Methodology
How we rank URL shorteners
The exact criteria behind every list on this site, so you can disagree with the weighting rather than wonder what it was.
What we measure
For every tool we record the same fields from its public pricing page:
- Free-plan link quota: how many short links you can create or keep active without paying, and whether the quota is per month or lifetime.
- Custom domain on the free plan: whether you can use your own domain (for example
go.yourbrand.com) without paying. - Ads on free links: whether people who click your links see an interstitial or a branded page before reaching the destination.
- Analytics on the free plan: how many days of click history you can see, and whether analytics are gated at all.
- Entry price: the cheapest paid plan, billed monthly and annually where both are published.
- Paid-plan limits: links, custom domains and analytics retention on that cheapest paid plan.
- Feature flags: API, link-in-bio pages, QR codes, UTM builder, link expiration, password protection, geo and device routing, A/B testing, retargeting pixels, bot-click filtering, team seats.
How a category winner is chosen
Each category page states up front which of those fields decide it. "Best free" is decided by free links, free custom domain, ads and free analytics, in that order. "Best for developers" is decided by API quality, documentation and SDKs, which is why Dub wins that list. "Best for enterprise" is decided by SSO, compliance, SLAs and seat management, which is why Bitly and Rebrandly lead it. Tools are then ordered by how well they serve the specific intent of the page, not by an overall score, because a tool that is perfect for a solo creator can be wrong for a 40-person marketing team.
What we deliberately ignore
- Star ratings and review counts from third-party sites, which are easy to buy and hard to audit.
- Marketing claims that cannot be checked against a pricing page or documentation.
- Our own preferences about design or brand.
Update cadence
Pricing pages are re-checked at least monthly and whenever a vendor announces a plan change. Every page shows the date of the last verification. The current dataset was verified on 8 November 2026 and covers 10 tools.