Cut.ly and Cuttly Alternatives for Branded Short Links

Cut.ly is a typo that still lands in the right place: cut.ly now redirects to cutt.ly (Cuttly), spelled with two t's. Cuttly is a link shortener with QR codes, link-in-bio pages, surveys and an API. It is alive and run by Web Room Studio, and the homepage claims more than 2.31 billion links managed.

People usually look elsewhere because the free plan is small. It covers 30 short links, 3 custom back-halves and 1 branded domain a month, with 30 days of click history. Link expiry by date or click count and bulk CSV shortening start on Single, which costs $25 a month or $275 a year, according to the Cuttly pricing table. Starter at $12 a month still keeps only 30 days of stats.

The eight picks below cover more free links, cheaper custom domains and self-hosting. One older option has left the market: BL.INK was bought by Loftware in April 2025, and its pricing page now forwards to a packaging product. If you came from the TinyURL side of this question, our TinyURL alternatives page ranks the same tools for a different starting point.

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

Quick comparison

Short.io

Short.io beats Cuttly's free plan on the numbers that matter for branded links. A free account gets 1,000 branded links, 5 custom domains and 50,000 tracked clicks a month, against Cuttly's 30 links and 1 domain. The API, A/B tests and QR codes come with every plan, per the Short.io pricing page.

Those 1,000 links are a lifetime total, not a monthly refill. Hobby at $5 a month lifts the cap to 2,500 links and 7 domains and adds country targeting. Pro at $18 removes the link cap and adds password protection and link expiry, both of which Cuttly keeps for Single at $25.

Best for: Cuttly users who own a domain and want many more free branded links.

Pricing:

• Free: 1,000 branded links total, 5 custom domains, 50,000 tracked clicks/month, 1 user.
• Hobby $5/month, Pro $18/month, Team $48/month, Enterprise $148/month, as monthly prices.
• Annual billing saves 17%.

Watch out for:

• On Free, the pricing FAQ says you can view detailed statistics for the first 50,000 clicks only. Links keep working past that point, but the extra data stays hidden until you upgrade.
• Domain registration is not included in any plan, so you pay your registrar separately.

Official site: Short.io.

TinyURL

On volume TinyURL ties with Cuttly at 30 free links a month. The difference is the click side: the TinyURL plan table lists unlimited tracked clicks, no ads and links that never expire on the free account. The tinyurl.com domain is also familiar to most recipients.

Free accounts cannot shorten on a custom domain, which is the one thing Cuttly Free does better. Pro costs $9 a month billed yearly ($108) or $11 month to month, and covers 125 links a month, 3 branded domains and two years of analytics. That is less than half the price of Cuttly Single for a small team that needs history.

Best for: People who need a free, ad-free short link and do not care about their own domain.

Pricing:

• Free: 30 links/month, unlimited tracked clicks, basic analytics.
• Pro $9/month billed yearly or $11 monthly. Bulk 50K $69/month yearly or $83 monthly. Enterprise from $3,999/year. Prices exclude taxes.

Watch out for:

• Pro's 125 links a month runs out fast; each extra 10 links costs $1.50.
• Branded domains appear only on paid plans.

Official site: TinyURL.

Dub

Dub suits teams that create links from code. Its README says about 99% of the project is AGPLv3, with an /ee folder under a commercial licence, so you can read the source or run your own copy. The hosted Free plan gives 25 new links a month, 1,000 tracked events, 3 custom domains and 30 days of analytics.

The billing toggle changes the quota, not only the price. Pro costs $27 a month billed yearly or $30 monthly. Monthly Pro gets 1,000 new links each month, while yearly Pro receives 12,000 links and 600,000 events at the start of the year, per Dub Links pricing. Cuttly has no such split.

Best for: Developers who want an API-first shortener with source code they can host later.

Pricing:

• Free: 25 new links/month, 1,000 tracked events/month, 3 custom domains, 1 user.
• Pro $27/month billed yearly ($30 monthly). Business $81 yearly ($90 monthly). Advanced $270 yearly ($300 monthly).

Watch out for:

• Self-hosting is a project of its own: the README stack lists Vercel, PlanetScale, Tinybird and Upstash.
• 1,000 tracked events a month on Free is small if one link gets shared widely.

Official site: Dub.

Rebrandly

Rebrandly undercuts Cuttly's first paid tier. Essentials costs $8 a month billed yearly or $11 monthly for 250 links, 10,000 tracked clicks and 2 custom domains. Cuttly Starter is $12 a month for 300 links and 1 domain, per the Rebrandly pricing page.

