Bitly

Bitly essentially invented the link shortener category, and today it's far more than that: branded link management, dynamic QR codes and detailed analytics on every click.

Bitly is a link management platform. The basic function is well known: you paste a long URL and get a short link you can share anywhere. From there everything else opens up. You can customize the end of the link, connect your own domain for fully branded links instead of bit.ly, and generate dynamic QR codes whose destination stays editable even after printing. The analytics section shows how many clicks each link received, from which countries, on which devices and from which referrers, with data that feeds your campaign assessments. The UTM builder helps tag links consistently for Google Analytics tracking, while built-in landing pages let you create simple link-in-bio style pages. Bitly integrates with major marketing tools and can be used via API to generate links automatically.

For marketers, social media managers and companies sharing links across multiple channels who want to measure performance while keeping brand consistency.

Bitly's free plan has become very restrictive over the years, with few links per month and limited analytics: treat it as a trial rather than a stable solution. The Core plan starts at around $10 per month billed annually, Growth costs around $35 per month and introduces a custom domain, while Premium rises to around $300 per month with much higher volumes. An Enterprise plan with custom pricing is available for organizations. Watch the monthly cap on links you can create, which is the real factor determining which plan you need.