5 Best Bitly Alternatives in 2026 (Free and Cheaper Options)

The short answer: if you want a free Bitly alternative with click data, try MiniSnip or Short.io. If you only need quick links without an account, TinyURL is enough. For branded links on a small budget, Rebrandly; for developers, Dub. Each one beats Bitly's free plan on links, click data or custom domains.

Below are the numbers behind each pick, a head-to-head look at Bitly vs TinyURL, and the one thing to plan before you switch: what happens to the bit.ly links you've already shared.

Why people look for a Bitly alternative

Bitly is still the best-known link shortener, but its free plan has shrunk to the point where it works more like a trial. On 6 November 2026, Bitly's pricing page listed the plans below (every limit is in our Bitly pricing guide):

The link counts are from Bitly's US pricing page; Bitly shows limits by region, and in some countries the free plan lists 50 links a month. Four limits push most people to look elsewhere:

1. A small free allowance for a creator, a shop or anyone running campaigns.
2. No click data on the free plan, so you can't tell whether a link worked.
3. Few destination changes. Changing where a link goes isn't included on Free; Core allows 5 changes a month and Growth 20.
4. A custom domain costs $348 a year (Growth, billed yearly), and its click history only goes back 4 months.

If any of these is what brought you here, the five tools below each fix at least one of them.

What Bitly still does well

It's worth being fair before you leave. Bitly has been running since 2008, its links are recognised everywhere, and it connects with a long list of marketing tools. Its higher plans add landing pages, many QR codes per month and enterprise features such as single sign-on and account managers. If your company depends on those integrations or needs a large vendor's contract, staying may be the right call. The alternatives below are mostly for people who don't need that and don't want to pay for it.

The 5 best Bitly alternatives at a glance

Figures come from each company's own pricing page on 6 November 2026, with monthly billing.

What your own domain costs for a year

A custom domain is the feature that pushes most people onto a paid plan, so here is the cheapest way to get one with each tool, paid for a full year:

The free options are real, but they come with small monthly limits or click caps. Once you need more than a few links a month on your own domain, the choice is usually between TinyURL Pro, MiniSnip Pro and Bitly Growth.

1. MiniSnip: the alternative for click counts you can trust

MiniSnip is a link shortener built so that a click means a person. When you paste a link into WhatsApp, Slack or iMessage, the app opens it to build a preview; email scanners open it to check it is safe. Bitly and most other tools count those visits. MiniSnip recognises more than 140 bots by name and lists them separately.

Compared with Bitly:

• Free plan: 25 links in total (Bitly: 5 a month on its US page), 30 days of click data (Bitly: none) and no ads.
• Pro, $19/month: unlimited links, 3 custom domains and 365 days of data. Bitly's cheapest plan with a domain is $29/month billed yearly, with 500 links a month and 4 months of data.
• Edits: change any link's destination at any time, on every plan (Bitly: none on Free, 5 a month on Core).
• Extras on Pro: country and device rules, A/B tests, retargeting pixels, password protection, the API and 5 team seats.

Where Bitly is ahead: a bigger company with enterprise contracts and a longer track record. MiniSnip's free plan counts links in total rather than per month, and custom domains start on Pro.

See the full MiniSnip vs Bitly comparison.

2. TinyURL: the alternative for quick links without an account

TinyURL has been around since 2002 and is still the fastest way to shorten a link: paste it on the homepage and copy the result.

Compared with Bitly:

• Free plan: 30 links a month (Bitly: 5 on its US page), and links never expire. No click data on either.
• Pro, $11/month ($9 yearly): 125 links a month, unlimited tracked clicks, 3 branded domains and 2 years of click history. That is cheaper than Bitly Core and includes domains, which Core doesn't.

Where Bitly is ahead: more QR code and landing page features on its higher plans.

3. Short.io: the alternative for free custom domains

Short.io's free plan is the most generous on this list if you want links on your own domain.

Compared with Bitly:

• Free plan: 1,000 links in total, 50,000 tracked clicks a month and 5 custom domains. Bitly needs Growth ($29/month billed yearly) for even one domain.
• Pro, $18/month: unlimited links and clicks and 10 domains.

Where Bitly is ahead: Short.io's free plan has one user, and country targeting starts on its $5 Hobby plan.

4. Rebrandly: the alternative for branded links on a small budget

Rebrandly is built around branded links.

Compared with Bitly:

• Free plan: 10 links a month (Bitly: 5 on its US page), 100 tracked clicks a month and one custom domain.
• Essentials, $9/month ($8 yearly): 250 links a month and 2 custom domains.
• Professional, $27/month ($22 yearly): 1,500 links a month and 3 custom domains.

