Forem: Joshua

Stop Paying $35/Month for Bitly: A Developer's Guide to Free Alternatives

Joshua — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:42:26 +0000

Stop Paying $35/Month for Bitly: A Developer's Guide to Free Alternatives

I was staring at my Bitly invoice last week—$35 a month for link management—when I realized something ridiculous: I was paying premium prices for features I barely used, while free alternatives sitting right next to it had everything I actually needed.

If you're a developer in the same boat, this one's for you.

The Bitly Problem

Let's be honest: Bitly made sense in 2010. Your links were getting mangled by Twitter's character limit, and you needed something to track clicks. But it's 2025, and we're still paying $35/month for what amounts to a URL shortener with basic analytics.

Here's what that costs over time:

$35/month = $420/year
Over 5 years: $2,100
Over a developer career: potentially thousands

And for what? A branded link, some click analytics, and API access. Things that modern platforms—many of them completely free—now include as standard.

I spent two weeks testing alternatives and found something that made Bitly's pricing look absurd. Dub.co does everything Bitly does at the $35/month tier, and they do it for free.

Bitly vs. Dub.co: The Breakdown

Let me show you exactly what you're overpaying for:

Feature	Bitly Free	Bitly Pro ($35/mo)	Dub.co Free
Custom domain	❌	✅	✅
Link analytics	Limited	✅	✅
API access	❌	✅	✅
QR codes	❌	✅	✅
Team collaboration	❌	✅	✅
Click tracking	Limited	✅	✅
Branded QR codes	❌	✅	✅
Webhook support	❌	Limited	✅
Rate limits	50/month	Generous	1,000/month

That's it. Dub.co's free plan has everything in Bitly's $35/month tier. And if you're building something at scale, their paid plans start at $9/month for 50k links and full API access.

Setting Up Your First Link (It's Trivial)

Here's how you create a shortened link with Dub.co's API:

curl -X POST https://api.dub.co/links \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://example.com/super-long-blog-post-url",
    "domain": "yourdomain.com",
    "key": "myblog"
  }'

That's it. You get back:

{
  "shortLink": "https://yourdomain.com/myblog",
  "url": "https://example.com/super-long-blog-post-url",
  "clicks": 0,
  "createdAt": "2025-03-24T10:30:00Z"
}

Compare that to Bitly, where you'd need to pay to even have API access.

Real Developer Example: Building a Link Tracker

Let me show you why Dub.co's API is genuinely better for developers. Here's a quick Node.js script that creates link analytics dashboards:

const axios = require('axios');

async function createCampaignLink(url, campaignName) {
  const response = await axios.post('https://api.dub.co/links', {
    url: url,
    domain: 'links.example.com',
    key: campaignName,
    expiresAt: new Date(Date.now() + 30 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000), // 30 days
    tags: ['campaign', campaignName]
  }, {
    headers: {
      'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.DUB_API_KEY}`
    }
  });

  return response.data;
}

async function getClickStats(linkId) {
  const response = await axios.get(`https://api.dub.co/links/${linkId}/analytics`, {
    headers: {
      'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.DUB_API_KEY}`
    }
  });

  return response.data;
}

// Usage
(async () => {
  const link = await createCampaignLink(
    'https://blog.example.com/new-feature',
    'product-launch'
  );

  console.log(`Link created: ${link.shortLink}`);

  // Check stats after 24 hours
  setTimeout(async () => {
    const stats = await getClickStats(link.id);
    console.log(`Clicks: ${stats.clicks}`);
    console.log(`Top referrer: ${stats.topReferrer}`);
  }, 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
})();

Bitly requires you to upgrade to even access their API. Dub.co gives you this out of the box. Free.

The Developer Experience Matters

Here's what I noticed immediately after switching:

Webhooks: Dub.co supports webhooks for click events. Real-time link analytics pushed to your app. Bitly's free tier? Doesn't have them. You're stuck polling their API.

Open Source: Dub.co publishes their open-source clients on GitHub. You can see exactly how the library works, fork it, contribute. Bitly's API documentation feels like it was written in 2015 and never updated.

Custom Domains: Both offer this now, but Dub.co makes it frictionless. Add your domain, get CNAME validation instructions, done. Five minutes max. Bitly requires verification and waiting.

QR Codes with Branding: Dub.co generates branded QR codes automatically. Logo in the center, custom colors. No extra steps. It's the kind of polish that makes you realize why you were overpaying elsewhere.

Real Numbers: What I'm Actually Saving

My setup:

3 projects with branded short domains
~200 links per month
Basic analytics on each

Bitly: $35/month × 12 = $420/year
Dub.co: Free (forever, unless I hit 10k links in a month, which I won't)

I've been using Dub.co for 6 months. Total cost: $0. I've saved $210 so far, and I honestly can't tell a functional difference from the $35/month Bitly plan.

Switching Is Painless

Worried about migrating? Here's what takes 30 minutes:

Create your Dub.co account
Add your custom domain(s)
Update DNS records (just a CNAME)
Bulk import old Bitly links if you care (optional—honestly, just start fresh)
Update any hardcoded links in your code or docs

That's genuinely it. Your old Bitly links keep working. Your new links go through Dub.co.

When to Consider Paid Plans

Dub.co's free plan handles most use cases, but if you're:

Running a link-heavy SaaS with 10k+ links/month
Building a client-facing link management product
Need advanced team controls and SSO

...then their paid plans ($9-29/month) still beat Bitly's pricing by a huge margin.

The Bottom Line

Paying $35/month for Bitly in 2025 is like paying for a Nokia phone when iPhones exist and are free. Dub.co isn't new—they've been quietly building for years—but they finally have feature parity (and honestly, better features) than Bitly's paid tier.

Try it free. Seriously. Create an account, play with the API, build a quick link tracker. If you hate it, you've lost nothing. If you love it (you will), you've just saved $420/year and gained a better developer experience.

Your wallet will thank you.

Start with Dub.co free →

Have you switched from Bitly? What tool are you using instead? Drop a comment—I'm curious what the community's landed on.

Building a Link Management System for Your SaaS Product (Free Stack)

Joshua — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 14:35:27 +0000

Building a Link Management System for Your SaaS Product (Free Stack)

Every time you share a link to your SaaS product—whether it's in an email campaign, a social media post, or a landing page—you're missing data. How many clicks? Where are they from? What's your actual conversion rate from that specific channel?

Most founders I talk to are still using links that look like this:

https://yourapp.com/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=campaign&utm_campaign=launch

It works, but it's unwieldy, unmeasurable across channels, and impossible to update once it's out there. If you realize your landing page is down, you can't fix the broken link—it's already in 500 emails.

There's a better way. And no, you don't need to spend $35/month on Bitly anymore.

Why Link Management Is Actually Important for SaaS

Before I built my link management system, I treated links like a commodity. They either worked or they didn't. But once I started tracking them properly, I discovered some shocking gaps in my funnel:

Links from my newsletter were converting at 2x the rate of links from Twitter
My referral link had a typo for three weeks (nobody clicked it)
I was losing traffic because I had no way to update old links across multiple platforms
My analytics dashboard couldn't show me which content formats drove actual signups

A proper link management system isn't about vanity metrics. It's about closing the gap between "I shared this" and "I know what happened."

What Makes a Good Link Management System?

