Bitly vs Short.io Comparison 2026
Bitly's free plan allows five links a month with advertising, and its first paid tier, Core, is $10 a month. Short.io's free plan gives 50,000 tracked clicks a month with custom domains included, and its first paid tier, Hobby, is $5 a month, half of Bitly's Core price. Short.io also exports raw click data and prices itself in about twenty currencies. The gap is less about features than about how much each gives away before charging anything, and Short.io gives away considerably more.
At a glance
- Short.io starts cheaper, at $5.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Bitly | Short.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | 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 | None | None |
| API |
Bitly
Short links, QR codes and a bio page
Bitly shortens and brands links, makes QR codes that stay editable after they have been printed, and builds a link-in-bio page from the same account, with click data under all three. The free plan is five links a month and carries advertising. What the money buys is the branded domain and the reporting behind it.
Our note
For a bio link alone this is expensive next to Linktree or Zaap. It earns the money when the same links are going onto packaging and into a campaign report, which is the job the cheaper ones do not do.
Only on this side
- Works with Instagram
- Works with TikTok
Short.io
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.
Why people weigh these two
- Short.io instead of Bitly
- Link shortening with the analytics attached from $5, half Bitly's starting price for the links-and-reporting core.
- Bitly instead of Short.io
- Bitly adds QR codes and a bio page around the short link, with a free tier and a $10 plan, for somebody who wants those extras bundled in.
Which one should you pick
Choose Bitly for the parts Short.io does not cover: an editable QR code that can be repointed after printing, a link-in-bio page, and a UTM builder for labelling campaign traffic at creation. Core is $10 a month once the free plan's five links and adverts stop being enough. It is wrong for anybody who mainly wants click data as data, since Bitly does not offer an export the way Short.io does.
Choose Short.io for the free tier alone: 50,000 tracked clicks a month, custom domains included, and 10 MB of storage, all before paying anything. Hobby is $5 a month, half of Bitly's Core, and Pro at $18 removes the click ceiling entirely. Neither a bio page nor printed QR codes appear here. It is wrong for anybody who wants either of those built in, since neither is part of what Short.io offers.
Common questions
- Which free plan gives more, Bitly or Short.io?
- Short.io's, by a wide margin. It allows 50,000 tracked clicks a month with custom domains included, while Bitly's free plan is five links a month with advertising and no custom domain. Short.io's paid tiers also start lower, at $5 a month against Bitly's $10.
- Can I get my click data out of either tool?
- Short.io says yes: it exports links and click data to S3, listed as full data export. Bitly has no matching export; its analytics are built to be read on the dashboard rather than pulled out as raw data.
- Does Short.io have a link-in-bio page like Bitly does?
- Not as part of the product. Short.io is built around link shortening and click analytics, with country targeting and app deep links, rather than a bio page. Bitly bundles a bio page into the same account as its short links.
- Why is Short.io cheaper than Bitly at the entry tier?
- Its Hobby plan is $5 a month against Bitly's Core at $10, exactly half. Short.io also gives custom domains and 50,000 tracked clicks away for free, where Bitly's free plan stops at five links a month with advertising attached.
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.