T.LY Alternative (2026): Where the QR and Team Limits Bite
T.LY is a solid, fairly priced shortener, and its entry plan is genuinely good value. The reasons people start looking elsewhere are narrow and specific: QR codes are metered on every plan, and nothing below $50 a month lets a second person into the account.
QR codes are metered on all four tiers
T.LY counts QR codes against a monthly allowance on every plan it sells, including the paid ones. That is worth understanding before you print anything: a QR code is a rendering of a link you have already created, so a poster, a table card and a packaging insert for the same campaign each consume a unit, and changing the design consumes more.
Urlicer does not meter QR codes at all, on any plan, including the free one. Colours, gradients, module and eye shapes and frames with your own call to action, on every plan including the free one. A centre logo and SVG export are on paid plans.
Team seats are the second wall
On T.LY's published plans, no tier below Pro at $50/month includes team members, and that tier includes five. Ten seats means the $100 Business plan.
Urlicer includes 3 seats at $12 and 10 seats at $29. If the second person is a designer who makes the QR codes and the third is whoever pastes links into the help centre, that difference is the whole bill.
The prices, side by side
T.LY's published monthly pricing, as verified in August 2026 — check their pricing page for current figures:
- Personal, $10 — 2 custom domains, API access, QR codes metered, no team seats.
- Basic, $20 — more volume, QR codes still metered, no team seats.
- Pro, $50 — 5 team members.
- Business, $100 — 10 team members.
Urlicer, monthly:
- Free, $0 — 500 links/month, unlimited QR codes, 25k tracked clicks, 1 seat, API.
- Pro, $12 — 5,000 links, unlimited QR codes, 2 domains, 250k tracked clicks, 3 seats.
- Team, $29 — 50,000 links, unlimited QR codes, 10 domains, 2.5M tracked clicks, 10 seats.
- Business, $99 — 500,000 links, unlimited QR codes, unlimited domains and seats.
The clearest gap is at ten people: $29 against $100. On annual billing the discounts differ too — T.LY's annual works out at roughly eleven months for twelve, where Urlicer's is ten.
Where T.LY is the better buy
If you are one person and will stay one person, T.LY Personal at $10 is cheaper than Urlicer Pro at $12, and it includes two custom domains and API access just as Pro does. We are not going to pretend otherwise: for a solo user with modest QR needs, that is a fair deal and two dollars is two dollars. T.LY also has browser extensions and a longer track record.
The comparison turns when a second person needs access, or when QR codes go on something printed.
What to check before you switch
- Where do your existing links live? If they are on a T.LY-hosted domain they cannot move with you. Links on your own custom domain can. Plan the move before you cancel — see why short links should never expire.
- Can you export click history? Analytics you cannot take with you are rented.
- Count the seats you will need in a year, not today. Seats are what this category charges for.
- Check where analytics are processed. Urlicer's are cookieless and handled in the EU, so a link does not add a consent banner to the page it is pasted on.
The risk nobody prices in
Every shared short domain carries the same structural risk: one stranger’s phishing campaign can get the whole domain flagged, and then your links stop resolving — including the ones already printed. It is worth asking any shortener what it actually does about that. Here is what we do, mechanism by mechanism.
Unmetered QR codes, ten seats at $29, and analytics that need no cookie banner. Shorten a link free. No signup, and every link gets a QR code and click analytics.