Dub LinksBestBest for modern link attribution, a true industry disrupter
Best for modern link attribution, a true industry disrupter
BitlyOldest incumbent
Oldest incumbent
Short.ioGenerous free tier but incredibly buggy & subpar analytics
Generous free tier but incredibly buggy & subpar analytics
Best URL Shorteners at a Glance
Watch the Full Breakdown
URL Shortener Overview
What is a URL Shortener?
What is a URL Shortener?When people hear the term "URL shortener" and "link shortener", they often think of Bit.ly links, and think nothing of them. As an end-user, they typically just mean a shorter link, which makes complete sense when thinking about character limits in social media like X (formerly Twitter).
Well that's because the largest customer of URL shortener tools are actually businesses and enterprises. And no, the sole value to be had isn't just in turning a long URL into a short url. There's a ton of valuable link analytics behind link tracking which actually allows teams to make better marketing decisions.
Link Analytics
Link AnalyticsOften short urls are actually used to take a long url (e.g. https://efficient.app/apps/dub-links) and to turn it into a short link, but first making it significantly longer using UTM parameters.
UTM Parameters
UTM ParametersIf you've ever seen ?utm_medium=blog or anything of the sort at the end of a URL slug, yep, there's helpful data and link analytics in that.
The best way to explain is taking a real world example, take a guest blog post that we did on Zapier about productivity tools for example. They linked back to us from the article, so let's dissect each part of the backlink.
We have 4 URL parameters (most of which are UTM):
?ref=zapier&utm_source=zapier&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=productivity+tools
So what this means is, if someone clicks one of the links on the Zapier blog post, they'll be sent to our site, and we'll know that it was sent from Zapier (utm_source=zapier), and more specifically their blog (utm_medium=blog), and what if we did multiple guest posts? Well that's where where the (utm_campaign=productivity+tools) comes into play, that identifies the specific blog post that sent them over to us.
Attributing Value
Attributing ValueWe can then take a look at our website analytics (we use Fathom Analytics), to see how much traffic, and to which pages the blog post sent over to us when filtering things down by the UTM parameters:
Fathom Analytics Reporting Data Filtered by UTM Campaign
So what you can see from this is the visits that were sent to the various pages on our site from that specific article.
Now envision having this data, but from more external sources, and then even going a layer deeper, tracking that against actual conversion metrics (e.g. how many people signed up for our newsletter that were sent from these guest blog posts?), now that's a way to easily tie back to if the effort that went into writing the guest blog post was actually worthwhile.
Best URL Shorteners Ranked & Reviewed
Watch our full breakdown of the top URL shorteners, how they performed in testing, and what makes each one worth considering
How We Evaluate URL Shorteners
We score each URL shortener across deep analytics, attribution, user experience, innovation, value, and hands-on expert evaluation
- Deep AnalyticsReal-time link-click tracking, reliable attribution, option for conversion tracking.
- AttributionFantastic UTM tooling, campaign level aggregation, built for modern growth teams.
- User ExperienceQuick to find the data you need. Clean dashboards, fast link creator, easy filtering.
- InnovationUses new advanced link tracking to provide deeper insights into clicks than alternatives.
- ValueYou get significantly more value for the price compared to competitors.
- Expert EvaluationCurated by, our rankings reflect in-depth testing, industry insights, and hands-on experience.AlexandAndra
Dub Links
Best for modern link attribution, a true industry disrupter
Best for modern link attribution, a true industry disrupterWhether you're looking for a full-fledged affiliate/partnership tracking platform (Dub Partners), or you're just looking for the most modern link shortener on the market, Dub is the answer for both.
No other tool on the market comes close to Dub's features. Dub offers real-time link tracking, reliable analytics, and even deep conversion data for marketers (first of its kind - if you’re a fellow marketer, this is drool-worthy, so keep reading).
What is Dub Links?
What is Dub Links?Let us save you the time and research: whether you're a creator, marketer, or a company looking for a link infrastructure there is no better solution than Dub, trust us, we've tried them all.
Dub is the most modern link shortening/analytics platform. If you've tried to use Bitly's analytic dashboards (or Short's), but they are horrendously kludgy 🙈 So much so, that they cause dread to even go into the back-end.
Dub on the other hand, provides a minimal UI, providing you with the analytics in crystal clear dashboard. With Dub you can easily spin up short links, QR codes, add tags for organization, and even enable things like password protection, expiring links, or geo-targeting.
All of this, AND they have the most generous free tier of all the tools out there to try it out. If you're looking for a new link shortener, Dub is hands down the best on the market.
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Bitly
Oldest incumbent
Oldest incumbentBitly has been around since 2008; they were one of the first link shortening tools on the market. That said, their age shows.
Their platform is not super user-friendly or modern, their pricing tiers restrict important features (like custom domains and link tracking history), and their link tracking does not update in real time.
Newer tools, like Dub Links (what we use), provide a much more modern, user-friendly experience.
What is Bitly?
What is Bitly?Bitly was previously the leader in the link shortening/tracking space, but they have fallen far behind newer alternatives, like Dub Links (which we use). Bitly doesn't have a modern UI interface, their link tracking doesn't update in real time, and their users report that it is unnecessarily complicated to pull meaningful reports.
If you're not on a paid tier, heads up, they're running ads against your links. I can't tell you how many links I've clicked on from huge YouTubers or brands, only to get redirected to a spammy ad before my destination 😅
Not to mention, their paid tiers are incredibly restrictive. For example, to get a year’s worth of history of your tracking analytics (which should be table stakes), their tier starts at $199.
If you're looking for a link shortener, our recommendation is to skip Bitly.
Get through your inbox 2x as fast (for teams of all sizes).
Short.io
Generous free tier but incredibly buggy & subpar analytics
Generous free tier but incredibly buggy & subpar analyticsAfter trying various link shorteners, I found Short, which was basic but met my needs.
But I didn’t switch to Short.io because it was a great solution – I did it because it was just adequate enough to do the most basic of redirects. Case in point: I never once used it for reporting because it was a complete mess.
Then I tried Dub Links and was drawn to how simple/clean the UI/UX was. I switched over from Short and haven't look back. Oh, and I check my analytics in Dub now too as they have much more simple/user-friendly dashboards.
What is Short.io?
What is Short.io?In trying just about every link shortener on the market, in addition to using my own self-hosted solution (twice), I finally landed on Short, and at the time, it was pretty basic, but a solid-enough solution for what I was looking to achieve with it.
And I couldn't complain, they have a super generous free tier, for which you don't need to pay until you hit 50,000+ link clicks, which would never be hit for most individuals and businesses.
But I didn’t switch to Short.io because it was a great solution – I did it because it was just adequate enough to do the most basic of redirects. Case in point: I never once used it for reporting because it was a complete mess.
Then I learned about Dub, which is modern link shortening platform that actually has a good user experience and totally reasonable pricing...and wow. Our experience is 1000x better. Yes 1000x! We can actually get accurate and helpful link tracking now. You can read our full Dub Links Review to learn more about why we love it.
We switched and have not looked back to Short, so you're looking for a new link tracking tool, save yourself some time and just use Dub instead.
