The catches in free URL shortener plans

Quotas that never refill

Short.io's free plan reads as 1,000 links (lifetime), which is the largest figure of any plan with analytics. The quota is a lifetime total. Create a thousand links over two years and the account is full until you delete some or upgrade to Hobby at $5 a month, which itself is a 2,500 (lifetime) pool.

Monthly allowances have the opposite problem. Bitly, Dub, Cuttly, Rebrandly and Linkly reset every month and throw away what you did not use. ReSlug counts links that exist right now, which is the most forgiving model: 500 active links live at once, and deleting an old one makes room.

Click caps that stop links

Linkly's free plan tracks 500 clicks/mo. When that runs out, links pause rather than continuing untracked. A link that gets shared once in a popular place can take the whole account offline for the rest of the month.

ReSlug's 1,000 tracked clicks/mo and Dub's 1,000 tracked events/mo work differently: redirects keep working and new analytics stop until the month resets. Short.io's 50,000 tracked clicks/mo is high enough that most free users never meet it.

Labels and watermarks

Cuttly marks free links as Cutt.ly branded. The label is visible in the dashboard, not to visitors. Rebrandly watermarks free QR codes and link galleries, which visitors do see. Bitly shows ads on free links, which is the heaviest form of branding there is. ReSlug, Short.io, Dub and TinyURL put nothing on free output.

The shape of the first paid step

Free plans are designed to end. The question is what the first paid step looks like.

• ReSlug: Pro at $9 a month or $79 a year, unlimited links.
• Short.io: Hobby at $5 a month, 2,500 (lifetime).
• Cuttly: Starter at $12 a month, 300/mo.
• Linkly: Starter at $15 a month, annual billing only.
• Dub: Pro at $27 a month.
• Bitly: Core at $10 a month, billed as $120 up front, still no custom domain.

More on timing in when to pay.

Retention you cannot find

Short.io and Linkly do not state how long free analytics are kept. That is not necessarily short, but it is unknowable from the pricing page, and this site treats an unpublished number as a catch. ReSlug, Dub and Cuttly state 30 days.