Where Bitly is ahead: Rebrandly's paid plans limit destination edits (10 a month on Essentials, 50 on Professional), and the free plan stops tracking after 100 clicks a month. See MiniSnip vs Rebrandly.

5. Dub: the alternative for developers

Dub is a newer platform with open-source code and an API built for adding links to your own product.

Compared with Bitly:

• Free plan: 25 new links a month, 1,000 tracked events, 30 days of analytics and 3 custom domains.
• Pro, $30/month ($27 yearly): 1,000 links and 50,000 events a month, 1 year of analytics.

Where Bitly is ahead: Dub's conversion tracking and A/B tests start on its $90/month Business plan.

Bitly vs TinyURL: which one is better?

Bitly and TinyURL are the two names most people know, so they're often compared directly. Here is how their plans line up on 6 November 2026:

For most small users, TinyURL is better value: it allows more free links, and its first paid plan includes three custom domains and two years of click history. Bitly is better for large companies that need enterprise contracts, many users and its wider set of QR code and landing page features.

Neither filters out bot clicks, and neither shows click data for free. If those matter to you, compare both with MiniSnip vs TinyURL.

Before you switch: what happens to your bit.ly links

This is the part most switching guides skip. A link like bit.ly/abc123 lives on Bitly's domain. Whatever you do, you can't point it at another service, because you don't control bit.ly.

That leaves three cases:

• Links on bit.ly stay with Bitly. Keep your Bitly account so they keep working, and share new links from your new tool.
• Printed QR codes that open a bit.ly link are tied to Bitly too. Replace them as you reprint.
• Links on your own domain (Bitly calls them branded links) can move. Recreate them with the same endings in the new tool, then point the domain's DNS record at it. Visitors won't notice the change.

How to move to a Bitly alternative in 5 steps

1. List your links. Write down or export the links you still use, especially those in print, bios and email signatures.
2. Create a free account in the new tool and recreate your most important links with the same endings. In MiniSnip, Pro includes CSV import of up to 1,000 links at a time.
3. Move your domain, if you have one. Add it in the new tool, add the DNS records it shows you, and verify. See how custom domains work.
4. Test every important link in a private browser window before you switch the domain over completely.
5. Use the new tool for every new link from now on, ideally on your own domain, so the next move is painless.

Bitly alternatives for specific jobs

People rarely need "a link shortener" in general. Usually it's one job:

• QR codes for print. Use a tool whose QR codes open an editable short link and count scans separately from clicks. MiniSnip tags every scan so it shows as its own source; see QR codes you can edit and track. For a one-off code you'll never change, our free QR code generator needs no account.
• A link in your Instagram or TikTok bio. Bitly's free plan includes 2 landing pages. MiniSnip's free plan includes a link-in-bio page with up to 10 links, and counts views and taps without bots.
• WhatsApp chat links. A wa.me link with a pre-filled message is easy to make with our WhatsApp link generator. Shorten it if you want to count the clicks, and add ?src=wa so WhatsApp traffic is labelled correctly.
• Campaign tracking. Add UTM tags when you create the link, so Google Analytics credits the right campaign. Our UTM builder shows how each tag works.
• Links inside your own app or product. Dub's and MiniSnip's APIs let you create links from code; Dub leans further into developer tooling.

Questions to ask before you switch

• How many links do I make in a month? If it's under 10, almost any free plan will do. If it's more, look at monthly caps closely.
• Do I need to know who clicked? If yes, rule out the free plans of Bitly and TinyURL, which show no click data.
• Where will the links be shared? Links in WhatsApp groups, Slack or email get opened by previews and scanners. Choose a tool that keeps those visits out of your counts, or your numbers will look better than they are.
• Who else needs access? Free plans usually include one user. Check team seats if colleagues will create links.
• Can I get my data out? Look for CSV export or an API, so moving again later isn't painful.

Which Bitly alternative should you pick?

• You want free click data you can trust: MiniSnip.
• You want your own domain for free: Short.io.
• You just need a short link right now: TinyURL.
• You want a few branded links on a small budget: Rebrandly.
• You're a developer building links into a product: Dub.

Still deciding? Our checklist of 10 things to compare before you switch and the best URL shorteners in 2026 cover the wider choice.

Sources

Prices and limits were checked on each company's pricing page on 6 November 2026: Bitly, TinyURL, Short.io, Rebrandly, Dub and MiniSnip.