Bitly vs TinyURL vs Urlicer: how to choose a URL shortener

A side-by-side feature grid of Bitly, TinyURL and Urlicer would be out of date by next week. More useful is a way to decide: the questions that actually matter over the life of your links, and honestly, where each kind of tool tends to fit.

What to compare

• Permanence. Do free links last forever, or expire? This is the one that bites hardest: a dead link on a printed asset is unfixable. Insist on permanence.
• Branded domains. Can you put your own domain on the link, or are you stuck with the shortener's?
• QR codes. Included and customisable, or an afterthought?
• Analytics depth. A click counter, or real geo/device/referrer/QR-vs-direct with sensible retention?
• Privacy. Cookieless and banner-free, or another consent prompt?
• Bulk + API. Can you work at scale and automate?

Where each tends to fit

TinyURL is the quick, no-account utility: great for a one-off link, lighter on analytics and branding. Bitly is the established, enterprise-leaning option with a broad feature set and a paid tier for most of it. Urlicer is the modern, privacy-first choice: links that never expire, a free QR on every link, branded domains, cookieless analytics with no banner, targeting/A-B, and an API you can call on the free plan, with a genuinely usable free tier.

Whichever you pick, run it against the checklist above rather than the logo you recognise. If permanence and privacy are near the top of your list, that's exactly what Urlicer is built around; see the plans.

Want to try the modern option? Shorten a link free. No signup, and every link gets a QR code and click analytics.