The Best Free URL Shorteners in 2026: 12 Compared on Limits, Analytics and Ads
Twelve free URL shorteners compared on what the free plan really gives you: link limits, click data, custom slugs, ads, and whether links can stop working.
The best free URL shortener depends on what you need the link to do. If you want to shorten links without an account, then add a free account to see how many people clicked and where they came from, FattyURL is built for exactly that. It is our product, so this post also spells out where the others beat it. If you need a free branded domain, Short.io gives you five. If you want the most minimal no-account shortener, is.gd is deliberately bare-bones, and that is the point. Bitly, the best-known name, now gives free users 5 links a month, no click data and an ad page in front of their links.
We compared twelve shorteners on the only thing that matters in a free plan: what you get without paying. Every number below comes from each company's own pricing page, help center or terms, checked on 25 and 26 September 2026, except where we say otherwise, and every source is linked at the end.
Short answer: For free use, FattyURL (no account, unlimited links, free click data with an account, no ads) and Short.io (1,000 links, 5 free branded domains) give you the most. is.gd and T.LY are the best minimal no-account options. Bitly's free plan is now the most restrictive of the big names.
Disclosure: FattyURL is our product. We ranked every tool, including ours, by the same four criteria and linked the source for every fact so you can check our work.
Quick picks
- Best overall for free use, no sign up: FattyURL, including free custom short links
- Best free branded domains: Short.io (5 domains, 1,000 links)
- Best for developers: Dub (API and modern analytics, 25 links a month)
- Most minimal, no account, no ads: is.gd
- Best-known no-account shortener: TinyURL (but no free click data)
- Best if your team will pay for integrations: Bitly
- Best if you want to host it yourself: YOURLS or Shlink
How we compared them
We ranked each shortener by what its free plan gives you, on four criteria:
- Links: how many you can create, and whether you need an account to create them
- Click data: whether you can see how many people clicked, and for how long
- Ads: whether your visitors see an ad or preview page before your destination
- Permanence: whether the written policy lets links expire, get disabled or stop redirecting
Paid features did not count. Where a company does not publish a number, the tables say "not stated" rather than guess.
We left out four well-known names on purpose. Ow.ly now lives inside Hootsuite, whose plans start at $99 per user per month billed annually, with no free plan. BL.INK was acquired by Loftware in April 2025, and its site now redirects to Loftware. The kutt.it domain no longer belongs to the Kutt open-source project, whose maintainers warned in May 2026 that it "could be a phishing site." And Google's goo.gl has not accepted new links since 2019; we cover what happened to the Google URL shortener separately.
Free plans compared: limits
| Shortener | Account to shorten | Free links | Custom slugs on free | QR codes on free |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FattyURL | No | Unlimited | Yes, no account needed | Yes, no watermark |
| Short.io | Yes | 1,000 in total | Yes | Yes |
| is.gd | No | Up to 4,800 a day per IP | Yes, 5 to 30 characters | Yes |
| T.LY | No | Not stated | Not stated | Yes |
| TinyURL | No | Not stated officially | Yes | One per link |
| Dub | Yes | 25 a month | Yes | Yes |
| Cuttly | Yes | 30 a month | 3 a month | Yes, one style |
| Rebrandly | No for rb.gy links, yes for branded | 10 a month | Yes | 10 a month, watermarked |
| Bitly | Yes | 5 a month | 3 a month | 2 a month |
| Linkly | Yes | 100 links and QR codes a month | Yes | Counts toward the 100 |
| shorturl.at | No | Not stated | Paid (Compact.link Premium) | 1 with a free Compact.link account |
| YOURLS / Shlink | Your own server | Unlimited | Yes | Shlink only (deprecated) |
Free plans compared: click data, ads and expiry
| Shortener | Click data on free | Ads or preview page on free links | Can free links stop working? |
|---|---|---|---|
| FattyURL | Yes, with a free account | No ads | No. Written promise: links never expire |
| Short.io | First 50,000 clicks a month | Not stated | Not stated |
| is.gd | Optional public stats | No ads, preview is opt-in | Policy: "expect them to last forever" |
| T.LY | Public stats with "+" when enabled | No | No. "Free shortened links do not expire" |
| TinyURL | Tracked on free accounts, visible after upgrading | Not stated; links from its deprecated API show a countdown notice | No. "Never expire" |
| Dub | Yes, 30 days | Not stated | Links keep redirecting past the event cap, but fair-use breaches can get them disabled |
| Cuttly | Yes, 30 days | No | No. "Does not expire" |
| Rebrandly | Basic reports | Not stated | No, unless you set an expiry |
| Bitly | None | Yes, ad page | No. "Bitly Links never expire" |
| Linkly | Yes, 500 tracked clicks a month | No | Yes. At the click cap, links stop redirecting until the monthly reset |
| shorturl.at | Public click counter | Not stated | Yes. Links with no click in a month are disabled |
| YOURLS / Shlink | Yes | No | Up to you |
The 12 shorteners, ranked by what the free plan gives you
1. FattyURL: best for shortening with no sign up and free analytics
FattyURL lets anyone shorten a link without an account: paste a URL, optionally type your own custom slug, and copy the short link. There is no link limit, no click cap and no ads. Every short link has a QR button, and the free QR generator exports PNG or SVG in your colors with no watermark. Links never expire, and that is written down on our promise page along with a commitment that features which are free today stay free.
