Short.io vs Statcounter Comparison 2026
Both cover analytics. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
Link shortening with the analytics attached
A visitor log with a lasting free tier
At a glance
- Short.io starts cheaper, at $5.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Short.io | Statcounter | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $5 | From $18 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial (they differ) | None | 30 days |
| API | Yes | Not stated |
| Data export | Everything, in an open format | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | None |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
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.
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.
Only on this side
- Covers link in bio
Statcounter
A visitor log with a lasting free tier
Statcounter has been counting visitors since before analytics became a discipline, and it still does the thing that made it useful: a live feed of individual visits rather than only aggregates, which is how somebody works out what one specific referral actually did. The free plan keeps two weeks of history for a small site. Paying buys longer retention, more sessions and session replay. It is a visitor log rather than a product analytics suite, and anybody wanting funnels and cohorts is looking at the wrong tool.
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.