The free plan is thinner than Cuttly's: 10 links a month, 1 custom domain plus rebrand.ly, and 10 QR codes. Professional at $22 a month yearly or $32 monthly adds teammates, 1,500 links and 3 domains. Growth at $104 or $149 reaches 10 domains.

Best for: Small marketing teams that want two branded domains on the cheapest plan.

Pricing:

• Free: 10 links/month, 1 custom domain, 10 QR codes/month.
• Essentials $8/month yearly or $11 monthly. Professional $22 or $32. Growth $104 or $149. Annual billing saves up to 31%.

Watch out for:

• Free engagement data covers only 100 clicks a month.
• Monthly billing costs up to about 45% more than yearly (yearly saves up to 31%).

Official site: Rebrandly.

Bitly

Bitly is the name most marketing tools integrate with, and its paid plans bundle QR codes and landing pages with links. As a free Cuttly replacement it falls short. Free allows 5 links and 2 QR codes a month, and the Bitly help article on ads says free links open an interstitial page with an ad.

Core is $10 a month and sold on yearly billing only ($120). A custom domain arrives with Growth at $29 a month billed yearly ($348 a year), which also gives 500 links and 120 days of data. Premium is $199 a month for 3,000 links and a year of history.

Best for: Teams already paying for Bitly QR codes who want everything in one account.

Pricing:

• Free: 5 links/month, 2 QR codes/month, ads on links.
• Core $10/month billed yearly ($120). Growth $29/month billed yearly ($348/year). Premium $199/month billed yearly ($2,388/year). Enterprise by quote.

Watch out for:

• Ad interstitials on free links make them a poor fit for anything customer-facing.
• Core keeps 30 days of analytics, the same as Cuttly Free.

Official site: Bitly.

YOURLS

YOURLS drops the monthly link count altogether. It is a PHP and MySQL script under the MIT licence that you install on your own short domain. The project site lists click history, referrers, visitor location, an API, bookmarklets and a plugin system.

Maintenance is steady. Version 1.10.6 shipped on August 30, 2026, two days after 1.10.5, which hardened password and cookie handling and closed an unauthenticated file inclusion bug, according to the YOURLS release notes. Version 1.10.0 and later need PHP 8.1.

Best for: Anyone with a cheap server who wants unlimited links on their own domain.

Pricing:

• Free and open source (MIT). You pay for hosting and the domain.

Watch out for:

• Security updates are your job. Release 1.10.4 in May 2026 fixed an XSS bug in stats pages fed by referrer data.
• Cuttly extras such as bio pages and surveys are not in the core feature list.

Official site: YOURLS.

Kutt

For no server and no bill, the public Kutt instance at kutt.to lets you add custom domains for free. Each link can carry a password, an expiry and a description. Cuttly charges for expiry, which starts on Single.

Kutt is also a self-hosted project under MIT, built on Node with SQLite, Postgres or MySQL, and its repository has about 11.1k stars. That makes it the lighter self-host choice next to Dub.

Best for: Free branded links with per-link expiry and passwords.

Pricing:

• kutt.to: free; a Premium tier is linked with no public price.
• Self-hosted: free, open source (MIT).

Watch out for:

• The README warns that kutt.it is not run by the project and could be a phishing site. Use kutt.to.
• There are no published limits or prices for Premium.

Official site: Kutt.

Tiny.cc

Tiny.cc is the cheapest paid road to a custom domain in this list. Starter costs $5 a month or $55 a year for 500 links, 1 custom domain and 2 users, per the Tiny.cc plans page.

Executive at $25 a month or $275 a year mirrors Cuttly Single on price and gives 10,000 links, 3 domains and 10 users. Every paid plan includes the REST API, and Pro at $44 adds the Webhooks API. New accounts get a 7-day trial without a card rather than a lasting free tier.

Best for: Small teams that need one branded domain and a few users on a low budget.

Pricing:

• Starter $5/month or $55/year. Executive $25 or $275. Pro $44 or $484.
• 7-day free trial, no card.

Watch out for:

• If the account expires, links still open but through a preview page, and you cannot edit or add links.
• Past the redirect limit, clicks reach the target only after a second click on an interstitial.

Official site: Tiny.cc.

How to choose

When to stay with Cuttly

Keep Cuttly if you use more than the shortener. Bio pages, surveys and Action Pages share one account, and the homepage lists TRAI-compliant short links for SMS marketing in India, which none of the picks above advertise. The homepage FAQ also says Cuttly links do not expire and that it injects no ads into redirects.

Frequently asked questions