Comparison
How URLShortener compares to well-known SaaS and self-hosted URL shorteners across licensing, link features, organization, analytics, and integration.
URLShortener is a self-hosted, framework-free URL shortener. The table below places it next to well-known alternatives — SaaS classics and self-hosted open-source projects — across the features that matter when a short-link layer sits in front of campaigns, documentation, and internal tools.
The comparison reflects general feature availability as of August 2026. SaaS capabilities often depend on the paid tier; self-hosted capabilities may depend on plugins or version.
URLShortener ships in two editions. Everything below is part of the open-source Community Edition unless the row carries an Enterprise badge — those features come from the optional commercial plug-in layer. See Editions for how the two fit together.
How to read the tables
- ✓ — available
- ~ — available with limits (paid tier, plugin, or reduced scope)
- – — not available
Platform
| Feature | Bitly | TinyURL | Short.io | Dub.co | Shlink | YOURLS | Kutt | URLShortener |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model | SaaS | SaaS | SaaS | SaaS + OSS | Self-hosted | Self-hosted | Self-hosted | Self-hosted |
| Open source | – | – | – | ✓ AGPL-3.0 | ✓ MIT | ✓ GPL/MIT | ✓ MIT | ✓ EUPL-1.2 |
| Self-hosting | – | – | – | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tech stack | proprietary | proprietary | proprietary | TS / Next.js | PHP / Symfony | PHP | Node.js | Java / Vaadin |
Links
| Feature | Bitly | TinyURL | Short.io | Dub.co | Shlink | YOURLS | Kutt | URLShortener |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Custom aliases | ~ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Branded / custom domains | ✓ | ~ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ~ | ✓ | ~ |
| Link expiration | – | ~ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ~ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Password protection | – | – | ✓ | ✓ | – | ~ | ✓ | – |
| QR codes | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – |
Organization
| Feature | Bitly | TinyURL | Short.io | Dub.co | Shlink | YOURLS | Kutt | URLShortener |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Campaigns / UTM | ✓ | – | ~ | ✓ | ~ | – | – | ✓ |
| Tags & labels | ✓ | – | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ~ | – | ✓ |
| Bulk create / import | ✓ | ~ | ✓ | ✓ | ~ | ~ | – | ✓ |
| Data export | ✓ | ~ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ~ | ✓ |
Analytics
| Feature | Bitly | TinyURL | Short.io | Dub.co | Shlink | YOURLS | Kutt | URLShortener |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Click statistics | ✓ | ~ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Geo / device / referrer | ✓ | ~ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ~ |
Integration & access
| Feature | Bitly | TinyURL | Short.io | Dub.co | Shlink | YOURLS | Kutt | URLShortener |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| REST API | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Roles / multi-user | ✓ | – | ✓ | ✓ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ✓ |
| MCP / AI integration | – | – | – | ✓ | – | – | – | ✓ |
Notes
- Tier-dependent SaaS features. Bitly custom aliases and bulk operations require a paid plan; TinyURL analytics, expiration, export, and API access are largely paid features. Free and paid boundaries at SaaS providers change regularly.
- URLShortener analytics record the device (user agent), referrer, and language of each redirect, plus automated bot detection, against a hashed IP. There is no geo-IP lookup, so the row above is marked as partial rather than full geo analytics.
- URLShortener domains. A deployment serves one domain today; serving multiple domains from a single instance is not yet supported.
- Not yet in URLShortener. QR-code generation and per-link password protection are not part of the current release.
- MCP. URLShortener exposes a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, so links, campaigns, tags, and statistics can be driven directly from AI/agent workflows — a capability it shares, in this comparison, only with Dub.
- Editions. Rows marked Enterprise — campaigns and tags, and the MCP server — are part of the commercial plug-in layer. Everything else in the URLShortener column is open source under EUPL-1.2. The plug-ins install as jars on the classpath and degrade gracefully without a license; see Editions .