When I started evaluating solutions, I looked for:

Custom domains (branded links look more professional)
Real-time analytics (clicks, geographic data, referrer tracking)
QR code generation (increasingly important for offline→online conversion)
API access (I wanted to integrate this into my product)
Reusability (I needed to update links without breaking existing shares)
Team collaboration (my co-founder needed access)

The big players—Bitly, TinyURL, custom link shorteners—either charged a fortune or locked features behind expensive plans.

Then I found Dub.co, and honestly, it felt like I'd been overpaying for years.

The Bitly Problem (And How Dub Solved It)

Let me be blunt: Bitly charges $35/month for features that should be free.

For context:

Bitly Pro: $35/month — custom domain, API access, advanced analytics
Bitly Enterprise: Custom pricing (we're talking 4-figure contracts)

Meanwhile, Dub.co gives you all of that on the free plan. I'm not exaggerating.

Here's what you actually get for free:

Feature	Dub.co Free	Bitly Pro	Bitly Enterprise
Custom Domain	✓	✓	✓
API Access	✓	✓	✓
QR Codes	✓	✗	✓
Click Analytics	✓	✓	✓
Team Members	Unlimited	Up to 3	Custom
Cost	Free	$35/mo	Custom

The craziest part? Dub is open-source. If you want to self-host, you can. If you want to use their hosted version with analytics included, that's free too.

Building Your Link Management Workflow

Here's how I set it up for my SaaS:

1. Create Your Link with the API

Instead of manually creating links, I automated it using Dub's API. This is what my Node.js snippet looks like:

const createLink = async (originalUrl, campaign) => {
  const response = await fetch("https://api.dub.co/links", {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      "Authorization": `Bearer ${process.env.DUB_API_KEY}`,
      "Content-Type": "application/json"
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      url: originalUrl,
      domain: "links.yourapp.com", // Your custom domain
      key: campaign, // e.g., "launch-email-001"
      expiresAt: new Date(Date.now() + 90 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000), // 90 days
      tags: ["marketing", campaign],
      utm_source: "campaign",
      utm_medium: "email",
      utm_campaign: campaign
    })
  });

  const link = await response.json();
  return link.shortUrl; // Returns links.yourapp.com/launch-email-001
};

This means every email I send generates a trackable link automatically. No manual work.

2. Track Performance in Real-Time

Dub's analytics dashboard shows me:

Clicks per link (and when they happened)
Geographic distribution
Device type (mobile vs. desktop)
Referrer (which tells me if someone shared my link)

I built a dashboard that pulls this data hourly:

const getLinkAnalytics = async (linkId) => {
  const response = await fetch(
    `https://api.dub.co/links/${linkId}/analytics?interval=1h`,
    {
      headers: {
        "Authorization": `Bearer ${process.env.DUB_API_KEY}`
      }
    }
  );

  const data = await response.json();

  // Log to my internal analytics
  console.log(`Link ${linkId} got ${data.clicks} clicks in the last hour`);
  console.log(`Top countries: ${data.topCountries.map(c => c.country).join(", ")}`);

  return data;
};

3. Use QR Codes for Offline-to-Online

This was a game-changer for me. I printed QR codes on my business cards, product packaging, and in email signatures. Dub generates them instantly, with custom branding.

const generateQRCode = async (linkKey) => {
  // Dub generates QR automatically for every link
  // Access it at: https://api.dub.co/links/${linkId}/qr
  const qrUrl = `https://qr.dub.co/${linkKey}`;

  // Returns a PNG you can embed anywhere
  return qrUrl;
};

Real Numbers: What Changed for Me

After three months using Dub.co:

Email conversion tracking: I discovered my product-launch emails convert 2.8x better than my updates emails. I now send launches 2x per month (up from 1x).
Link rotation: I updated a broken link in my bio once. Old shares still worked (I just redirected them). This was impossible before.
Cost savings: Switching from Bitly saved me $35/month. Over a year, that's $420. For a early-stage SaaS, that money went to infrastructure instead.
Setup time: Creating 50+ trackable links went from 30 minutes (manual Bitly clicks) to 30 seconds (API script).

Why This Matters for SaaS Founders

You don't need to become a data scientist to benefit from link management. But you do need:

Visibility into where your traffic comes from (so you know what marketing actually works)
Flexibility to update links (so a typo doesn't haunt you for years)
Professional branding (so your links look like they come from your company, not a random shortener)
Cost efficiency (so you're not burning runway on tools that barely work)

Dub.co nails all four.

The Setup Takes 20 Minutes

Sign up at Dub.co (free)
Verify your custom domain (5 minutes of DNS config)
Generate your API key
Integrate it into your email system, landing pages, or product
Start tracking

That's it. No credit card needed. No paywalls.

The Takeaway

Link management isn't glamorous, but it's one of those foundational tools that makes everything else work better. Every founder should have visibility into where their traffic comes from and whether it's actually converting.

For years, I thought expensive tools were the only way. Then I realized Bitly was charging me $35/month for what Dub gives free. Now I use Dub.co for everything—email campaigns, social media, product referrals, everything.

If you're still using basic links or paying Bitly, try Dub.co for free today. You'll get custom domains, unlimited API calls, team members, and real analytics—all without spending a penny. Your conversion funnel (and your budget) will thank you.

Custom Domain URL Shortener: 5 Free Options Compared

Joshua — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 14:34:16 +0000

Custom Domain URL Shortener: 5 Free Options Compared

I've been there. You're sharing a link with a potential client, and it's this ugly yourdomain.com/campaign-landing-page-v3-final-updated-2024 nightmare. They're suspicious of the long URL, you can't track clicks, and it looks unprofessional. That's when I realized: a custom domain shortener isn't just nice-to-have—it's essential for credibility.

The problem? Most shortener solutions cost $35-100/month just to put your brand on a link. And they charge you extra for the features you actually need: analytics, API access, QR codes.

I tested 5 free options that let you use your own domain. Here's what I found.

Why Custom Domain Shorteners Matter

Before we dive into the options, let me explain why this actually matters:

Branding: mycompany.co/deal looks infinitely more professional than bit.ly/xyz123
Trust: Users click branded links at higher rates because they recognize your domain
Analytics: You need to know how many people clicked, when, and from where
Control: Your links don't die if the service shuts down or changes pricing

The wild part? Most free URL shorteners give you zero analytics. They're basically fire-and-forget. You need something that actually gives you data.

The 5 Options

1. Dub.co (The Best Option)

Dub.co is what I switched to after years of Bitly frustration.

What you get free:

Unlimited custom domains (yes, really)
Click analytics with location, device, and referrer data
Full REST API access (not a pro-plan feature)
QR codes with custom branding
Team collaboration
Webhook support for real-time events

Cost: Free tier is genuinely unlimited. Pro starts at $20/month (optional).

Why it wins: Dub.co gives you at the $0 price point what Bitly charges $35/month for. The API access is a game-changer—you can programmatically create links, fetch analytics, or integrate shortening into your app.

Here's a quick API example:

// Create a shortened link with Dub.co
const response = await fetch('https://api.dub.co/links', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Authorization': `Bearer ${DUB_API_KEY}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    url: 'https://example.com/long-landing-page',
    domain: 'mycompany.co',
    key: 'summer-sale', // custom slug
    expiresAt: new Date(Date.now() + 30 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000), // 30 days
  }),
});

const data = await response.json();
console.log(`Short link: https://${data.domain}/${data.key}`);

This is production-grade stuff. The webhook system means you can track conversions in real-time.

