Have you ever tried to share a link to your most recent blog post only to discover it was too long, ugly, and exceeded the Twitter character limit? This is where a short link maker steps in.
Me too. And believe me when I say that no one wants to click on a link like that, even if it does fit the character count.
The truth is, shorter URLs are always better. They’re more visually appealing, provide a better user experience for customers and social media followers, and are extremely simple to obtain. All you need to know is how to use a short link maker.
That’s why we’re going to share the best URL shorteners with you today, so you can choose the one that best suits your link sharing needs.
The Best Short Link Maker
Short.io
Check out Short.io if you need a short link maker that prioritizes your branding. Short.io allows you to create, personalize, and shorten links with your own domain.
Creating and tracking branded URLs has never been easier, and Short.io has an extensive tutorial library to guide you through each aspect of the platform.
Analyzing and tracking your links is an important feature which Short.io does incredibly well, of course beside a great short link maker. Their clickstream feature tracks data from each click in real time, including country, date, time, social network, browser, and more. You can also view your data in easy-to-digest graphs, tables, and charts by clicking on the’statistics’ tab.
Small and large businesses are not forgotten; with their team feature, you can add Short.io users to your plan as team members (Team/Enterprise plan only). You can assign roles to your team members such as owner, admin, user, and read-only. Depending on the role you assign, each team member will have access to and perform a specific set of tasks.
The ability to route traffic to different pages on your site based on their geographical location is a particularly useful feature. Panasonic employs Short.io in this manner.
Price: There is a free plan with limited features. Paid plans start at $20 per month, with an annual discount of 17%.
JotURL
JotURL is much more than a short link maker; it’s a low-cost, feature-rich marketing tool for companies looking to optimize their marketing campaign links to drive leads and revenue.
JotURL has over 100 features that are designed to help you optimize every interaction with your audience by monitoring and tracking your links to ensure they are performing optimally.
By using branded links, you’re giving your audience a consistent and trustworthy experience. You can enhance these branded links with a branded call-to-action message that you can then share on social media using their Social Opt-in CTA feature.
Every link is monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week to ensure its safety and availability, so you never have to worry about a broken link. Furthermore, they have 24/7 click-fraud monitoring to filter out bot clicks, allowing you to blacklist these sources or IP addresses.
View all of your analytics in one convenient dashboard. Sort and filter your data by keywords, channels, and sources to better understand how your links are performing.
You can also use their InstaURL feature to create mobile-friendly social media landing pages. These are particularly effective on Instagram.
JotURL short link maker plans start at €9/month, with a discount available for yearly plans.
Bitly
Bitly is one of the most widely used short link maker. One reason for this is that it does not require an account to use. You can also create as many short links as you want.
Bitly allows you to track link clicks, click locations, and even top referrers. This is useful for fine-tuning your campaign efforts and sharing your content where it will be seen and interacted with the most. You can also integrate Bitly with Zapier to automate other tools that support Zapier to further streamline your marketing efforts.
To protect against third-party tampering, each Bitly link is encrypted with HTTPS. In other words, your intended audience will never have to worry about your short links being hijacked and redirecting them elsewhere.
You can also create QR codes, use mobile deep links to direct the right people to the right content at the right time, and replace the ‘bit.ly’ portion with your own brand if you want.
Without an account, it is free to use. Create a free account to make creating and managing links easier. Premium bitly short link maker plans begin at $29/month if you require a custom domain and more branded links.
TinyURL
TinyURL is one of the most out-of-date short link maker on this list, but that doesn’t mean it can’t help some website owners.
To begin, this online tool is extremely simple to use. Simply enter the URL you want to shorten and it will be tiny for you. You can also add TinyURL to any browser for easy access and faster link shortening.
Because your shortened links never expire, you’ll never have to worry about broken links again. In other words, your content will be accessible to users in perpetuity. And don’t be concerned about branding. A self-branding feature allows you to change the end portion of your shortened URLs before posting them anywhere.
It’s completely free! Check out more about What is TinyURL Creator in our blog.
T2M
T2M is yet another full-service short link maker that includes a dashboard full of statistics and link activity for you to review. You can also create custom branded links that never expire, create links in bulk to save time and effort, and share links to social media with a single click.
T2M also has the following great features:
- Use your links to target specific geographic areas.
- URLs should be password protected.
- Link creation is unlimited, and tracking statistics are provided.
- No advertisements or spam are permitted.
- Simple dashboard with search functionality for simple link management
- SSL certificate encryption is available for free
Price: The basic plan has a $5 setup fee and then is free indefinitely with monthly link creation and tracking limits. Premium plans begin at $9.99 per month and provide access to advanced features.
Tiny.cc
Tiny.cc is a simple but effective short link maker that allows you to create custom URL endings for branding purposes.
You do not need to create an account to view the link tracking statistics, which include metrics such as returning clicks, location or origin, browsers used, unique visitors, and much more. You can easily edit or delete any URL, view your entire link history, and find the URLs you need using the manage, filter, tag, and search functions.
Furthermore, with Tiny.cc, you can:
- Make a note of the tool for future use.
- Create links for SMS messages, email campaigns, social media, advertising, and other purposes.
- Track statistics by using links in QR codes.
- You can use any custom URL slug you want.
Price: The free plan includes 500 short URLs, the ability to edit links, and tags for link organization. Premium plans begin at $5 per month and include benefits such as a custom domain, multiple users, more links and clicks, and geolocation reporting.
Polr
Polr is an open-source project that allows you to create and host your own short link maker. Keep in mind, however, that this will most likely only work for those with technical knowledge of PHP, Lumen, and MySQL.
This short link maker has a clean and modern interface, limited incoming traffic tools for analyzing link activity, and custom domain name branding to help you establish your brand among your target audience.
A neat demo page, which many short link maker do not provide, allows you to test the tool before committing to it. And all you have to do to make managing your short links a breeze is create an account.
Price:FREE
Yourls
Yourls, which stands for ‘your own short link maker,’ is a self-hosted open-source link shortener similar to Polr. To use this tool, you must install and run it on your own server, which distinguishes it from the other URL shorteners on this list.
Among Yourls’ best qualities are:
- Make both private and public links.
- Click reports, referrers, and geolocation are examples of statistics.
- Links that are sequential or created by hand
- Examples of files for developing your own public interface
- Plugins provide access to additional features.
- Bookmarklets for easy shortening and sharing
Despite the fact that you install and run this URL shortener, it was designed to be lightweight and non-bloated, so it never puts a strain on your server’s resources.
Price:FREE
Why do we shorten URLs?
There are numerous reasons why everyone should use a short link maker whenever they share a link to their website:
A good short link maker will convert your long and confusing URL (full of jumbled letters and numbers) into a nice and tidy link that is simple to click on.
With the right short link maker, you can create custom branded URLs.
Shorter URLs are simpler to read, type, and remember.
Users prefer branded URLs to long, potentially spam-filled URLs.
Using a URL shortener, you can track link engagement and make improvements to your marketing campaigns.
As you can see, there’s more to using a short link maker to shorten a long link.
Conclusion
It’s critical to remember that not all short link maker are created equal.
Short.io is the best option if you simply want a free short link maker. Their free offering is excellent, but it is also well-suited to enterprise customers.
TinyURL is a good option for casual users who need a quick and easy short link maker solution.
That’s all there is to it! The best short link maker on the market right now. And the best part is that no matter what your link shortening requirements are, there is a tool to meet them.
Whether you’re looking for a feature-rich tool, a free short link maker, or a replacement for the defunct Google URL shortener, you’ll find something to suit your needs here.
If you want a completely free tools, you can “Shorten a Link for Free Using These Tools.“
