Bitly vs. Short.io

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Bitly
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Bitly (Bit.ly) is one of the most popular link shortening tools. The vendor says it shortens 1 billion links per month. The company is privately held, based in New York City, and was founded in 2008.
$35
per month
Short.io
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Short.io (formerly Short.cm) is a custom domain URL shortener used to create, customize, and share short branded links. The vendor boasts advanced features like country/region/mobile targeting; set up UTM-tags, link expiration/cloaking; apply API for developers; free email and online support. Users can manage short links with colleagues by using the Team option. The integrations with Google Analytics, GTM, Segment, Zapier, and Facebook Pixel are also available.N/A
Pricing
BitlyShort.io
Editions & Modules
Basic
$35
per month
Free
Free
Customized
Contact sales team
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BitlyShort.io
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BitlyShort.io
Considered Both Products
Bitly
Chose Bitly
we have also evaluated and used other URL shortening and link tracking tools such as TinyURL, Ow.ly (Hootsuite's link shortener), and Rebrandly. Each of these tools offers similar features to Bitly, including URL shortening, link tracking, and analytics. However, we found Bitly …
Chose Bitly
Bitly has more features and automatically links to Linkinbio. Redirects are better. Analytics tool is unbeatable.
Chose Bitly
We have always only used Bitly as it serves our needs perfectly.
Chose Bitly
Bitly is the most fully featured and intuitive of the (albeit limited) options we have evaluated. Bitly is also the link shortener that our staff and our user base have had the most interaction with, so it was the choice with the least friction/switching costs up front. In this …
Chose Bitly
Bitly is the brand most associate with URL shortening. It's incredibly easy to use, non technical users can see instantly how it works and pick it up without issue. The features are increasing all the time, though now mostly locked behind the paid tiers - if you ever need to …
Chose Bitly
Bitly stands out against TinyURL because of the improved functions. What I mean is that TinyURL does not feature a link management feature as well constructed as Bitly does. The lack of these features makes TinyURL a not-so-attractive option if you want to engage your presence …
Chose Bitly
Found TinyURL interface and management to be bulky compared to the ease of use in the Bitly interface.
Chose Bitly
We use Pretty Links for custom URLs from our Word Press website. When that is not possible because the URL doesn't originate from the website, we use Bitly. It definitely has a purpose in our day-to-day operations. We also appreciate the information you receive like total …
Chose Bitly
Bitly is easy to use and budget-friendly. Bitly is also specifically error-free. Being a responsible brand, we have to choose a trusted brand in which this service comes true. It is easily used by even less experienced team members and saves time. The advanced analytics feature …
Chose Bitly
We used Google for a long time until Google decided to remove that product (and replace it with another that did not exactly serve our use case, at least not in the most comfortable way) so we had to find an alternative and we tried Bitly, which actually worked very well for us …
Chose Bitly
I didn’t use rebrand my for long. Possibly because the UX wasn’t as clean as bitly.
Chose Bitly
We selected Bitly because there are more features on the administrative side, at least when we initially purchased our account. We have not checked back with TinyURL recently to see if their interface has improved.
Chose Bitly
Simplicity of the tool is Bitly’s competitive advantage. It is is easy to use, create links and measure and report analytics. Though Hootsuite had other use cases such as social sharing, scheduling, etc. Bitly is great if you have to shorten links or give the links their own …
Chose Bitly
Bitly is a better product overall however it does cost more.
Chose Bitly
Bitly integrates better with the other social media software we use and gives us better insights.
Chose Bitly
The functionality is very similar - but I find Bitly UI is more clear.
Chose Bitly
I use Hootsuite for scheduling social media posts, but it also offers a link shortener, which serves the same purpose as Bitly but with additional features like scheduling posts and monitoring your brand. If you're looking for something a bit more complex than Bitly, I would …
Chose Bitly
Long ago we used tinyurl.com to create all our short links. The service is rudimentary at best. We immediately switched to Bitly once we discovered the many features it has to offer. We were most excited to switch upon discovering we could assign our own branded short links …
Chose Bitly
We looked at other platforms such as Google link shortener, but then they discontinued that. We haven't looked at alternatives in a little while because we have found good success and are comfortable with the platform that Bitly offers.
Chose Bitly
Since recognizing that Bitly is not accepted on all social media sites I tried to look for an alternative, specifically just for those platforms and was only able to find a tool called Pretty links that offered similar features that worked for what I needed.

