StartupStash

An editorial team. Writers who work in each category build the lists. Prices come from the vendors' own pages.

AdFly Alternatives for Paid and Ad-Free Short Links

AdFly (adf.ly) was the best-known pay-per-click link shortener. You wrapped a link, visitors saw an ad before the destination, and you earned a share of the ad money. It is gone as a separate service. adf.ly now redirects to linkvertise.com, and BuiltWith records adf.ly subdomains forwarding to migrate-adfly.linkvertise.com from September to October 2026.

The takeover is older than the redirect. A forum post from April 19, 2023 cites a Reddit thread saying AdFly had become part of Linkvertise. A Tipalti case study quotes Linkvertise saying it bought a competitor, without naming it. If you had an AdFly balance or old adf.ly links, the redirect points to Linkvertise, so that is where to ask.

Be realistic about what these services pay. The official rate tables below run from $1.50 to $40 per 1,000 views depending on the visitor's country, and only a few countries get the top rates. Your visitors pay a price too. ESET found that ad-based shorteners send visitors to scareware, shady surveys and fake apps, and that a tap on a download button can be hijacked to install Android malware (ESET research, July 2021). The list starts with ad-supported networks that are alive today and ends with three normal shorteners for people who just want a short link.

Prices below are as of November 6, 2026. Our method is on How we review tools.

Quick comparison

Tool Best for Price Platforms
Linkvertise Old AdFly users and creators sharing downloads Free to join; no public rate table Web
ShrinkMe.io Clear per-country rates and a $5 minimum Free; $3.25 to $22 per 1,000 views Web, API
ShrinkEarn $15 per 1,000 US views on its default package Free; $2.00 to $40 per 1,000 views Web
Ouo.io A long-running network with PayPal payouts Free; $1.50 to $5 per 1,000 views Web
TinyURL Short links with no ads at all Free; Pro $9/month yearly Web, API
Short.io Branded links with real stats Free; Hobby $5/month Web, API, browser extensions
Cuttly A link-in-bio page for creators Free; Starter $12/month Web, API

Linkvertise

Linkvertise is where adf.ly now points, so it is the default home for anyone whose AdFly account or links moved. The pitch is for creators: share art, gaming assets, scripts and other files behind a Linkvertise link and earn from every click by your fans.

There is no public payout table on the homepage. Tipalti, which runs its payouts, says Linkvertise pays creators in 120 currencies in daily batches and that more than 15 million monetised links have been shared. Reviewers say visitors pay with their time, through waits and Premium offers before the content.

Best for: Creators of mods, scripts and digital downloads who want the network that absorbed AdFly.

Pricing:

  • Free to join as a creator. No public rate per 1,000 views on the homepage.
  • Payouts in 120 currencies, sent in daily batches.

Watch out for:

  • Trustpilot rates it 2.7 out of 5 from 718 reviews. A review dated September 12, 2026 says the account was banned right after a payout request. Linkvertise replied that a payout request alone does not get a creator banned.
  • Visitors complain about long waits, a push toward Premium, and Premium charges continuing after cancellation.

ShrinkMe.io

ShrinkMe.io publishes the kind of rate table AdFly users were used to. Desktop and mobile pay the same per 1,000 views: $22 for Greenland, $16 for Ireland, $10 for the United States and $3.25 for its worldwide deal that covers every other country.

The same page lists a $5 minimum payout and daily payment. It does not name payment methods, so check those in your account before you send traffic.

Best for: Bloggers and forum posters with mixed traffic who want small, frequent payouts.

Pricing:

  • Free to join.
  • $3.25 to $22 per 1,000 views by country. Minimum payout $5, paid daily.

Watch out for:

  • Rates can change. The page says they are dynamic and depend on the advertising income ShrinkMe receives.
  • Trustpilot shows 4.1 out of 5 from 386 reviews, but two April 2026 reviews complain of withdrawals stuck on pending, one for $113.10 after more than a week.

ShrinkEarn

ShrinkEarn lists the highest rates here on paper. Its default package lists $40 per 1,000 views from Monaco and $15 for US traffic, against $3.50 for the worldwide deal.

The rates page lists a $5 minimum payout, daily payments and seven methods: PayPal, WebMoney, Payeer, AirTm, PaySera, Perfect Money and UPI.

Best for: Publishers with a lot of US or European traffic who want high listed rates on the default package.

Pricing:

  • Free to join.
  • Default package: $3.50 to $40 per 1,000 views. Minimum payout $5, paid daily.

Watch out for:

  • Rates depend on the ad package you choose. The survey package lists US traffic at $12 on desktop and $27 on mobile, and the worldwide rate falls to $3.00 there and $2.00 on the faucet package.
  • Trustpilot shows 4.4 out of 5 from 631 reviews. A June 2026 review says views are undercounted, an August 2026 one says links with no visits for three months were deleted, and the page notes the company has not replied to negative reviews.

Ouo.io

Ouo.io promises at least $1.50 per 1,000 views from any country. Its rate page lists $5 for Australia, $4.30 for the United Kingdom, $4.10 for the United States and $1.50 for all other countries.