2. Short.io

Similar to Dub, but older. Free tier includes:

1 custom domain
Basic analytics
Limited API

Cost: Free for 1 domain, then ~$19/month for more

The catch: API is limited on free tier. You'll hit walls quickly if you're building anything serious.

3. Rebrandly

Used to be the gold standard. Free tier:

1 custom domain
Basic analytics
Mobile app

Cost: Free, but pro is $24/month

The problem: Free tier is ancient. No API access, limited features, clunky UI. It's been overshadowed by newer tools.

4. TinyURL (with custom domain)

The classic. Free tier:

Basic shortening
Custom domain support
Simple analytics

Cost: Free, premium is $5/month

Reality check: It works, but it's bare-bones. No API, no advanced features. Fine if you just need to shorten URLs, but not if you're trying to do anything strategic with your data.

5. Bit.ly (Free Tier)

Everyone knows Bit.ly. Free tier:

Basic link shortening
Click analytics (limited)
1 custom domain option

Cost: Free, but meaningful features start at $35/month

Why you should avoid it: Bit.ly's free tier is a poverty trap. The moment you need decent analytics or API access, they push you to the $35/month plan. That's where I realized Dub.co's free tier actually gives you more.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Dub.co	Short.io	Rebrandly	TinyURL	Bitly
Free Tier	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Custom Domains	Unlimited	1	1	Limited	1
Analytics	Full	Basic	Basic	Basic	Limited
API Access	Yes	Limited	No	No	No (paid)
QR Codes	Custom branding	Basic	No	Basic	Basic
Webhooks	Yes	No	No	No	No (paid)
Free Forever	Yes	No	No	Yes	No

The gap is real. Dub's free tier honestly rivals competitors' $20-35/month plans.

Real-World API Example

Let me show you why API access matters. Say you're running a marketing campaign and need to track which channel drives conversions:

// Fetch analytics for a link
const analytics = await fetch(
  'https://api.dub.co/links/mycompany.co/summer-sale/analytics',
  {
    headers: { 'Authorization': `Bearer ${DUB_API_KEY}` },
  }
);

const data = await analytics.json();
console.log(`Total clicks: ${data.clicks}`);
console.log(`Top referrer: ${data.top_referrer}`);
console.log(`Conversion rate: ${data.conversion_rate}%`);

With Bit.ly's free tier, you can't do this. You're stuck refreshing a web dashboard. With Dub.co, you can automate your entire analytics pipeline.

The Real Cost Comparison

Let's be specific. If you actually need proper link management:

Bit.ly Pro: $35/month = $420/year
Rebrandly Pro: $24/month = $288/year
Short.io Pro: $19/month = $228/year
Dub.co: Free forever with better features than their paid competitors

I switched to Dub because the economics are absurd once you do the math. Why pay $35/month for something you get free with more capabilities?

The Catch (Yes, There Is One)

Dub's free tier is genuinely free, but here's what you should know:

They make money on higher tiers with advanced features (team management, custom integrations)
Open-source community keeps the core tool honest
You're not the product—you're a potential customer they want to impress

Compare that to Bit.ly, which limits your free tier specifically to upsell you.

Conclusion: Make the Switch

If you're still using Bit.ly's free tier or debating between options, try Dub.co free. No credit card, no limitations on custom domains, full analytics, full API.

The three things that won me over:

Unlimited custom domains on the free plan (game-changer for multi-brand setups)
Real API access means you can build with it, not just use it
QR code branding so your QR codes match your brand aesthetic

I've been using it for 8 months across 12 projects, and I haven't hit a single limitation on the free tier. Start free, upgrade if you hit team collaboration needs. That's the model that actually makes sense.

Go create your first short link on Dub.co—you'll see what I mean immediately.

I replaced Bitly with an open-source alternative - here is why

Joshua — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 23:19:26 +0000

The Problem

Bitly charges $35/month for features that should be free. Custom domains, analytics, QR codes — all locked behind a paywall.

The Solution: Dub.co

Dub.co is an open-source link management platform that gives you:

25 free links with full analytics
Custom domains on the free tier
QR code generation built in
Self-hosting option for unlimited everything

Why I Switched

I was paying Bitly $35/month for my SaaS marketing links. After switching to Dub.co:

Better analytics — Dub shows me geographic data, device breakdowns, and referrer sources for free
Custom domain — I use my own domain for branded links, included in the free tier
Open source — I can inspect the code, contribute, and self-host if I outgrow the free tier

The Numbers

Feature	Bitly Free	Bitly Paid ($35/mo)	Dub.co Free
Links	10	Unlimited	25
Analytics	Basic	Advanced	Advanced
Custom Domain	No	Yes	Yes
QR Codes	No	Yes	Yes
Open Source	No	No	Yes

Bottom Line

If you are bootstrapping a SaaS or side project, there is no reason to pay for Bitly. Dub.co gives you more features on their free tier than Bitly does on their $35/month plan.

What link management tool do you use? I would love to hear about alternatives I might have missed.

Why I Stopped Using Bitly (And What I Switched To)

Joshua — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 16:10:59 +0000

A few months ago I hit the wall with Bitly. My free plan ran out of analytics. My branded links looked cheap. And paying $35/month for what should be basic features felt wrong.

So I went looking for something better. Here is what I found.

The Bitly Problem

Bitly is great until you need:

Analytics beyond 30 days (locked behind Pro)
Custom domains without paying $35/month
API access that does not throttle you at 100 requests/month
Link-in-bio pages (not available at all)

For a SaaS builder managing multiple products, these are not nice-to-haves. They are essentials.

What I Switched To

I moved everything to Dub.co and honestly the difference is night and day.

Here is what the free tier includes:

Feature	Bitly Free	Dub.co Free
Links	10/month	25/month
Analytics	30 days	Forever
Custom domains	No	Yes
API calls	100/month	1000/month
QR codes	Basic	Advanced
Link-in-bio	No	Yes

My Setup

I use Dub.co for:

Newsletter tracking — every link in my emails goes through Dub so I know what readers actually click
Social media — branded short links for Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit
API integration — I built a simple webhook that creates a short link whenever I publish a new blog post

The API is dead simple:

curl -X POST https://api.dub.co/links \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "url": "https://example.com/long-url", "domain": "yourdomain.com" }'

The Migration

Migrating from Bitly took about 20 minutes:

Export your Bitly links (Settings → Export)
Import into Dub.co (they have a CSV import)
Set up your custom domain (just a CNAME record)
Update your API calls (the Dub API is similar to Bitly but better documented)

Results After 3 Months

Saved $420/year on Bitly Pro
Better analytics — I can see click data from 6 months ago
Faster API — No more rate limit errors
Branded links — my-domain.co/whatever instead of bit.ly/random

If you are still on Bitly, take 20 minutes and try Dub.co. The free tier alone beats Bitly Pro.

What link shortener do you use? Drop a comment below.

How I Manage Links Across 5 SaaS Products Without Paying for Bitly

Joshua — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 15:49:36 +0000

Link management sounds simple until you're running multiple products and each one has different tracking needs, different domains, and different audiences.

