Top 9 URL Shorteners in 2026 (Real Prices and Limits)

On August 25, 2025, every goo.gl link on the internet was scheduled to stop working. Google changed its mind about three weeks before the deadline and kept the links that still had traffic, but anything that had gone quiet since late 2024 was switched off. Years of printed QR codes, old tweets and PDF footnotes went with them.

That is the part most shortener roundups skip. A short link is a dependency on somebody else’s business, and those businesses change. Two tools that still show up on plenty of “best of” lists have effectively left the market: ClickMeter’s website now redirects to Rebrandly, and BL.INK was bought by Loftware in April 2025, after which its pricing page started pointing to an enterprise packaging product with a “request a consultation” button.

So here is my one firm opinion before the list. Buy a short domain of your own and connect it to whichever tool you pick. If the tool raises prices, gets acquired or shuts down, you point the domain somewhere else and your links survive. Every recommendation below is ranked with that in mind, which is why the famous name is not in first place.

Prices and limits were checked against each vendor’s own pricing page in October 2026. Where that wasn’t possible, I say so.

The nine at a glance

1. Short.io

Short.io is the one I’d hand to most people, mainly because of what it gives away. The free plan includes five custom domains, 1,000 branded links and detailed statistics on 50,000 clicks a month, and it allows commercial use. Read the 1,000 carefully, though: it is a lifetime allowance for the account, not a monthly one, so a consultant sharing a few links a week will take years to hit it while a shop generating a link per product will be through it in an afternoon. Hobby is $5 a month for 2,500 links, and Pro at $18 removes the caps on links and tracked clicks. Both are single-user plans, and teams need the $48 tier. The weak spot is polish. The dashboard feels built by engineers for people who already know what a CNAME record is.

Pros

• Five custom domains on the free plan
• Change a link’s destination as often as you like, on every plan
• Links keep redirecting after you pass the free click limit; only the statistics are hidden
• Unlimited links and clicks for $18 a month
• API and A/B testing included from free

2. Bitly

Bitly is still the name everyone recognises, and its free plan is now close to useless for work. You get five links a month, and anyone who clicks one lands first on an interstitial page showing a preview and an advertisement. Core, at $10 a month, removes the ad and gives you 100 links, but it is sold on annual billing only, so the real price is $120 up front. Your own domain doesn’t arrive until Growth, listed at $29 a month and charged as $348 a year for 500 links. After that the next step is Premium at $199 a month, with nothing in between. The limit that catches people is redirects: changing a link’s destination is capped at 5 a month on Core, 20 on Growth and 110 on Premium, which matters a lot if you print QR codes and expect to repoint them.

Pros

• The one short domain strangers recognise
• Good QR code and landing page tools in the same account
• Unlimited clicks and scans on every plan
• Long integrations list, including Shopify, Canva and HubSpot
• A vendor procurement teams have already heard of

3. Rebrandly

Rebrandly built its product around branded links from the start, and it shows in the free plan, which includes a custom domain (a yourbrand.bio name) alongside the shared rebrand.ly one. The catch is volume: 10 links a month and detailed analytics on only 100 clicks. Essentials costs $11 monthly or $8 on annual billing for 250 links and two domains. Professional, at $32 or $22, is where a small marketing team would land, with 1,500 links, three domains and two teammates. Rebrandly meters destination edits the way Bitly does (none on free, 10 a month on Essentials, 50 on Professional), and it sells add-ons for extra domains, teammates and click data, so the sticker price and the invoice can drift apart. If you were a ClickMeter customer, this is where that product’s address now leads.

Pros

• A branded domain on the free plan
• Unlimited clicks on all plans
• Professional bundles conversion tracking, retargeting pixels, and routing by location or device
• Roughly 30% off for paying annually
• Link-in-bio pages included

4. Dub

Dub is the newest tool here and the nicest to use. The free plan gives you three custom domains but only 25 new links a month, 1,000 tracked events and 30 days of analytics history. Pro is $30 a month for 1,000 links, 50,000 events, ten domains, three users and a year of data. I’d be cautious about one thing: Dub’s own site now leads with affiliate and partner programs, and conversion tracking and A/B testing start on Business at $90 a month. If you run a SaaS product and want to pay partners for signups, that is a fair price. If you only want short links with decent stats, you are paying for a direction you won’t follow.

Pros

• Fast, clean interface
• Open-source code
• Three custom domains without paying
• Well-documented API with SDKs and webhooks
• Affiliate payouts built in for companies that want them

5. T2M

T2M has the oddest pricing on the list and I like it. There is no free plan. Instead you pay $5 once, which the company describes as a verification fee to keep spammers out, and the Basic plan is yours for good: 500 new links a month, 5,000 clicks a month and six months of click history. Basic is bare, though. You can’t choose the back-half of a link, can’t change its destination later and can’t attach your own domain. All of that starts on Standard at $9.99 a month, which raises you to 2,000 links and 25,000 clicks with one custom domain. The API is held back until Premium at $89.99, which rules T2M out for anyone automating link creation on a budget.