Both Pretty Links …
Chose Bitly
It's the easiest tool to use, it is free, and it has the most capabilities. I like how it tracks the link's performance among campaigns. You can customize the link and make it easier for your audience to type in and remember. Bitly is well designed and easy to use without much …
Chose Bitly
I prefer Bitly to TinyURL or any other URL shortening service by far. Simplicity, less known for having bogus/phishing links and higher integrity. Plus better reporting.
Chose Bitly
It’s better than to.click because it preserves eBay in the link name
Short.io
Chose Short.io
Short.io is much more versatile compared to Bitly, in addition to having the option to change the language to Spanish, Short.io has better accessibility, and more options to provide people looking for a page that provides them with information as vital as the clicks on the …
Chose Short.io
Short is far superior to Bitly in almost every way. It has better tracking, better organizational features, and is easier to use.
Chose Short.io
Short.cm stands out to be the most easiest and accessible long links shortening software I have ever used. I recommend this software to any user who works on Twitter mostly as it has a character limit for its tweets. Also for organisations that require shortened links to …
Chose Short.io
I used Bitly many years ago. I prefer Short.io because it's a bit easier to use and set up. Plus it's free on the tier that we need.
Chose Short.io
Our security officer said Short.cm's security practices were better than the others. I like Short.cm more than the others because of its interface and statistics dashboard.
Chose Short.io
It's the cheapest and most user-friendly of the bunch. I also appreciate the Chrome extension which makes shortening a page super quick.
Best Alternatives
BitlyShort.io
Small Businesses
Branch
Branch
Score 8.6 out of 10
Branch
Branch
Score 8.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Branch
Branch
Score 8.6 out of 10
Branch
Branch
Score 8.6 out of 10
Enterprises