I tried Bitly for a while. It works, but the pricing doesn't make sense for indie developers and small teams. Their custom domain feature alone costs $35/month. Multiply that by 5 products and you're looking at $175/month just for link shortening.

The Problem

Here's what I needed:

Custom domains for each product (go.product1.com, links.product2.com, etc.)
Click analytics with geographic data and referrer tracking
API access to automate link creation from my CI/CD pipeline
Free or cheap — I'm bootstrapped

What I Tried

TinyURL

Free, no analytics. Dead end for anything serious.

Short.io

Good analytics but +/month for multiple domains. Same pricing problem as Bitly.

Rebrandly

Nice UI, but again — custom domains cost money. \/month for branded links.

Dub.co

This is what I actually use now. It's open source, which immediately caught my attention. Here's what sold me:

Free custom domains — unlimited, even on the free tier
Real analytics — clicks, geo, referrers, devices. All without paying
REST API — well-documented, easy to integrate into my deployment scripts
Self-hostable — since it's open source, I could host it myself if I wanted (I don't, their hosted version is fast enough)

My Setup

I have 5 custom domains, each one pointing to a different product. When someone clicks a link, I can see exactly where they came from, what device they're on, and which campaign drove the click.

My deployment script automatically creates short links for each release. The API call is simple:

{"error":{"code":"not_found","message":"Workspace ID not found. Did you forget to include a workspaceId query parameter? It looks like you might be using personal API keys, we also recommend refactoring to workspace API keys: https://d.to/keys","doc_url":"https://dub.co/docs/api-reference/errors#not-found"}}<!DOCTYPE html>

    <title>Not Found</title>

    <style>
        /*! normalize.css v8.0.1 | MIT License | github.com/necolas/normalize.css */html{line-height:1.15;-webkit-text-size-adjust:100%}body{margin:0}a{background-color:transparent}code{font-family:monospace,monospace;font-size:1em}[hidden]{display:none}html{font-family:system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,Segoe UI,Roboto,Helvetica Neue,Arial,Noto Sans,sans-serif,Apple Color Emoji,Segoe UI Emoji,Segoe UI Symbol,Noto Color Emoji;line-height:1.5}*,:after,:before{box-sizing:border-box;border:0 solid #e2e8f0}a{color:inherit;text-decoration:inherit}code{font-family:Menlo,Monaco,Consolas,Liberation Mono,Courier 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                    404                    </h1>

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                    Not Found                    </div>
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Cost Comparison (Monthly)

Tool	Custom Domains	Analytics	API	Monthly Cost
Bitly	\/domain	Pro only	Pro only	+
Short.io	\/domain	Included	Included	+
Rebrandly	\ base	Included	Premium	+
Dub.co	Free	Free	Free	\/bin/zsh

Bottom Line

If you're bootstrapped or running multiple projects, there's no reason to pay for link shortening in 2026. The open-source options have caught up and in many cases surpassed the paid tools.

Check out Dub.co if you're in the same boat. The migration from Bitly takes about 10 minutes.

What tools do you use for link management? Curious what others have found works best.

How I Track Every Click on My Newsletter Links (Open-Source Setup)

Joshua — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 14:41:25 +0000

Every week I send a newsletter to ~2,000 subscribers. For months I had zero idea which links people actually clicked. Open rates? Sure, my ESP gives me that. But click-level data per link? That was a black box.

I fixed it with a lightweight, open-source-friendly setup that takes about 15 minutes. Here's exactly how.

The Problem With Newsletter Link Tracking

Most email platforms (Substack, ConvertKit, Beehiiv) give you aggregate click counts. But they won't tell you:

Which specific links get the most engagement
Click velocity (how fast people click after open)
Geographic breakdown per link
Device/browser split per link
Long-tail clicks days after sending

If you're promoting products, writing sponsored posts, or just trying to figure out what your audience cares about — you need per-link analytics.

The Stack

Here's what I use:

A link shortener with analytics — I use Dub.co (free tier is generous, API-first)
A simple Node.js script to auto-generate tracked links before each send
A JSON file that logs everything for my own dashboards

Total cost: $0. Total setup time: ~15 minutes.

Step 1: Generate Tracked Links via API

Instead of manually creating short links, I wrote a script that takes my raw newsletter URLs and returns tracked versions.

First, grab a free API key from Dub.co. They have a free tier that covers most newsletter use cases — custom domains, analytics, and API access included.

// track-links.js
const DUB_API_KEY = process.env.DUB_API_KEY;

async function createTrackedLink(url, tag) {
  const res = await fetch('https://api.dub.co/links', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      'Authorization': `Bearer ${DUB_API_KEY}`,
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      url,
      tag,
      // optional: set a custom short slug
      // key: 'my-custom-slug',
    }),
  });

  const data = await res.json();
  return data.shortLink;
}

// Usage: convert all links in your newsletter draft
async function trackNewsletterLinks(links) {
  const tracked = {};
  for (const [label, url] of Object.entries(links)) {
    tracked[label] = await createTrackedLink(url, 'newsletter-issue-42');
    console.log(`${label}: ${tracked[label]}`);
  }
  return tracked;
}

// Example
trackNewsletterLinks({
  'main-article': 'https://myblog.com/post/scaling-postgres',
  'sponsor': 'https://sponsor.example.com/promo',
  'twitter-thread': 'https://x.com/me/status/123456',
  'tool-recommendation': 'https://some-saas.com',
});

Run it before each send:

export DUB_API_KEY="your_key_here"
node track-links.js

Output:

main-article: https://dub.sh/abc123
sponsor: https://dub.sh/def456
twitter-thread: https://dub.sh/ghi789
tool-recommendation: https://dub.sh/jkl012

Replace the raw URLs in your newsletter with these. Done.

Step 2: Pull Analytics After Sending

Here's where it gets useful. After your newsletter goes out, pull the click data:

// pull-stats.js
async function getLinkStats(linkId) {
  const res = await fetch(
    `https://api.dub.co/analytics?linkId=${linkId}&event=clicks&interval=7d`,
    {
      headers: { 'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.DUB_API_KEY}` },
    }
  );
  return res.json();
}

async function getClicksByCountry(linkId) {
  const res = await fetch(
    `https://api.dub.co/analytics?linkId=${linkId}&event=clicks&groupBy=countries`,
    {
      headers: { 'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.DUB_API_KEY}` },
    }
  );
  return res.json();
}

I run this 24 hours after each send and log the results:

const fs = require('fs');

async function logStats(issueNumber, links) {
  const stats = {};
  for (const [label, linkId] of Object.entries(links)) {
    stats[label] = {
      clicks: await getLinkStats(linkId),
      countries: await getClicksByCountry(linkId),
      pulledAt: new Date().toISOString(),
    };
  }

  const filename = `stats/issue-${issueNumber}.json`;
  fs.writeFileSync(filename, JSON.stringify(stats, null, 2));
  console.log(`Stats saved to ${filename}`);
}

Step 3: Spot Patterns Over Time

After a few issues, the data tells a clear story. Here's what I learned from mine:

Link Type	Avg CTR	Insight
Tutorial links	12.3%	Audience wants hands-on content
Tool recommendations	8.7%	Good, especially with context
Twitter threads	2.1%	People don't leave email for X
Sponsor links	5.4%	Better when placed mid-content

This completely changed how I structure my newsletter. I moved sponsor links from the footer to the middle of the content and saw a 2.5x increase in sponsor clicks.