A free account adds click analytics for each link: total clicks, unique visitors, clicks over time (7, 30, 90 or 365 days), top countries and cities, device, browser, operating system and referrer. It also lets you change where a link points, so a QR code made with a short link's QR button can be updated after printing. Codes from the standalone QR generator encode the URL directly and cannot be changed. Links you made earlier in the same browser session move into your new account when you sign up.
Where it loses: FattyURL launched in 2026, so it has a short track record. It does not offer custom domains, team workspaces or integrations today. If those matter, look at Short.io, Dub or a paid Bitly plan.
2. Short.io: best free plan for branded domains
Short.io's free plan is built around your own domain. You get 5 custom domains, 1,000 branded links in total, and click statistics for the first 50,000 clicks each month, covering countries, devices, languages and a time chart. For a small business that wants links on its own domain without paying, nothing else on this list comes close.
The catch: the 1,000-link allowance is a lifetime total, not a monthly one, and you need an account. Paid plans start at $5 a month.
3. is.gd: most minimal, no account, no ads
is.gd does one thing. You paste a URL, optionally choose a custom ending between 5 and 30 characters, and get a short link. There is no account, no third-party advertising (is.gd wants to stay "as fast and clean for our users as possible"), and a preview page only if you opt into it. Its FAQ says of its links, "we expect them to last forever." Stats are optional per link.
The catch: it is intentionally bare. There is no dashboard to manage links, you cannot change a destination, and usage is rate limited per IP address (200 an hour, 4,800 a day).
4. T.LY: no-account links with public stats
T.LY is "free to use" with "no account needed," it states that it "does not show ad interstitials," and it says "free shortened links do not expire." You can add a plus sign to many T.LY links to see public stats when stats are enabled.
The catch: there is no free account tier, so private stats and link management mean paying. Plans start at $55 a year (Hobby) or $10 a month (Personal).
5. TinyURL: the best-known no-account shortener
TinyURL has been running since 2002, and you can still use it without an account. Its free plan includes custom aliases and a QR code for every link, and TinyURL says "links created on TinyURL never expire."
The catch: analytics. "Analytics are not tracked for guest-created TinyURL links," and on a free account clicks are tracked but TinyURL describes seeing them after you upgrade. Changing a link's destination is "a premium feature." Since September 2025, links created through TinyURL's deprecated API endpoint show a preview page with a countdown before redirecting. Paid plans, which add analytics viewing and link editing, are listed on TinyURL's pricing page. Our full TinyURL breakdown covers the details.
6. Dub: best for developers and modern analytics
Dub is a modern, developer-first shortener with an API, real-time analytics and a clean dashboard. The free plan includes 25 new links a month, 1,000 tracked events a month, 30 days of analytics history, 3 custom domains, and API access at 60 requests a minute.
The catch: 25 links a month is tight for anyone posting regularly. Go past the event cap and your links keep redirecting, but you need to upgrade to see their analytics. Pro is $30 a month.
7. Cuttly: 30 tracked links a month
Cuttly requires a registered account. The free plan gives you 30 short links a month, 30 days of analytics history, and 3 custom back-halves a month. Cuttly states it "does not display any advertisements" and that its short links do not expire.
The catch: the monthly caps, and a short analytics window. Starter is $12 a month.
8. Rebrandly: branded links on a small free plan
Rebrandly's free plan gives 10 links and 10 QR codes a month, custom back-halves, and basic reporting: total clicks, country, and time breakdowns. Links "don't expire unless you explicitly set an expiration date or delete them." Rebrandly also runs rb.gy, which shortens links without an account; click tracking and editing need a free Rebrandly sign-up.
The catch: 10 links a month, and free QR codes carry a watermark. Essentials costs $8 a month billed annually or $11 monthly.
9. Bitly: best for teams that will pay
Bitly is the name everyone knows, with the deepest integrations and enterprise features. Its free plan, though, has shrunk to 5 links and 2 QR codes a month, 3 custom back-halves, no click or scan analytics, and no way to change a link's destination. Since February 2025, links from free accounts show visitors a preview page with an ad.
The catch: seeing clicks starts at Core, $10 a month billed annually ($120 a year), with 30 days of history. On the positive side, Bitly links never expire and keep working after a downgrade. We cover every limit in our Bitly free plan breakdown.
10. Linkly: long data history, hard click cap
Linkly's free plan includes 100 links and QR codes a month, click data it says is "currently" kept for 5 years, no ads, and one custom domain.
The catch is serious: the free plan tracks 500 clicks a month, and Linkly says "at 100% of your click cap, your links will show an over-limit page rather than redirecting." A link that goes viral stops working until the monthly reset. Starter is $15 a month billed annually.
