversions.
- Integrates with Bitly: Ow.ly offers custom domains, and Business and Enterprise users get access to more powerful Bitly features.
Considerations
- Need a Hootsuite account: Ow.ly is only available as a feature of Hootsuite—there isn’t an option to use the link shortener on its own.
- No free version available: Hootsuite and Ow.ly are only available through paid plans.
Pricing
- Professional: Starts at $99/month for one user and 10 social accounts
- Team: Starts at $249/month for three users and 20 social accounts
- Enterprise: Custom pricing, starts at five users and 50 social accounts
4. Sniply.io
Sniply.io is a URL shortener and QR Code generator. The platform also generates custom call-to-action buttons to add to the web pages you share.
Top features
- Custom domains and links: The platform has fully customizable link options.
- Custom CTA buttons: Sniply.io offers a personalized call-to-action button with unique themes and colors for each link.
- Detailed analytics: Sniply.io tracks your link traffic and conversion rates. They also offer A/B testing for your CTA buttons.
Considerations
- CTA compatibility: Sniply.io’s CTA buttons are not compatible with all websites.
- Time-consuming: Creating custom URLs and CTA buttons with Sniply.io can be a lengthy process.
- No free plan available: While Sniply.io does offer a 14-day free trial, there is no long-term free plan available.
Pricing
- Basic: $9/month for 250 links, five CTAs, and one user
- Pro: $29/month for unlimited links, 30 CTAs, and three users
- Business: $59/month for unlimited links, 100 CTAs, and ten users
- Enterprise: Custom pricing and packages
5. JotURL
JotURL is a URL shortener and link management platform. It also offers custom QR Codes and targeted marketing features.
Top features
- Custom links and QR Codes: The platform offers fully customizable links and QR Codes, with the option to preview your links before sending.
- Deep linking and retargeting: Deep linking sends mobile users directly to your app while retargeting keeps your brand top-of-mind with relevant social media ads.
- WhatsApp links: With this feature, you can create links that send visitors straight to WhatsApp to chat with them directly.
- Custom CTAs: JotURL offers customized call-to-action buttons for your webpages to increase conversion rates.
Considerations
- Learning curve: With so many features, the JotURL dashboard can take time to learn how to navigate.
- Setup time: The number of features can also result in a longer setup time, as users will have to determine which ones they need and set them up individually.
Pricing
(Note: JotURL is based in Europe, so prices are in euros.)
- Growth: Starts at €7/month for 2,000 branded links and three users
- Pro: Starts at €55/month for 30k branded links and 10 users
- Business: Starts at €135/month for 100k branded links and 30 users
6. Cutt.ly
Cutt.ly is a URL-shortening tool that offers standard link management features and analytics.
Top features
- Custom short links: Cutt.ly offers both generic and branded short links with advanced features like mobile redirect, retargeting, and A/B testing options.
- Link-in-bio pages: This feature allows you to create customized link pages for your social media accounts.
- Branded QR Codes: You can create custom branded QR Codes using a range of shape, color, and logo options.
Considerations
- Price point: Cutt.ly’s prices are relatively high compared to competitors.
- Limited analytics: While Cutt.ly offers some analytics, there are limited metrics to track.
- Limited customization: Cutt.ly’s domain customization options are limited, especially on lower-tier plans.
Pricing
- Free: 30 short links/month with limited features
- Starter: $12/month for 300 short links/month
- Single: $25/month for unlimited short links and more customization options
- Team: $99/month for up to three teams of five users and extended features
- Team Enterprise: $149 for up to ten teams of up to 20 users and unlimited functionality
7. BL.INK
BL.INK is a link-shortening tool designed for enterprises that need large-scale, highly customizable link and QR Code generation.
Top features
- Custom short links: BL.INK users can shorten URLs with custom domain names.
- Integrations: BL.INK has thousands of native integration options and API documentation available.
- Advanced security: BL.INK links and QR Codes come with SOC 2 security and other sophisticated compliance features.
Considerations
- Lengthy setup process: BL.INK’s interface takes time to set up and may require technical knowledge.
- Enterprise-specific: Since BL.INK is designed for large organizations, its features might not be suitable or cost-effective for individuals or small businesses.
Pricing
- Expert+: $48/month for 10,000 active links and three users
- SMB: $99/month for 50,000 active links and 15 users
- Team: $299/month for 250,000 active links and 25 users
- Business: $599/month for 500,000 active links and 50 users
- Enterprise: Custom pricing and offerings
8. TinyCC
TinyCC is a link-tracking and shortening tool. In addition to standard link-shortening solutions, it also offers link editing and analytics.
Top features
- Custom domains: You can generate short links using multiple custom domains. Links are editable and easy to organize by campaign.
- Link health management: TinyCC tracks broken links, as well as uptime for the pages you link to, so you can correct any errors right away.
- Retargeting: TinyCC integrates with your social media retargeting ads.
- Brand monitoring: This feature tracks mentions of your brand across multiple social media platforms.
Considerations
- No QR Codes: TinyCC doesn’t offer additional features like QR Codes or link-in-bio pages.
- No native integrations: While TinyCC does have an API available, it doesn’t currently offer any native integrations with other apps.
- No free plan: TinyCC does not offer a free option.
Pricing
- Basic: $5/month for 500 links, one domain, and two users
- Business: $25/month for 10,000 links, three domains, and 10 users
- Pro: $44/month for 50,000 links, 10 domains, and 50 users
- Enterprise: Custom pricing options, unlimited use available
9. T.LY
T.LY is a simple, straightforward URL shortener that lets you condense clicks quickly and efficiently.
Top features
- Very short URLs: T.LY’s base domain is one of the shortest on the market, making it ideal for those working with limited space.
- Smart links: This feature allows you to redirect people to multiple online locations, depending on their devices.
- Browser extension: T.LY has a browser extension, which you can use to create shortened links as you browse the web.
Considerations
- No free option: T.LY only offers a five-day free trial, with no permanent free version.
- No native integrations: T.LY has an API but doesn’t come with any native integrations.
Pricing
- Hobby: $5/month for 500 monthly links
- Basic: $20/month for 4,000 monthly links
- Pro: $50/month for 10,000 monthly links
- Custom: Larger plans with team needs can contact the T.LY team for a custom solution
10. Shorte.st
Shorte.st is a URL shortening platform that also functions as an affiliate marketing tool. Shorte.st links come with intermediary ads, which generate income.
Top features
- Ad revenue options: When someone follows a Shorte.st link, it briefly directs them to an ad before sending them to their final destination. Businesses get income from these ad displays.
- Link shortening: This tool condenses links for a cleaner look and better manageability.
- Link performance statistics: Monitor each link with the statistics dashboard and track performance over time.
Considerations
- Ad displays: The ads displayed with each link could create a frustrating or unprofessional experience for the end user.
- No customization options: Shorte.st does not give you the option to customize your URL or use your own domain.
- No advanced features: Shorte.st does not offer QR Codes, Link-in-bio pages, retargeting, deep linking, or other popular advanced features.
Pricing
Shorte.st is free to use and pays users for clicks and referrals.
Find out what Bitly can do for your links today
A reliable URL shortener lets you share branded links with your audience with ease. Since these tools are a key part of your marketing suite, it’s important to choose an option that meets your business’s unique needs.
Bitly is a comprehensive, all-in-one link management solution that scales with your marketing efforts as you grow.
Try Bitly today to boost your brand image with custom short links.