Why Dub.co Over Other Options

I tried Bitly, TinyURL, and a self-hosted YOURLS instance before settling on Dub.co. Here's why:

Free custom domain — your links look professional, not like generic short links
API-first — everything I showed above works because the API is clean and well-documented
Real analytics — geographic, device, referrer, time-series data out of the box
Open source — the core is on GitHub, so you can self-host if you want full control
Tags — I tag every link with the issue number, so I can filter analytics per newsletter

Bitly charges $35/mo for features Dub.co gives you free. YOURLS works but requires server maintenance. Dub.co hit the sweet spot.

Bonus: Automate With a Cron Job

I have a cron job that pulls stats for every issue automatically:

# crontab -e
0 9 * * MON node /path/to/pull-stats.js --issue latest

Every Monday morning I have fresh click data waiting in my stats/ folder. I glance at it with my coffee and know exactly what resonated.

Wrapping Up

If you're sending a newsletter without per-link tracking, you're flying blind. This setup is:

Free (Dub.co free tier + Node.js)
Fast (15 min setup, <1 min per issue after that)
Private (your data, your JSON files, no third-party dashboard lock-in)

Grab a free Dub.co API key at dub.co and start tracking. Your newsletter strategy will thank you.

Have questions about the setup? Drop a comment — happy to share my full config.

Why I Switched from Bitly to Dub.co (And Saved $420/Year)

Joshua — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 14:33:04 +0000

Why I Switched from Bitly to Dub.co (And Saved $420/Year)

The $35/Month Link Problem

I was paying Bitly $420 a year. Not for some enterprise behemoth solution, but for the ability to track link clicks and use a custom domain.

That realization hit me during a budget review last quarter. Here I was, a developer who builds my own analytics dashboards and APIs, paying premium prices for basic link management. The irony wasn't lost on me.

Then I found Dub.co.

It's not just a cheaper alternative—it's what Bitly was supposed to evolve into before they pivoted to enterprise. In the three months since switching, I've not only killed that $420/year subscription, I've gotten better tools in the process.

Why I Was Stuck on Bitly

Bitly's free plan is genuinely limiting. No custom domains. No API access. No team features. If you want any of the features developers actually need, you're forking over $35/month for the Pro plan.

Over two years, that's $840. For link shortening. In 2024.

The Pro plan gave me:

One custom domain
Basic click tracking
API access
Custom QR codes

Standard stuff. Things that shouldn't require a subscription tier.

Discovery

I was building a launch page for a side project and needed programmatic link creation with custom domains. Another $35/month felt wasteful, so I started comparing alternatives.

That's when Dub.co appeared in my search results. The landing page was immediately different from typical SaaS marketing—it listed what you get for free, not what you unlock at each pricing tier. And the free tier was... everything I was paying for.

Custom domain? Free. API access? Free. Analytics? Free. QR codes? Free.

I was skeptical. Something was wrong. Let me dig in.

Feature Comparison: Bitly Pro vs Dub.co Free

Feature	Bitly Pro ($35/mo)	Dub.co Free
Custom domains	1	Unlimited
API access	Yes	Yes, full REST API
Click analytics	Basic	Advanced (real-time, geographic, device, referrer)
QR codes	Yes	Yes, with branding
Team members	Up to 3	Unlimited on free
Webhook support	No	Yes
Link previews	Basic	Advanced with OG customization
Cost per year	$420	$0

That's not a typo. Dub's free tier legitimately outmaneuvers Bitly's paid tier on most metrics.

Real-World Test: Building a Link Tracking System

Before fully switching, I needed to verify the API actually worked for production use.

Here's what I built in 15 minutes with Dub's API (compared to what would take 30+ minutes with Bitly's):

const fetch = require('node-fetch');

async function createTrackedLink(url, domain = 'your-domain.com') {
  const response = await fetch('https://api.dub.co/links', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.DUB_API_KEY}`,
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      url: url,
      domain: domain,
      key: `campaign-${Date.now()}`, // Custom key
      expiresAt: new Date(Date.now() + 30 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000), // 30 days
    }),
  });

  const link = await response.json();
  return link.shortUrl;
}

// Usage
createTrackedLink('https://example.com/long-url')
  .then(shortUrl => console.log(`Tracked: ${shortUrl}`));

That's it. The API is RESTful, well-documented, and doesn't require jumping through OAuth hoops.

Compare that to Bitly's approach, which requires setting up an OAuth app just to test locally. Dub treats API access like it should be: a standard feature, not a gated extra.

The Migration (Surprisingly Easy)

I expected migrating 200+ active links to be painful. It wasn't.

Dub's bulk import handled CSV files directly. I exported my Bitly links, cleaned up formatting in under 5 minutes, and uploaded. Within seconds, all links were active on my new domain.

The existing short links? I used Bitly's redirect forwarding to tunnel everything to the Dub equivalents for a week, then updated documentation. Zero broken links. Zero downtime.

Analytics That Actually Matter

Here's where Dub genuinely surprised me.

Bitly's analytics are... fine. You see click counts and rough geographic data. Dub's free analytics include:

Real-time click tracking — I can watch clicks come in as they happen
Device breakdown — Separate metrics for mobile, tablet, desktop
Referrer tracking — Which sites are sending traffic (not just "direct")
QR code scans vs link clicks — Split tracking for different campaign channels
Custom metadata — Tag links with campaign info, then aggregate in dashboards

This matters. When I launched a product, I could see that one referrer was driving 3x the traffic of another in real time. Optimized accordingly. Would've missed that with Bitly's dashboard.

The Open Source Angle

Dub is open source. The entire platform is on GitHub.

For a link shortener, this means:

You can see exactly how your data is handled
No vendor lock-in at the architectural level
The community contributes features (and catches security issues)
You could self-host if needed (though I use their cloud)

That's the kind of transparency I expect from tools in 2024. Bitly's source is closed. You trust them or you don't.

The Numbers

Annual savings: $420

Time saved on setup and migration: About 3 hours, which would've cost more than the annual savings if I valued my time normally. (I don't. I enjoy this stuff.)

Features gained over Bitly Pro:

Unlimited custom domains (instead of 1)
Webhook support for automation
Better analytics
Open-source infrastructure

Features lost: None that I actually used.

One Catch (There's Always One)

Dub's paid plans ($10/month and up) are for teams and power users. If you need:

More than basic branding customization
Dedicated support
White-label options

...then you'll want to upgrade. That's fair. But for 95% of developers and small SaaS founders, the free tier is complete.

Should You Switch?

If you're paying for Bitly (or any other expensive link shortener), the answer is yes.

Sign up for free at Dub.co. Create a custom domain. Build a link via API. Run an analytics query. You'll see in 20 minutes what took me a week to figure out.

The best part: if it doesn't work for you, you've lost nothing. No credit card. No trial period. No dark pattern upsells. Just a link shortener that respects your time and your budget.

Three months in, the only regret I have is not making the switch earlier.

Ready to kill your Bitly subscription? Start free with Dub.co—custom domains, API, and real analytics included.