Pros

• $5 once, no subscription
• No ads or delay pages on any plan
• No surprise fees if you go over a limit; they email you instead
• 30-day money-back guarantee

6. TinyURL

TinyURL has been around since 2002 and still does the original job well: paste a long address, optionally pick an alias, get a short link on tinyurl.com. Click tracking and branded domains sit on the paid plans. I could not confirm current numbers from TinyURL directly, because its pricing only loads inside the app. Software review listings from this year put the Pro plan at roughly $16 a month, so treat that figure in the table as approximate and check before you budget. Use it for a one-off link in a slide deck. Don’t build a campaign on it.

Pros

• The quickest way to shorten a single link
• Custom alias on free links
• More than twenty years in operation

7. JotURL

JotURL is a marketing toolkit that happens to shorten links. It can lay a call-to-action over the page you’re linking to, fire retargeting pixels and open mobile apps through deep links. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial. Growth is priced in euros at €9 a month, with a lower rate on yearly billing, and it covers 2,000 links. The number to watch is events, capped at 5,000 a month on that plan. Go over and your links still redirect, but the analytics, CTAs and retargeting switch off until you renew or upgrade, and a single post that travels further than expected can do that in a day. The next step up, Growth XL, is €29 for 30,000 events.

Pros

• Three users and three domains on the cheapest plan
• CTA overlays, retargeting and deep links in one tool
• Priced in euros, which is convenient for EU invoicing
• 30-day money-back on a first order

8. T.LY

T.LY gives you one of the shortest domains you can get without buying your own. Proper plans start with Hobby at $55 a year (yearly billing only) for 500 links a month and one custom domain, then Personal at $10 a month for 1,000 links and two domains. The trade-off is data. Clicks beyond your plan’s monthly stats cap go untracked, and the detailed per-click log is kept for somewhere between 3 and 20 days depending on the plan. Fine for checking whether this week’s newsletter worked. Not fine for comparing this December against last.

Pros

• A four-character domain
• Free browser extension that needs no account
• Custom domain included on the $55-a-year plan
• 5-day trial without a card

9. YOURLS

YOURLS is a free PHP application you install on your own server with a MySQL database, and the 1.10 line is still receiving releases. You pay in upkeep instead of fees. Updates, backups and spam protection are your job, and the statistics are basic: click counts, referrers, countries. If you already run a WordPress site on a VPS, adding YOURLS is an evening’s work. If the phrase “MySQL database” made you wince, skip it. Kutt is the other self-hosted option worth a look, a newer Node.js project that is also open source and still actively developed.

Pros

• Free, under the MIT licence
• No link or click caps
• Your data stays on your server
• No company that can be acquired out from under you

Which one to pick

Ignore feature counts and ask what your links are attached to. If they are going on anything physical, such as packaging, menus, flyers or a conference banner, the only things that matter are owning the domain and being able to edit destinations freely. That points to Short.io, or YOURLS if you’d sooner run it yourself. Avoid any plan that rations edits.

For social posts and newsletters where a link lives for a week, almost anything works, so go cheap: Short.io’s free plan or T2M’s five dollars. A team of three or four running paid campaigns will get more from Rebrandly Professional or JotURL, since both bundle seats and retargeting at a price where Bitly is still selling you 500 links. Developers and SaaS companies with a referral program should start with Dub.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free URL shortener?

Short.io, for most people. Its free plan includes five custom domains, 1,000 links and unlimited destination edits. Dub’s free plan is a good second choice if 25 new links a month is enough.

Is Bitly still free?

Yes, but the free plan is limited to five links a month, and visitors see a preview page with an advertisement before they reach your destination. Removing the ad costs $120 a year on the Core plan.

Do short links expire?

Usually not on their own, but they stop working if the service shuts down or deactivates them. Google switched off inactive goo.gl links after August 25, 2025. Using your own domain is the only real protection, because you can move it to another tool.

Can I change where a short link goes after sharing it?

It depends on the tool and the plan. Short.io allows it on every plan with no cap. Bitly and Rebrandly limit the number of edits per month, and their free plans don’t allow any. T2M’s $5 plan doesn’t allow it either.

Do I need a custom domain?

For a link you’ll use once, no. For anything printed, anything in a QR code, or anything you want working in five years, yes. A branded domain also tells people who the link is from before they click.

Are ClickMeter and BL.INK still worth considering?

Not for a new account. ClickMeter’s website now redirects to Rebrandly. BL.INK was acquired by Loftware in April 2025 and no longer publishes plans or prices.

What is the best self-hosted URL shortener?

YOURLS if you’re comfortable with PHP and MySQL, Kutt if you prefer Node.js. Both are free and open source. Whichever tool you end up with, export your links once a quarter and keep the file.