Those numbers are lower than ShrinkMe or ShrinkEarn. The same page names PayPal, Payoneer and Payeer as payment methods.

Best for: People who want PayPal or Payoneer payouts and accept lower rates.

Pricing:

  • Free to join.
  • $1.50 to $5 per 1,000 views by country.

Watch out for:

  • Trustpilot shows 2.1 out of 5 from only 20 reviews. One from January 3, 2025 says the account was closed when it reached the minimum payout, and one from June 2025 says views were not counted.
  • Ouo.io does not publish a minimum payout or payment schedule.

TinyURL

Not everyone searching for AdFly wants to earn from links. If you only need a short address, TinyURL's free plan lists no ads, a custom alias, unlimited tracked clicks and links that never expire, with 30 links a month on a free account.

Your visitors land straight on the destination, which keeps them trusting your links. Pro at $9 a month billed yearly adds custom domains and full click reports. More options are in our TinyURL alternatives.

Best for: Anyone who wants short links without ad pages in front of them.

Pricing:

  • Free: 30 links/month, no ads.
  • Pro $9/month yearly or $11 monthly.

Watch out for:

  • TinyURL pays you nothing; it is a plain shortener, and free stats are limited to click totals.

Short.io

Short.io is the better fit if you were using AdFly mostly for its click stats. Its free tier counts up to 50,000 clicks a month across 1,000 branded links and five custom domains, with QR codes and the API included.

Links on your own domain also look more trustworthy than an ad-shortener URL, which helps if you post in communities that are wary of them. Hobby is $5 a month if you need more.

Best for: Creators who want branded links and real analytics instead of ad income.

Pricing:

  • Free: 1,000 links total, 50,000 tracked clicks/month.
  • Hobby $5/month. Pro $18/month. Team $48/month.

Watch out for:

  • Custom domains are the point, and the pricing page notes you pay for domain registration yourself.

Cuttly

Cuttly suits creators who used ad links to share many downloads from one profile. Its free plan includes a link-in-bio page with up to five URLs, 30 short links a month and one branded domain.

Single, at $25 a month or $275 a year, raises that to three bio pages, 5,000 links and a year of analytics.

Best for: Creators who want one bio page that lists all their links.

Pricing:

  • Free: 30 links/month, 1 bio page with 5 URLs.
  • Starter $12/month. Single $25/month. Team $99/month.

Watch out for:

  • Free analytics only go back 30 days.

How to choose

If you need Pick
The network adf.ly now forwards to Linkvertise
A $5 minimum payout, paid daily ShrinkMe.io
$15 per 1,000 US views on the default package ShrinkEarn
PayPal or Payoneer payouts Ouo.io
Short links with no ads TinyURL
Click stats on your own domain Short.io
A bio page for all your links Cuttly

If you still have AdFly links

There is no AdFly left to stay with. Old adf.ly links now land on Linkvertise, so open a few of yours and replace any that no longer reach your content. If you had an earnings balance, contact Linkvertise, since adf.ly now forwards to its site.

Frequently asked questions

Is adf.ly still working?

Only as a doorway. Typing adf.ly, or clicking the site from a search in any language, ends on linkvertise.com. BuiltWith also logs at least two adf.ly subdomains forwarding to a Linkvertise migration address, so there is no separate AdFly dashboard to log in to.

How much can you earn with a link shortener?

Very little for most traffic. At the listed rates, 10,000 views from countries outside the top tiers pay about $32.50 on ShrinkMe, $35 on ShrinkEarn's default package and $15 on Ouo.io. Only traffic from a few rich countries gets close to the headline figures.

Are pay-per-click link shorteners safe?

Not for your visitors. The ads come from outside networks, and ESET noted that one shortener banned malicious files in its own terms while its ad partners served them. Payouts are not certain either: reviews of Linkvertise and Ouo.io describe accounts closed at payout time. Keep these links away from client work and any link people need to trust.

What is the best AdFly alternative?

For earning, ShrinkMe.io: its rates page lists per-country rates, a $5 minimum and daily payment. For plain short links, TinyURL, because its pricing page lists no ads on the free plan.

StartupStash

An editorial team. Writers who work in each category build the lists. Prices come from the vendors' own pages.

More alternatives

Ethermine Alternatives for GPU Miners After the Merge

Ethermine stopped Ethereum mining at the Merge in September 2022 and its site now promotes staking. Here are 7 GPU mining pools and tools that still work.

Ethermine alternatives

Hapi Alternatives for Node.js APIs and Web Servers

hapi 21.4.13 shipped November 4, 2026 and is still maintained. Compare Fastify, NestJS, Express, Koa, AdonisJS, Hono and Elysia on versions and runtimes.

Hapi alternatives

Dune Analytics Alternatives for Onchain SQL and Dashboards

Dune's free plan is now view-only. Six alternatives for blockchain SQL and dashboards: BigQuery, Allium, Nansen, Token Terminal, DefiLlama, Artemis.

Dune Analytics alternatives