Automate Your Marketing Links with Dub.co and Node.js

Joshua — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 14:01:15 +0000

Automate Your Marketing Links with Dub.co and Node.js

If you're running campaigns across email, social, and paid ads, you know the pain: dozens of links to create, tag, and track. Most teams do this manually in Bitly's dashboard, one link at a time. That's slow, error-prone, and doesn't scale.

I built a Node.js script that automates the entire workflow using the Dub.co API. It creates branded short links in bulk, applies UTM parameters automatically, and pipes click data into a dashboard. The whole thing took an afternoon.

Here's how to build it.

Why Automate Link Management?

Manual link creation breaks down fast:

Campaign launches need 10-20 links (one per channel, variant, audience segment)
UTM parameters get inconsistent when humans type them
Tracking requires checking each link individually
Reporting means exporting CSVs from multiple dashboards

Automation fixes all of this. One script, one command, consistent links with analytics built in.

Why Dub.co Over Bitly for Automation

I tried automating with Bitly first. Two problems:

Rate limits on the free tier are brutal — 100 links/month, and the API is throttled
Custom domains cost $35/month — just to use your own brand in links

Dub.co gives you:

Free custom domains
1,000 links/month on the free plan
Clean REST API with no weird auth hoops
Built-in analytics (geo, device, referrer)
Free QR code generation per link

For automation, the generous free tier is what matters most. You can actually build something useful without hitting a paywall.

Step 1: Set Up Your Dub.co Workspace

Optional but recommended: add a custom domain. Go to Settings → Domains, add something like go.yoursite.com, and point a CNAME record to clink.dub.co. This takes 2 minutes and makes every link you create on-brand.

Step 2: Install Dependencies

mkdir link-automator && cd link-automator
npm init -y
npm install node-fetch dotenv

Create a .env file:

DUB_API_KEY=your_api_key_here
DUB_DOMAIN=go.yoursite.com

Step 3: Build the Link Creator

Here's the core script that creates branded links with UTM parameters:

// create-links.js
import fetch from 'node-fetch';
import { config } from 'dotenv';
config();

const DUB_API = 'https://api.dub.co';
const headers = {
  'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.DUB_API_KEY}`,
  'Content-Type': 'application/json'
};

async function createLink({ url, slug, campaign, channel }) {
  // Append UTM parameters automatically
  const targetUrl = new URL(url);
  targetUrl.searchParams.set('utm_source', channel);
  targetUrl.searchParams.set('utm_medium', 'link');
  targetUrl.searchParams.set('utm_campaign', campaign);

  const response = await fetch(`${DUB_API}/links`, {
    method: 'POST',
    headers,
    body: JSON.stringify({
      url: targetUrl.toString(),
      domain: process.env.DUB_DOMAIN || 'dub.sh',
      key: slug,
      externalId: `${campaign}-${channel}`,
      tagIds: [] // add tag IDs from your workspace
    })
  });

  const data = await response.json();
  return data;
}

// Define your campaign links
const campaignLinks = [
  { url: 'https://yoursite.com/launch', slug: 'launch-tw', campaign: 'spring-launch', channel: 'twitter' },
  { url: 'https://yoursite.com/launch', slug: 'launch-em', campaign: 'spring-launch', channel: 'email' },
  { url: 'https://yoursite.com/launch', slug: 'launch-li', campaign: 'spring-launch', channel: 'linkedin' },
  { url: 'https://yoursite.com/launch', slug: 'launch-rd', campaign: 'spring-launch', channel: 'reddit' },
  { url: 'https://yoursite.com/launch', slug: 'launch-yt', campaign: 'spring-launch', channel: 'youtube' },
];

async function main() {
  console.log(`Creating ${campaignLinks.length} links...\n`);

  for (const link of campaignLinks) {
    try {
      const result = await createLink(link);
      console.log(`✓ ${link.channel}: https://${result.domain}/${result.key}`);
    } catch (err) {
      console.error(`✗ ${link.channel}: ${err.message}`);
    }
  }
}

main();

Run it:

node create-links.js

Output:

Creating 5 links...

✓ twitter: https://go.yoursite.com/launch-tw
✓ email: https://go.yoursite.com/launch-em
✓ linkedin: https://go.yoursite.com/launch-li
✓ reddit: https://go.yoursite.com/launch-rd
✓ youtube: https://go.yoursite.com/launch-yt

Five branded, tracked links in under a second. Each one has consistent UTM parameters and an externalId you can use to query analytics later.

Step 4: Pull Click Analytics

Now the powerful part — pulling click data programmatically:

// analytics.js
import fetch from 'node-fetch';
import { config } from 'dotenv';
config();

const headers = {
  'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.DUB_API_KEY}`,
};

async function getCampaignStats(campaign) {
  // Get all links for this campaign
  const linksRes = await fetch(
    `https://api.dub.co/links?search=${campaign}`,
    { headers }
  );
  const links = await linksRes.json();

  console.log(`\n--- Campaign: ${campaign} ---`);
  console.log(`Total links: ${links.length}\n`);

  let totalClicks = 0;

  for (const link of links) {
    const clicks = link.clicks || 0;
    totalClicks += clicks;

    // Get detailed analytics for high-performing links
    if (clicks > 0) {
      const analyticsRes = await fetch(
        `https://api.dub.co/analytics?linkId=${link.id}&event=clicks&groupBy=countries`,
        { headers }
      );
      const geo = await analyticsRes.json();

      console.log(`${link.key}: ${clicks} clicks`);
      console.log(`  Top countries: ${geo.slice(0, 3).map(g => `${g.country} (${g.clicks})`).join(', ')}`);
    } else {
      console.log(`${link.key}: 0 clicks`);
    }
  }

  console.log(`\nTotal campaign clicks: ${totalClicks}`);
}

getCampaignStats('spring-launch');

This gives you per-link and per-country breakdowns without ever opening a dashboard.

Step 5: Schedule It with Cron

For ongoing campaigns, schedule the analytics script to run daily and send you a summary:

// daily-report.js
import fetch from 'node-fetch';
import { config } from 'dotenv';
config();

async function dailyReport() {
  const headers = {
    'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.DUB_API_KEY}`,
  };

  // Get analytics for the last 24 hours
  const res = await fetch(
    'https://api.dub.co/analytics?event=clicks&groupBy=top_links&interval=24h',
    { headers }
  );
  const topLinks = await res.json();

  const report = topLinks
    .filter(l => l.clicks > 0)
    .map(l => `${l.link.key}: ${l.clicks} clicks`)
    .join('\n');

  console.log(`Daily Link Report (${new Date().toLocaleDateString()})`);
  console.log('='.repeat(40));
  console.log(report || 'No clicks in the last 24 hours');

  // Pipe this to Slack, email, or wherever you want
}

dailyReport();

Add it to your crontab:

# Run daily at 9 AM
0 9 * * * cd /path/to/link-automator && node daily-report.js >> /var/log/link-report.log

The Bigger Picture

Once your links are created programmatically, you can:

A/B test landing pages by creating multiple links to different URLs and comparing click-through rates
Auto-expire links for time-limited promos using Dub.co's expiration feature
Generate QR codes for each link (Dub.co creates them automatically)
Tag links by team member so everyone can see which channels perform

The API supports all of this. Check the Dub.co docs for the full reference.

Wrapping Up

Link management shouldn't be manual work. With Dub.co and a simple Node.js script, you can create, track, and report on hundreds of links without touching a dashboard.

