URL Shorteners

Last reviewed Aug 26, 2026 · 411 words

Every short link you mint is a bet that your redirect service outlives whatever it points to, and a QR code on a printed poster can keep that bet running for years. That reframes the whole category: boring, stable, and backed up beats feature-rich. It is why YOURLS — PHP, running since 2009, 12,173 stars — is still the answer I give most people.

How to choose a URL shortener

Three axes separate these tools. First, who creates links. A solo operator wants something simple: YOURLS, or Chhoto URL if you prefer a single Rust binary with SQLite in 64 MB of RAM. A team wants workspaces and roles, which is Dub's territory — 24,570 stars, genuinely polished, and rated Hard to self-host, its stack being the price of the analytics people leave Bitly for.

Second, analytics depth versus footprint. Chhoto URL answers "how many clicks". Kutt and Shlink track individual visits — with geolocation, in Shlink's case — and charge you a Postgres instance for it, plus Redis for Kutt.

Third, API-first or UI-first. Shlink's REST API is the best in the category and the reason it wins any integration work, but its dashboard ships as a separate component you deploy alongside. Kutt leads with a clean web UI, custom domains, and link expiration. YOURLS leads with plugins, accumulated over 17 years of not changing much.

Where to start

YOURLS is the safe default: Easy-rated, 128 MB of RAM, MySQL, click stats, and an admin page that looks dated because it has outlived three generations of prettier rivals. Shlink is the pick when links come from scripts and pipelines: QR codes, tags, multi-domain support, and that API. Kutt is the pick when the people creating links will judge the tool by its interface.

The domain is the single point of failure

The software barely matters next to this. If the domain lapses or the database vanishes, every link you ever shared dies at once, and no migration rescues links already printed, posted, and indexed. Pick a domain you are prepared to renew indefinitely, back up the link database on a schedule, and treat the service as an appliance: patch it, monitor it, and otherwise leave it alone.

For a first-timer: install YOURLS on a short domain you intend to keep for a decade, and set up the database backup before you share your first link.