Polr vs spoo.me
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted url shorteners options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Polr | spoo.me |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 21 · At risk | 76 · Good |
| Category | URL Shorteners | URL Shorteners |
| License | GPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | PHP | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,096 | ★ 251 |
| First released | 2014 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Bitly | Bitly, Cuttly |
What are Polr and spoo.me?
Polr
Polr is a self-hosted link shortener built with Laravel that offers a minimalist interface, an API, and basic analytics. It is designed to be quick to deploy and easy to use.
- Minimalist link shortener
- Developer API
- Basic click analytics
- Laravel-based
spoo.me
spoo.me is an open-source, self-hostable URL shortener that produces short links with detailed click statistics and optional password protection. It can be deployed quickly with a Python web stack.
- Detailed click stats
- Password-protected links
- Emoji short codes
- REST API
Polr vs spoo.me: key differences
Polr is written in PHP, while spoo.me is built with Python. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for Polr versus MIT for spoo.me. Polr is the more established project (first released 2014), while spoo.me arrived in 2023. Polr has the considerably larger community, at 5,096 GitHub stars versus 251.
Why pick each one
Choose Polr if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 5.1k GitHub stars
- Written in PHP
Choose spoo.me if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Python
Frequently asked questions
Is Polr or spoo.me better?
Neither is universally better. Polr has the larger community, while spoo.me is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Polr and spoo.me free and open-source?
Yes. Polr is licensed under GPL-2.0 and spoo.me under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Polr and spoo.me with Docker?
Polr: yes. spoo.me: yes.