11. shorturl.at: simple, but inactive links get disabled
shorturl.at is a plain no-account shortener with a public click counter. Custom slugs and QR codes are premium features through its sister product, Compact.link, where custom aliases start on the $19.99-a-month Premium plan.
The catch: its terms say "short URLs that do not have at least one click per month are disabled," and disabled links "may become available for use by other users." A link printed on a poster that goes quiet for a month could end up pointing somewhere else.
12. YOURLS and Shlink: best if you want to host it yourself
Both are free, open-source (MIT licensed) shorteners you run on your own server and domain. You get unlimited links, custom slugs and full click history, and nobody can change the rules on you.
The catch: you are the company now. Hosting, security updates, backups, uptime and abuse handling are yours. Shlink has also deprecated its built-in QR codes since version 4.5.0.
Red flags to check before you trust any shortener
Most of the risk in a free shortener is in the fine print, not the pricing page. Check these before you print a link on anything:
- Inactivity rules. Some services disable links that go quiet, and some reuse the slug.
- Click caps that stop redirects. A cap that hides analytics is annoying. A cap that stops the link working is dangerous.
- Ad or preview pages. They add a step, put someone else's ad next to your link, and look suspicious to careful visitors.
- Paywalled destination edits. If you cannot change where a link points, a printed QR code is permanent, including any mistake in it.
- No written expiry policy. "We don't delete links" in a support chat is not a policy.
- Who owns the domain. kutt.it changed hands at an auction. Google switched off inactive goo.gl links in 2025. Our guide to whether short links expire compares the written policies of fifteen services.
Which one should you pick?
| If you need... | Pick |
|---|---|
| To shorten links without an account and still see clicks | FattyURL |
| Links on your own domain, free | Short.io |
| An API and modern analytics for a product | Dub |
| The simplest possible no-account link, no dashboard | is.gd |
| A QR code you can print now and update later, free | FattyURL (free account, QR code from the short link) |
| Enterprise integrations, SSO and support contracts | Bitly (paid) |
| Full control on your own server | YOURLS or Shlink |
If tracking is the main reason you want a shortener, our step-by-step guide on how to track link clicks for free shows how to combine a short link with UTM tags in Google Analytics.
FAQ
What is the best free URL shortener in 2026?
It depends on your use. For shortening without an account and seeing click analytics for free, FattyURL. For free branded domains, Short.io. For developers, Dub. For the simplest no-account link, is.gd.
Which URL shortener has no ads?
FattyURL, is.gd, T.LY, Cuttly and Linkly all state that they do not show ads on free links. Bitly shows an ad page on free accounts, and TinyURL shows a preview page on links created through its deprecated API.
Which free URL shortener doesn't require an account?
FattyURL, TinyURL, is.gd, T.LY, shorturl.at and Rebrandly's rb.gy all let you shorten links without an account. Of these, FattyURL is the only one with free private analytics for each link (clicks over time, countries, devices, referrers), viewable with a free account; is.gd, T.LY and shorturl.at show basic public click counts.
Which free URL shortener has the best analytics?
On a free plan, Short.io shows the most volume (the first 50,000 clicks a month) and Dub the most modern dashboard (1,000 events a month, 30 days of history). FattyURL shows total clicks, unique visitors, clicks over time, country, city, device, browser, operating system and referrer for every link, with no click cap.
Do free short links expire?
Most major shorteners say no, including Bitly, TinyURL, Cuttly, T.LY, Rebrandly and FattyURL. The exceptions are in the fine print: shorturl.at disables links with no clicks in a month, and Linkly's free links stop redirecting once they hit the monthly click cap.
Is Bitly still the best URL shortener?
For large teams that pay for integrations and support, it can be. For free use, no: Bitly's free plan now allows 5 links a month with no click data and an ad page on your links.
Changelog
- 28 September 2026: First published. Figures checked on 25 and 26 September 2026. We re-check every number in this post each quarter and log changes here.
Sources
- Bitly pricing, free plan guide, ads on free links, link expiry, Coywolf on the ad rollout
- TinyURL free plan, analytics, editing, deprecated API preview page, TinyURL history
- Short.io pricing
- Dub pricing, analytics limits, API rate limits
- Cuttly pricing, support, account requirement
- Rebrandly pricing, analytics, link expiry, rb.gy
- T.LY, T.LY on expiry, T.LY plans, T.LY pricing
- is.gd FAQ, is.gd usage limits
- Linkly free plan, Linkly pricing
- shorturl.at terms, Compact.link pricing
- YOURLS, Shlink documentation
- Hootsuite Ow.ly, Hootsuite plans, Loftware acquires BL.INK, Kutt maintainers on kutt.it
Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and is not legal or security advice. It was researched and drafted with the help of AI, and its facts were checked against the sources linked above, mostly each provider's own pricing, help and policy pages. URL shorteners, QR code tools and social platforms change their plans, prices and rules often, so confirm the details on the provider's website before you choose a plan, move your links or print a QR code. FattyURL is our own product. Spotted something out of date, or a FattyURL link being misused? Tell us and we will act on it.