How to Shorten a URL for Free (With Click Tracking)

Shortening a URL is one of those tasks that should take 10 seconds. Here's the fastest way to do it for free — and how to make your short links actually useful with click tracking.

How to shorten a URL for free — step by step

Option 1: No account required

1. Go to [sendurl.to](https://sendurl.to) 2. Paste your long URL into the input field on the homepage 3. Click "Shorten" 4. Your short link is ready — copy it and share it immediately

Your link is live and click tracking starts the moment you share it. No sign-up required.

Option 2: Free account (saves your links and shows full analytics)

1. Create a free account at [console.sendurl.to/signup](https://console.sendurl.to/signup) — no credit card required 2. Go to "Create link" 3. Paste your destination URL 4. Choose a random slug (generated automatically), a timestamp slug, or a custom slug like snu.to/my-brand 5. Click "Create short link"

Your link appears in your dashboard immediately with live click tracking.

Why use a free URL shortener with analytics?

A plain short link is cosmetic. A tracked short link is a measurement tool.

When you share a tracked short link: - You see the exact click count — not estimated, not sampled - You see which country and city each click came from - You see whether clicks came from mobile or desktop - You see the referrer — Twitter, a newsletter, a direct share, etc.

This data is useful whether you're sharing one link in one place, or running multi-channel campaigns.

Free vs. paid URL shorteners — what's actually different?

The main difference is analytics depth and link volume:

• **Free tier**: Up to 100 short links, full analytics on every link
• **Pro tier** ($5/month): Up to 1,000 short links, 30 days of analytics history

For most individuals and small teams, the free tier is more than enough.

What you don't get on the free tier: link expiration by date (links expire after 100,000 clicks but that's very high), team collaboration, and analytics history beyond 7 days.

Tips for shortening URLs effectively

Use descriptive slugs: Instead of a random string like snu.to/x4k9b, use something like snu.to/product-launch. Easier to remember, easier to spot in analytics.

One slug per channel: If you're sharing the same content in multiple places, use a different slug for each. snu.to/post-email, snu.to/post-twitter. This gives you clean per-channel attribution.

Check analytics 24 hours later: Most of the clicks on any shared link come in the first 24 hours. Check back then to see what you can learn.

Don't over-engineer it: You don't need a system or a process. Just start shortening your links and tracking them. The data builds up on its own.

The bottom line

Shortening a URL for free takes 10 seconds on SendURL. Getting click analytics on that link takes zero extra steps — it's included automatically. Start with your next link and see what the data tells you.