The free tier gives you everything you need to get started — custom domains, analytics, and a clean API. If you're still creating links one by one in Bitly, give Dub.co a shot. Your future self will thank you.

Have questions about the setup? Drop a comment and I'll help you out.

Why I Switched from Bitly to Dub.co (And Saved $420/Year)

Joshua — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 13:55:18 +0000

If you're still paying for Bitly in 2026, you might want to read this.

I've been using link shorteners for years — tracking clicks on newsletter links, social posts, client campaigns. Bitly was always the default. Then they moved everything behind a paywall. Custom domains? $35/month. Decent analytics? Pay up. Even basic branded links now need a subscription.

I finally looked for alternatives and found Dub.co.

The Pricing Problem

Here's what Bitly charges in 2026:

Feature	Bitly	Dub.co
Custom domain	$35/mo	Free
Links per month	100 (free)	1,000 (free)
Click analytics	Paid only	Free
API access	$29/mo+	Free
QR codes	Paid	Free
Team workspaces	$199/mo	$24/mo

That's a $420/year savings just on the basic plan. And Dub.co's free tier is more generous than Bitly's paid starter.

What Actually Made Me Switch

1. Free Custom Domains

With Bitly, using your own domain (like go.yoursite.com) costs $35/month. With Dub.co, you get custom domains on the free plan. You just add a DNS record and you're done.

2. Better Developer Experience

The API is clean and well-documented. Here's how simple it is to create a short link:

curl -X POST https://api.dub.co/links \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com", "domain": "yourdomain.com"}'

Compare that to Bitly's API which requires OAuth tokens and has rate limits that'll make you cry on the free tier.

3. Open Source

This is the big one. Dub.co is fully open source. You can inspect the code, self-host it, or contribute. Try doing that with Bitly.

4. Analytics That Don't Suck

Real-time click tracking, geographic data, device breakdowns, referrer info — all on the free plan. Bitly gates most analytics behind their Pro plan ($35/mo).

The Migration

Moving was painless. Dub.co lets you import existing links, and your old Bitly links keep working (they're just short URLs). I migrated about 200 links in under 10 minutes.

Who Should Switch?

Developers who need API access without paying enterprise prices
Marketers who want custom domains and analytics without the Bitly tax
Startups that need a professional link shortener without burning budget
Anyone tired of Bitly's constant upsells

Bottom Line

I was paying Bitly $35/month for features that Dub.co gives away free. After 6 months of using it, I haven't looked back. The free tier handles everything I need, the API is better, and being open source means I'm not locked into a vendor that keeps raising prices.

If you're evaluating link shorteners, give Dub.co a try. The free plan is legitimately useful — no credit card required, no 14-day trial bait.

What link shortener are you using? Have you tried any Bitly alternatives? Drop your experience in the comments.

The Best Bitly Alternative in 2026 (Free Custom Domain Included)

Joshua — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 13:54:44 +0000

The Best Bitly Alternative in 2026 (Free Custom Domain Included)

You're building something meaningful—a SaaS product, a content empire, a newsletter with real traction. Then you hit that moment: you need to share links professionally, track clicks, and suddenly Bitly's pricing hits you like a truck. $35/month just to get a custom domain? For link shortening?

If that sounds familiar, I've been there. And I found something better.

The Bitly Problem (and Why It Still Exists)

Bitly has been the default for a decade. But defaults don't always stay great. Their free plan gives you basic link shortening and zero custom domains. Their pro plan—the one you actually need—costs $35/month. For that price, you get:

One custom domain
Standard analytics
Limited API access
No team collaboration on the free tier

Meanwhile, the indie dev and creator landscape has exploded. People need more. And they shouldn't have to pay enterprise prices to get it.

I switched to Dub.co three months ago, and honestly, I'm not sure why anyone still uses Bitly for this.

Enter Dub.co: The Modern Link Platform

Dub.co is what Bitly should be in 2026. Here's the part that still surprises me—everything below is free:

Custom domain (your own branded short links)
Full analytics (clicks, referrers, devices, geography)
API access (programmatic link creation and management)
QR codes (with custom branding)
Team collaboration (add team members for free)

No credit card required. No feature gate hiding behind a paywall. You get the tools that Bitly charges $420/year for, included by default.

How They Stack Up: The Numbers

Feature	Bitly Free	Bitly Pro	Dub.co Free
Custom Domain	❌	✅	✅
API Access	Limited	✅	✅
QR Codes	❌	✅	✅
Advanced Analytics	❌	✅	✅
Team Members	1	3	Unlimited
Price/Month	Free	$35	Free

That's not a small difference. That's a paradigm shift.

What Makes Dub.co Actually Better

1. It's Actually Developer-Friendly

Dub.co treats developers like first-class citizens. The API documentation is clear, the SDKs exist for multiple languages, and there's no artificial gatekeeping. Here's what creating a short link looks like:

// Using the Dub.co API
const response = await fetch('https://api.dub.co/links', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.DUB_API_KEY}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    url: 'https://yoursite.com/long-article-about-seo',
    domain: 'short.yourcompany.com',
    shortCode: 'seo-guide',
    tags: ['guide', 'seo', 'marketing']
  })
});

const { shortUrl } = await response.json();
console.log(`Share this: ${shortUrl}`);

Compare that to Bitly's API (where half the features require paid plans). Dub.co just... gives you everything.

2. Custom Domains That Actually Work

You want share.yourcompany.com instead of bit.ly/xyz123. With Dub.co, that's step one. The domain setup is straightforward—add a CNAME record, wait for verification, done. Your links instantly look legitimate because they are legitimate.

Marketing teams love this. It builds brand trust. Analytics tools don't penalize your links for being from a third-party shortener (some do, especially if they're from generic shorteners).

3. Analytics That Tell You Something

Bitly's analytics show you clicks. Dub.co's analytics show you why people clicked.

You see:

Referrer sources (Twitter, Slack, email, organic?)
Device type and OS
Geographic location (country, city, even metro)
Real-time dashboards
Detailed CSV exports

For creators and marketers, this is gold. You finally understand which content, which channels, which times drive actual engagement.

4. QR Codes With Branding

This one seems small but changes everything. You can create QR codes with your logo embedded. Not just functional—visually yours. Perfect for printed materials, presentations, even merch.

// Generate a branded QR code with Dub.co
const qrCode = await fetch('https://api.dub.co/qr', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.DUB_API_KEY}` },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    url: 'https://yoursite.com/product',
    logo: 'https://yoursite.com/logo.png'
  })
});

5. Open Source (If You Care About That)

Dub.co is built on open-source principles. The codebase is on GitHub. You can self-host if you want. You're not locked into someone else's infrastructure. That's the opposite of vendor lock-in.

Real-World Example: Building a Link-Tracking Dashboard

Let's say you run a newsletter and need to track which stories get the most traction. Here's how you'd set that up with Dub.co:

// Track newsletter link performance
async function createNewsletterLink(storyTitle, storyUrl, issue) {
  const link = await fetch('https://api.dub.co/links', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.DUB_API_KEY}`,
      'Content-Type': 'application/json'
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      url: storyUrl,
      domain: 'newsletter.yoursite.com',
      shortCode: `issue-${issue}-story-${storyTitle.toLowerCase().replace(/\s+/g, '-')}`,
      tags: [`newsletter-${issue}`, 'story']
    })
  });

  return link.json();
}

// Later: retrieve analytics
async function getNewsletterPerformance(issue) {
  const response = await fetch(
    `https://api.dub.co/analytics?domain=newsletter.yoursite.com&tag=newsletter-${issue}`,
    { headers: { 'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.DUB_API_KEY}` } }
  );

  return response.json(); // Gets clicks, referrers, devices, all organized
}

With Bitly's free tier, you can't even do this. With their paid tier, you're paying $420/year. With Dub.co? It's free, and the API is actually built for this use case.

