URL Shortener With Analytics: What Each Free Plan Records

Of the six best-known free plans, SendURL and Short.io show the most click data without paying, Rebrandly and Dub cap it (Rebrandly gives detail on 100 clicks a month, Dub tracks 1,000 events a month), and Bitly and TinyURL show none. SendURL's free plan records the country, device, browser, operating system, referrer and time of every click on up to 100 links, and lists 7 days of analytics history. It records the country, not the city.

Every figure below comes from the vendor's own pricing page on 15 October 2026. Prices and limits change, so check before you choose. Disclosure: SendURL is our product.

Free plans compared

Sources: Bitly, Rebrandly, Short.io, TinyURL (and the plan data the page loads), Dub. "Not stated" and "not listed" mean the pricing page doesn't say. The "History on Free" column is what each plan lists. If you're replacing one of them, the head-to-head posts go further: Bitly vs SendURL, Dub vs SendURL, Rebrandly vs SendURL, Short.io vs SendURL and TinyURL vs SendURL.

What to look for in free link analytics

A useful free plan answers four questions about each link:

1. 1.
   How many clicks, and when? A count plus a chart over time.
2. 2.
   From where? Country, from the visitor's IP address. City data is rare on free plans.
3. 3.
   On what? Device type, browser and operating system.
4. 4.
   Via what? The referrer, when the visitor's app sends one. Email apps and many mobile apps don't, so one link per placement is the reliable way to know the source.

Then check the limits around it: how many links, how much history, and whether you can get the raw data out.

What SendURL's free plan records

• Up to 100 tracked short links per workspace
• Every click recorded with time, country, device, browser, OS, referrer, IP address and user agent
• QR scans counted as clicks and flagged, so scans can be told apart from taps on the link
• Clicks-over-time charts; Free lists 7 days of analytics history, Pro 30
• The REST API on every plan, which is also the export path
• A guest link from the home page with no account, claimed into your dashboard when you sign up

The full field list is on the free link tracker page, and what SendURL records for every click goes field by field.

Limits worth knowing

• Location stops at the country. SendURL doesn't record cities.
• No bot filtering, no unique clicks. Every redirect counts, including link previews in chat apps and email security scanners. Bot clicks and link previews shows how to spot them.
• No CSV export. Page through GET /links/:id/clicks with the API instead.
• No custom domains. Every link is on snu.to.
• A visit limit per link. Each Free link stops at 100,000 visits (it then answers 410); Bitly and Rebrandly list unlimited clicks, and Short.io unlimited redirects.
• Pro is set up by email. Pro ($5 a month, 1,000 links) is arranged at support@sendurl.to, not through self-serve checkout.

How to use free link analytics

Make one short link per placement: snu.to/oct-news-email, snu.to/oct-news-ig-bio, snu.to/oct-news-li. Each gets its own count, so you can compare channels a day or two after posting without guessing from referrers. How to track link clicks walks through the setup, with or without Google Analytics, and how to shorten a URL for free covers making the links.

If you need more than analytics from a free plan, such as a custom domain, see the free Bitly alternatives or the wider ranking of the best URL shorteners.

Checklist: picking a free shortener with analytics

• Does the free plan show data for every click, or only a monthly sample?
• Which fields: country, device, browser, OS, referrer, time?
• How many days of history?
• Can you get raw click data out (API or export)?
• Are QR scans counted separately from link clicks?
• Can you try it without an account? The URL shortener with no sign-up on SendURL is one way