Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover link in bio. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Beacons | Short.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $10 | From $5 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | None |
| API | Not stated | Yes |
| Data export | Not stated | Everything, in an open format |
| Their cut | 9% of what you earn | Not stated |
| Runs on | Not stated | Web |
| Covers | Link in Bio, Brand Deals & Sponsorships, Digital Products & Storefronts | Link in Bio, Analytics |
| Works with | YouTube, TikTok, Instagram | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
Link in bio that doubles as a store and a media kit
Beacons started as a link page and grew into email, a shop and a media kit for brand deals. Having the pitch deck and the store in the same place is genuinely useful. The free tier carries branding.
Our note
Good if the media kit is the reason you are here. If it is not, Beacons is a heavier link page than most people need, and the 9 percent on the cheap plans is easy to miss until a product sells well.
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Link shortening with the analytics attached
Short.io is a link shortener for people who care what happened after the click: country targeting, deep links into apps, and click data you can pull out rather than only look at. Custom domains are on every plan including the free one. The pricing page also converts into about twenty currencies, which is rarer than it should be.
Our note
The free plan here does more than several paid plans elsewhere, which makes Short.io the sensible place to start. Move to Rebrandly if link galleries and brand polish matter more to you than the export.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.
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