Private and open-source alternatives to Bitly

4 URL shorteners rated against the same public privacy criteria as Bitly, with our picks first.

What is the best private alternative to Bitly?

Shlink has the highest score among these alternatives: 80 out of 100 (grade B).

Open source: no. Closed source.
No trackers or telemetry: no. The website loads Google Tag Manager and Optimizely, and the privacy policy describes tracking pixels and third-party analytics providers.
No ads or data sales: no. Link destination previews may include third-party advertising, and mobile advertising identifiers are collected.
Independent audit: partial. Bitly states it is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant, but the report is not public.
Tells users about requests: no. No published policy on notifying users about data requests.
Security headers: no. Grade F (20/100+)
Modern web standards: no. Score 62%

Shlink Grade B

Self-hosted URL shortener with a REST API, command line tools, custom domains, QR codes and visit tracking. Managed through a separate web client or the API.

Shlink scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the URL shorteners criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
YOURLS Grade C

Self-hosted PHP URL shortener with a plugin system, an API, bookmarklets and click statistics for your own short domain.

YOURLS scores 65 out of 100 (grade C) on the URL shorteners criteria. It meets 2 of 4 criteria: open source and no ads or data sales.
Dub Grade D

Open source link management platform for short links, QR codes, conversion tracking and affiliate programs. Available as a hosted service or for self-hosting.

Based in the United States (Five Eyes). Dub scores 59 out of 100 (grade D) on the URL shorteners criteria. It meets 3 of 9 criteria: open source, no ads or data sales and TLS configuration.
Kutt Grade D

Open source URL shortener with custom domains, password-protected and expiring links, and link statistics. Can be self-hosted, and the developers run a hosted instance at kutt.to.

Kutt scores 56 out of 100 (grade D) on the URL shorteners criteria. It meets 3 of 9 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.