The Cost Reality Check

Here's what you actually save by switching:

Personal project: $0 vs. $35/month = $420/year saved
Small team (3-5 people): Still $0 vs. $105+/month = $1,260/year saved
Content creator tracking 20+ properties: Still $0 (team features unlimited)

If you're running this at scale—multiple brands, multiple custom domains, team collaboration—Dub.co saves you thousands annually while giving you better tools.

Why This Matters for Your Business

Links are everywhere in modern marketing. They're in newsletters, social media, ads, presentations, emails. If you're treating them as disposable, you're leaving data on the table.

With proper link management:

You understand which content actually converts
Your brand stays consistent (custom domains)
You can iterate faster (real data)
Your team stays aligned (collaboration features)

Bitly made you pay extra for these basics. Dub.co just... includes them.

The Bottom Line

I've been using Dub.co for three months across three different projects. I've never once wished for Bitly. The feature parity isn't even close—Dub.co wins on price, wins on features, and wins on developer experience.

If you're still on Bitly because you think that's your only option, try Dub.co free today. No credit card. No trial period expiring. Just better tools, from day one.

Your future analytics dashboard will thank you.

Link Analytics That Actually Make Sense: Dub.co vs. Bitly vs. Short.io

Joshua — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 04:30:47 +0000

Link Analytics That Actually Make Sense: Dub.co vs. Bitly vs. Short.io

You're running a campaign. Traffic's flowing. But when you check your link analytics, you get nothing but a vanity metric and a bill for $35/month.

This is the Bitly experience in 2024.

I've been there. You set up a shortened link, share it across channels, and then... you can't tell which traffic source converted, what the click-through rate actually means, or whether your campaign ROI is positive. The platform makes money from your uncertainty. Meanwhile, better tools exist that give you everything—for free.

After testing Bitly, Short.io, and Dub.co across three campaigns, I switched to Dub.co and haven't looked back. Here's what I learned.

Why Link Analytics Matter (And Why Bitly Fails)

Shortened links are deceptively important. They're your data collection points. Every click is a potential signal: which channel works, which content resonates, which audience buys.

But Bitly's free plan gives you almost nothing. No click geography. No UTM parameter visibility. No API access. Want those features? That's $35/month—more if your team is larger.

For most marketers, that's a non-starter. You don't pay $35/month to understand what you should already know.

The Comparison

Here's what I found testing each platform:

Feature	Dub.co	Bitly	Short.io
Free Plan Cost	$0	$0	$0
Custom Domain	✓ (included)	✗ (paid)	✓ (paid tier)
Full Analytics	✓ (free)	✗ (limited)	✓ (limited free)
API Access	✓ (free)	✗ (paid)	✓ (limited)
QR Codes	✓ (branded)	✓ (basic)	✓ (basic)
Webhooks	✓	✗	✗
Team Collaboration	✓	✓	✗
Monthly Cost (Full Features)	Free	$35+	$25+

Dub.co wins on price, but that's not the whole story. Let me show you the practical difference.

How Dub.co Actually Works

I set up a campaign with an affiliate link (I'm using Dub.co myself for link management). Here's what I got instantly:

A custom domain link: mysite.link/campaign-name
Click tracking by geography, device, browser, and referrer
UTM parameter preservation (I can see exactly what my tracking actually caught)
A branded QR code to print on materials
Webhook notifications when someone clicks (I built a Slack integration)
Full API access to automate everything

The API is the killer feature. With Bitly's paid tier, you get API access. With Dub.co's free tier, you also get it. Here's an example:

curl -X POST https://api.dub.co/links \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://example.com/page?utm_source=twitter",
    "domain": "mysite.link",
    "key": "campaign-123",
    "expiresAt": "2024-12-31"
  }'

That's it. You create shortened links programmatically. You can batch them. You can set expiration dates. You can track which links perform best, in real-time.

Bitly makes you pay $99/month for that. Short.io charges $25/month and still limits your API calls.

Building a Tracking System

Here's a practical example. Say you're running ads on three platforms and want to know which converts best.

With Dub.co's API, you can create links for each platform in a loop:

const platforms = ['twitter', 'linkedin', 'email'];

for (const platform of platforms) {
  const response = await fetch('https://api.dub.co/links', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.DUB_TOKEN}`,
      'Content-Type': 'application/json'
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      url: `https://myproduct.com/checkout?utm_source=${platform}`,
      domain: 'track.mysite.com',
      key: `promo-${platform}`,
      trackConversion: true
    })
  });

  const link = await response.json();
  console.log(`${platform}: ${link.shortUrl}`);
}

Then use their webhooks to log conversions:

// This fires every time someone clicks your link
app.post('/webhook/dub', (req, res) => {
  const { event, data } = req.body;

  if (event === 'click') {
    db.clicks.insert({
      link: data.key,
      timestamp: new Date(),
      country: data.country,
      device: data.device
    });
  }

  res.sendStatus(200);
});

Run this once and you never manually create links again. You get a complete audit trail of every click.

Bitly doesn't offer webhooks at all. Short.io does, but only on paid tiers.

The Real Cost Calculation

Let's say you run 10 campaigns per year and use the tools for 5 years.

Bitly ($35/month): 10 campaigns × 5 years × $35/month × 12 = $21,000

Short.io ($25/month): 10 campaigns × 5 years × $25/month × 12 = $15,000

Dub.co (Free): $0

That's not an exaggeration. That's the actual pricing difference. Even if Dub.co charged $10/month, it would be a better deal than Bitly.

But Dub.co doesn't charge. Custom domains, full analytics, API, webhooks, branded QR codes—all free. The paid tier ($12/month) is for teams that need advanced permissions and priority support, which is genuinely useful if you have 50+ links.

Why This Matters for Conversion Tracking

Marketers who care about conversions obsess over attribution. Which email subject line drove sales? Which ad platform paid off? Which traffic source is worth more?

Link analytics are the first step. They show you which links got clicks. Then you build from there—adding conversion pixels, utm parameters, and downstream tracking.

Dub.co makes this easier than competitors because:

Custom domains feel professional (customers don't see "bitly.com")
Full API access means you automate everything (no manual link creation)
Webhooks let you build custom tracking workflows (log clicks to your own database)
Free tier doesn't compromise core features (no "upgrade to see your data" games)

The Verdict

If you're paying for Bitly or Short.io, switch. If you're not tracking your links at all, start now.

Try Dub.co free (yes, the affiliate link is real—I use it myself and genuinely recommend it).

Set up a custom domain, create a link, install their snippet, and watch real-time analytics populate. It takes 10 minutes. No credit card required.

Then use the API to build whatever you need. Link expiration? Rotation? A/B testing links? Conversion goals? All possible. All free.

That's link analytics that actually make sense.