Why this comparison matters
A branded short link like go.yourco.com/launch looks like it comes from you, which a random string on a shared domain does not. People click it more readily, and spam filters flag it less often. All three tools in this comparison will put your own domain on a short link. The differences are in price per link, how much click data you can see, and what happens once several people share the account.
We checked each vendor's pricing page in September 2026, and two changes matter. Rebrandly's free plan now allows 10 links a month, and its paid tiers are now called Essentials, Professional and Growth. Short.io's $18 Pro plan now includes unlimited branded links and unlimited tracked clicks. Comparisons written in 2025 will have the wrong numbers for both.
In brief: TinyURL is the old, simple option. Rebrandly is the polished marketing platform with the steepest per-link cost. Short.io gives you the most for each dollar.
Feature comparison
| Feature | TinyURL | Rebrandly | Short.io |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Shortening with no account; tinyurl.com domain | 10 links/month, 1 custom domain, QR codes watermarked | 1,000 branded links total, 5 custom domains, 50,000 tracked clicks/month |
| Cheapest paid plan | Pro: $9.99/mo annual, $12.99 monthly | Essentials: $8/mo annual, $11 monthly | Hobby: $5/mo |
| Links on cheapest paid plan | 250/month | 250/month | 2,500 |
| Custom domains (cheapest paid) | 3 | 2 | 7 |
| Unlimited links | No (high volume sits on Bulk and Enterprise tiers) | Enterprise only | Pro ($18/mo) and up |
| Click analytics | Basic on Pro, unlimited tracked clicks | Basic on Free and Essentials; advanced from Professional | Detailed on all plans; free plan shows the first 50,000 clicks/month |
| Conversion tracking | No | Professional and up | No native conversion tracking |
| A/B testing | No | No | All plans |
| Mobile deep links | No | Growth and up | Team and up |
| Team seats | Higher tiers only | None on Free/Essentials; 2 workspaces on Professional | 1 user on Free; unlimited users on Team |
| API | Yes; higher call limits on Bulk | All plans, 100 to 1,000 calls/min by tier | All plans |
| Link controls | Edit and delete on paid plans | Link galleries, role permissions on Growth | Password protection, expiry and cloaking on Pro; geo-targeting from Hobby |
| Compliance | 99.9% SLA on Enterprise | SOC 2 Type 2, 99.99% uptime claim | GDPR tools; 99.9% SLA on Team |
Pricing comparison
Headline prices look close. Link allowances do not, so we worked out what you pay per branded link at each tier.
| Tier | TinyURL | Rebrandly | Short.io |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0, no-signup shortening | $0, 10 links/month | $0, 1,000 links |
| Entry | Pro $9.99/mo annual ($12.99 monthly), 250 links/month | Essentials $8/mo annual ($11 monthly), 250 links/month | Hobby $5/mo, 2,500 links |
| Mid | Bulk, around $83/mo, built for high-volume API use | Professional $22/mo annual ($32 monthly), 1,500 links/month | Pro $18/mo, unlimited links |
| Team | Enterprise from about $299/mo annual | Growth $69/mo annual ($99 monthly), 3,500 links/month | Team $48/mo, unlimited links and users |
| Top | Custom | Enterprise, custom | Enterprise $148/mo, SSO, unlimited domains |
Rebrandly's annual billing saves up to 31%. Short.io takes 17% off for annual billing. TinyURL's Pro plan costs $3 a month less if you pay yearly.
Price per link shows the gap clearly. Rebrandly Professional works out to about 2 cents a link at 1,500 links on monthly billing. Short.io Pro costs $18 with no link cap. If you create more than a few hundred links a month, Short.io is cheaper at every tier. Rebrandly's premium buys conversion tracking, SOC 2 Type 2 paperwork and a cleaner interface. Some teams need those, and many don't.
TinyURL's pricing makes sense at the low end only. Pro gives you 3 branded domains and 250 links a month for $9.99, which covers a solo creator or a small shop. The next step up is priced for bulk API customers, with nothing in between.
Use case scenarios
Pick TinyURL if you want a quick link and nothing else
TinyURL has been around since 2002, and you can shorten a URL without making an account. For a one-off link in a slide deck or a forum post, nothing is faster. The Pro plan adds branded domains and QR codes at a fair price for low volume.
Its weak points are the ones you'd expect from a veteran product. Analytics are thin, the interface feels dated, and it has no deep links, A/B testing or conversion tracking. Free tinyurl.com links can also trip some email spam filters, because spammers have used the domain for twenty years. Put your own domain on the Pro plan if you send links by email.
Pick Rebrandly if your marketing team needs conversion data and compliance
Rebrandly is the most finished product of the three. The dashboard is clean. Conversion tracking arrives on Professional, and Growth adds role permissions and mobile deep linking. SOC 2 Type 2 certification helps if a procurement team will review your vendors. For an agency running campaigns across client domains, where the question is which link drove the signup and not just how many clicks it got, Rebrandly answers it inside the tool.
The costs are real. At 10 links a month the free plan is only a trial. Analytics retention is 6 months on Professional and one year on Growth, so year-on-year reporting means paying for Growth or exporting your data. Link caps are tight for the price: 3,500 links a month on a $99 plan fills up fast if you tag every social post.
Pick Short.io if you want the most branded links per dollar
Short.io has the best free plan here: 1,000 branded links on up to 5 custom domains, with API access and A/B testing included. That covers a side project or a small SaaS for months. At $18 a month, Pro removes the link and click caps and adds password protection and link expiry. At $48, Team adds unlimited users, deep links and a 99.9% SLA.
The downsides are small. The interface is plainer than Rebrandly's and has fewer options for customising it. The A/B testing is basic split routing, so don't expect a full experimentation tool. It also has no native conversion tracking, so you'll use UTM parameters (there's a built-in UTM builder) and do attribution in your analytics tool. Free-plan analytics stop showing detail after 50,000 clicks a month, although links keep working.
Developers building link generation into a product
Short.io wins here. The API is on every plan, including free, and the link cap disappears at $18. Rebrandly's API is also on every plan, with rate limits from 100 to 1,000 calls a minute depending on tier, but the monthly link caps limit any product that creates links automatically. TinyURL's Bulk plan exists for this job, at a much higher price.
Verdict
Our product scores are Rebrandly 8.2, Short.io 7.2 and TinyURL 6.5. Those scores rate feature depth and polish, and Rebrandly leads on both. Once you add value, the order changes for most readers.
- Best overall for builders and small teams: Short.io. It has the most useful free plan, unlimited links at $18 a month, and API access on every tier. Most people comparing these three should start here.
- Best for marketing teams that report on conversions: Rebrandly. Conversion tracking, SOC 2 Type 2 and a polished dashboard are worth the higher cost per link if a CMO asks what each link earned.
- Best for occasional, no-account shortening: TinyURL. Use it for quick links. If you need branded links at any volume, the other two give you more for the same money.
If you're unsure, set up the Short.io free plan on your own domain this week. If you later need conversion attribution you can't build with UTMs, trial Rebrandly Professional then. A 301 redirect on your domain can move old links over.