No answers on this topic

No answers on this topic

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User Ratings
BitlyShort.io
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(0 ratings)
7.4
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
7.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BitlyShort.io
Likelihood to Recommend
It gets the job done and has a really good analytics tool. It links to Linkinbio and integrates with other apps as well. The redirect is a big pro for me since our URL are constantly changing but I don't want the short URL that I've marketing to be changing all the time.
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Having used many link shorteners, Short.io is one of the best and most reasonably priced. Does everything I need it to.
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Pros
  • Very easy to use. Anyone with even limited tech knowledge would be able to begin using the service from day one.
  • Managing and tracking links is very straightforward and offers you exactly what you need.
  • Can use for free and even without signing in, so it's very open and available to everyone.
  • Has been around long enough for it to be a trusted brand, so people feel secure in clicking on it.
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  • Click tracking.
  • Campaign tracking.
  • Statistics
  • Short links.
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Cons
  • One thing I've noticed is that if you're shortening a link that you didn't create - for example shortening the link to a news article that you then want to share on Twitter - the analytics will continue to pull data from the original URL as a whole, and not just your unique Bitlink. It would be nice to be able to pull out the traffic that just my efforts are pulling to the site, and not every single source of traffic that site is getting.
Read full review
  • Short.cm could have integrated themselves into daily apps like Gmail, Twitter, etc so users do not need to go to the website, shorten the link and go back to their messaging tool.
  • Request short.cm to provide more features in the basic/free version of their software.
  • I do not see Short.cm doing enough marketing for their software to be used by general internet users.
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Likelihood to Renew
Bitly helps us determine how many people are clicking on our links and where they are finding these links.
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Usability
Using Bitly to create shareable, trackable short links for social media couldn't be easier. Bitly is super easy to manage and offers easy monitoring of short links. Even with the few shortcomings or cumbersome features, Bitly is ranked number 1 for shortening links for our organization because of how simple it is to use.
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No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
I've witnessed very little availability issues with Bitly. This includes very rare occurrences of application errors and unplanned outages, of which I very much appreciate. When there are application errors or outages, Bitly does a great job of handling the issues in a timely manner and I am rarely out of the site for long at all. This is great, considering I was using Bitly for nearly every link that was posted to our social media accounts.
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No answers on this topic
Performance
I have used Bitly's service on a variety of computers, systems, and browsers. With this being said, I have not noticed much of a change at all between the browsers and computers, and Bitly's performance is top notch. Reports are also completed in a reasonable time frame, and I have had very little problem with lag time on loading different pages on the site. Pages tend to load quite quickly.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
For us, Bitly is a Godsend an an almost perfect solution. I have no complaints and would recommend them to almost anyone. I guess I would hold back from a 10/10 because short URLs can sometimes look spammy. For us, and what we need it for, it's just about perfect!
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No answers on this topic
In-Person Training
I did not receive any in-person training, as I felt that I didn't need this type of training in order to understand and learn Bitly. It was quite easy for me to explore Bitly and learn the features myself without needing a person to give me a demo or tutorial. Kudos to making a platform that is very straightforward.
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No answers on this topic
Online Training
I haven't experienced direct online training - However, several times while learning Bitly by myself I went to the main Bitly page to answer a few questions I had. This includes determining exactly what features I was receiving and then I would explore the website and find these features. Also, I went to the Enterprise tab when both deciding to purchase that upgrade, as well as after I purchased this upgrade. It was very helpful in learning exactly what came with that package and after the upgrade, I was able to look there and learn some of the aspects of the upgrade that I was missing
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Very excited to use bitly for link tracing - I was very excited to begin using Bitly for this company, and I've had very favorable impressions of using Bitly in the past for a variety of different jobs. Knowing the amount clicks on each link is important for our overall strategy.
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Alternatives Considered
Bitly is the most fully featured and intuitive of the (albeit limited) options we have evaluated. Bitly is also the link shortener that our staff and our user base have had the most interaction with, so it was the choice with the least friction/switching costs up front. In this category, where the software provided has been more or less commoditized (at our level of usage) those were the most important considerations. The price point was and continues to be reasonable enough to not cause issues.
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Short.cm stands out to be the most easiest and accessible long links shortening software I have ever used. I recommend this software to any user who works on Twitter mostly as it has a character limit for its tweets. Also for organisations that require shortened links to present projects, etc to the teams.
Read full review
Scalability
Bitly's scalability is great. When I began using it, I only used it once in a while to promote blog articles from our WordPress site on Twitter. This was due to Twitter's character limit and URL shortening was necessary. However, once I became more familiar with it and started seeing the benefits of many of Bitly's features, I began using it for nearly every link I posted across all of our social media accounts. This increased the workload I filtered through Bitly, and we also upgraded from free to a paid account. This growth was handled very well by Bitly and I was very pleased with its ability to scale so easily.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • Professionalism: We used to stick very long and unattractive URLs on our social media post but after discovering Bitly it has simply made us look more professional and made people take us more seriously online.
  • Longevity: If you think of the longevity of the links it can be frustrating to know that you're unable to delete them permanently resulting in your audience being able to always access your content using the Bitly link unless you permanently delete or change the original URL.
  • Market research: Being able to recognize the most popular links through Bitly analytics I am able to focus my efforts on creating similar types of content.
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  • It makes things easy, especially for IT development & QA people.
  • It gives only 1000 links under the free version, which might too little for a big organization.
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ScreenShots

Short.io Screenshots

Screenshot of The Link ListScreenshot of The Link Edit WindowScreenshot of Short.cm for TeamsScreenshot of Detailed Statistics