5 Best Free + Paid URL shortening services for Beginners

More or less most of us have heard about short links, which can be used to put off long, messy URLs and to get a Short Link/URL. People use URL shorteners as it becomes easy to remember and share short links anywhere on social media.

There are many sites over the internet which offer the URL shortening services, we are going to discuss very few but the best of them in this article. However, the services we are going to discuss are most of the popular and effective URL Shorteners which are good for both beginners and professionals.

For whom Link shortener services are meant for?

• Those who put so many links on social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc, if the links are short and manageable then they can easily understand them and it would be more eye-catching to the viewers as well.
• It’s also very helpful to new Bloggers and Content Creators those post their contents on social networking sites, often. Sharing many links, with the help of shorteners, we can also search and also follow them, easily.
• For new Digital Marketers, shortened URLs can also be a source of income.

5 Best free & paid URL shortener websites

1. Bit.ly- free link shortener

Bit.ly is a free service where anyone can sign up and put lengthy URLs to get shorter and manageable links. They can easily share these links on any social media platforms and emails. Bit.ly is the world largest short link Provider, according to research Bit.ly provides more than 600 million links per month.

Pros:

• It allows customizing link’s letters and numbers, which can be more profitable for the content creators. They can easily give a hint about the content in their links to get more views. This type of link shortener service is very important for new creators.
• With Bit.ly you can track and easily count click rates on links and also, it’s free. Thus, beginners, who just started some work they don’t have to put money for this.
• Bit.ly URL shortener can connect a custom domain.
• It has a great Analytics dashboard
• Provides Audience intelligence
• With Bit.ly you can create Custom URL
• Great support due to the Bit.ly integration with Zapier and TweetDeck
• Cloud-hosted
• Can be used for URL retargeting

Price:

The basic service of Bit.ly comes for free. If you want premium features then or the facility of creating any custom domain URL then it will cost you around $35 per month or $349 per year.

Verdict:

A great choice for any freelancers, a good one for any new small-mid-sized businesses if you are considering only the free version.

2. Rebrandly- Custom URL shortener

Rebrandly is the coolest link Shortener where the beginners and professionals can find the easiest way to shortening their long URLs. It allows you to create the branded URL links, where you can use a custom domain name to customized the links that will definitely help you to increase the click rates. Rebrandly is very quick you can make your short links very fast without any hassle.

Pros:

• Rebrandly is very good for Bulk link creation
• UTM parameters are quite compatible with Rebrandly
• API access compatibility with the Rebrandly
• You will find more than 100+ app integrations with Rebrandly
• Rebrandly can even add Emojis on short links, which is quite unique
• It is also GDPR-compatible
• Beautiful Dashboard
• Rapid auto-scaling servers are providing service to Rebrandly
• Rebrandly has also dependable Private reporting
• It can be considered for their Custom report’s capability as well
• Rebrandly features the great feature of Click tracking as well

Price:

Rebrandly offers various kind of plans, depending upon 500 links to 5000 link conversion per month. The Starter plan is $29 per month and the Pro plan comes for $70 per month, while the premium plan comes for $499 a year. Rebrandly is not a free service at all.

Verdict:

 The free feature of the Custom domain name makes it a classy service to opt for.

3. TinyURL shortener

I think you are already understanding it’s work by its name ‘Tiny’. This free URL management system can transform your big URLs into a short link, in a very easy way. You have to just sign up on this system and you can easily create your own short links.

Pros:

• TinyURL is damn Fast in redirection
• Users can custom their domains, and track the visitors on links
• With this TinyURL, it’s very easy to count the views
• Huge user base and a good helpful user community
• With TinyURL, you will have the option to customize the shortened URL
• Using TinyURL you can confirm you completely Anonymous usage
• TinyURL is really very Easy-to-use and the UI is very user-friendly

Price:

TinyURL is 100% free to use service for beginners to professionals.

Verdict:

A very simple tool, quite easy to use, the best choice as a completely free service. Best for any beginner without any doubt.

4. OW.ly – Link shrinker by Hootsuite

Ow.ly is the most popular link Shortener, it’s free to use but if the users need to upgrade the plans then it will charge you. This is the most user-friendly links Shortener service where users can quickly share their links of file and pages anywhere and also, they can track. Speed is important but here is another thing which is more important that is security, OW.ly is the most reliable link Shortener, it makes your account and links more secure and being a part of Hootsuite it has brand reliability and trust.

Pros:

• Offers the URL Performance metrics
• Security against Google’s Safe Browsing blacklist to prevent malware and phishing attacks.
• Custom brand URL shortening service
• It is very good for job-related to Link retargeting
• Provides Trackable short links
• Its web-service is also Mobile platform supportive
• Very good for Rank monitoring
• The capability of Demonstrating social ROI is one more plus with Ow.ly

Price:

Ow.ly comes with both Free and Premium paid services. In order to use the premium features, you have to create an account on Hootsuite.com, which is also paid & free, and along with all other tools and services you will get the premium Ow.ly for free. So, you don’t have to pay anything, the free version of Hootsuite account gives full access of all Owly features.

Verdict:

If you have a prior Hootsuite account, search no further and go for it.

5. ClickMeter

ClickMeter is much less of a URL Shortener and greater of a click on-fee optimizer. There are many features that will help you create a URL with lots of features. ClickMeter is extra for advertisers and organizations who use Google AdWords or other advertising and marketing networks. It works like an appeal for site owners with a global audience and more than one language. In addition to place-based focused, you can use it without difficulty with popular content control structures like WordPress and Shopify. ClickMeter’s dashboard provides an in-intensity analysis document.

Pros:

• ClickMeter does have Multilingual support
• It features the facility of Geotargeting for better marketing result
• ClickMeter is equipped with URL encryption
• For Bulk link creation, ClickMeter is a great option
• Branded tracking links are a speciality of ClickMeter
• Multiple API keys are also featured with ClickMeter
• Google Analytics UTM support is a plus with ClickMeter
• Device-based targeting and Clone links are some notable features of ClickMeter

Price:

ClickMeter is not a free service at all. However, with their 30-day money-back guarantee ClickMeter proves their trust worth. The packages vary from $29/month to $99/month and even freaking $349/month premium package is offered.

Verdict: 

Very good for advertisements, so if you are a digital marketer, this is where you should land.