URL shorteners reviewed 20
URL shorteners transform ugly, long URLs into short ones that you can email without fear of them breaking - or include in Twitter tweets without using up too many characters.
For instance, I've shortened the URL for http://www.malcolmcoles.co.uk/blog/external-links-9-stages-of-linking-out-denial/ to http://tinyurl.com/c8bp5d instead (25 characters instead of 92).
But which URL shortener service is best?
Use this URL shortener list to decide ... It shows sites I've observed to be popular on Twitter, ordered by the length of the URL generated. I reckon tr.im is the winner. Although they all seem fairly good.
| URL Shortener |
URL length | Tracking / stats | Custom name option | Post direct to Twitter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tr.im | 13+4=17 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Is.gd | 13+4=17 | No | No | No |
| Ow.ly | 13+4=17 | No | No | No |
| Bit.ly | 14+5=19 | Yes | Yes | If you register |
| Xrl.us | 14+5=19 | Yes | No | No |
| Cli.gs | 14+6=20 | Yes | If you register | If you register |
| Short.to | 16+4=20 | No | No | No |
| Snurl.com | 17+5=22 | No | Yes | Yes |
| Twurl.nl | 16+6=22 | Yes | No | If you register |
| Tinyurl.com | 19+6=25 | No | Yes | No |
| Notlong.com | 19+6=25 | Yes | Yes | No |
What the headings mean
- URL length shows how many characters (including the http:// at the front) the shortened URL generated for this site's homepage was. The first figure is the base length (EG http://tr.im/ is 13 characters), the second number is the short code generated (this can vary from 4 to 6 characters at most services - popular services have used up all the 4-character ones already - so you might expect tr.im to change to 13+5 if this post is very popular!), and the final number is the total.
- Tracking / statistics shows whether there you can see figures for how many people have clicked on your shortened URL (EG if you used it on Twitter). You have to register to get these figures.
- Custom name - whether you can choose your own memorable short-code or not (rather than the random string of letters automatically generated).
- Post direct to Twitter - can you post to Twitter from the website of the service? (Although they all have plugins or extensions to let you use their services direct from your browser whichever site you are on.)
Even shorter still?
There is also the tinyarro.ws services, mentioned in the comments below. It uses unicode characters to make URLs shorter still - it made my homepage into just 13 characters. Although you might want to read the comments here - does anyone have any experience of it ...?
Interesting review. Which ones support the ability to direct the user to a different URL depending on where they're from [eg, if you're shortening an Amazon link, and want them to be redirected to the users local Amazon]
cli.gs supports custom names [if you register]
There's http://krunchd.com/krunch which lets you merge multiple URLs into one, but doesn't seem to be the easiest to use.
And then there is http://1link.in/ which opens windows for multiple URLs with one click.
They're the nearest I can thing of to what you want ...
Hi Malcolm
Thanks for reviewing Cligs.
Your review has two errors in it, though:
1. Cligs allows custom URLs/names if you're registered and logged in.
2. You can post directly to Twitter if you're registered and logged in. The Twitter feature posts the link's title plus the short URL. A similar feature is also provided for identi.ca.
Thanks again. Please feel free to email me any time.
Pierre
Thanks both of you - fixed (that was lightening fast commenting - review has only been up 20 minutes!)
Hi Malcolm,
There's one glaring omission from your post :-
http://tinyarro.ws
It let's you do VERY short URLs
TTFN
BFG
I'd been using bit.ly for months, neat stats etc, but hadn't occurred to me that tr.im might offer the same feature but with two characters less. I'm converting...
I can't guarantee the TWO characters less - the number of characters in the short-code at the end can vary from 4 to 6 with most services (as they become more popular, the 4-character ones get used up etc). But you can guarantee ONE character less as tr.im is shorter than bit.ly. I've made this clearer in the notes now, thanks.
nice review.
I have been using twurl for a while but its a bit inaccurate.
I tried bit.ly but it does not seem to track urls from TweetDeck, so I am still with twurl.
Tr.im seems promising but Twetdeck doesn't have it!
Good overview! Unfortunately none of them supports a custom domain option. It would be nice if you could use your own domain name blog123.co.uk/yG3 or a subdomain instead of tr.im or is.gd.
Speaking of URL length: there are still a lot of short domains available. We've just published a list of 2-letter domain names on our blog http://tr.im/i3um (we like tr.im as well)
Timo, drop us an email with your thoughts/requirements about custom domains at cligs -- http://blog.cli.gs/contact
might be able to work something out
[Sorry for dupe, wanted to ensure you'd get a notification of a reply]
Oh, and the founder of cli.gs is away (honeymoon, in fact) so it might take a few days (next week) before you get a reply. We're usually pretty hot on responses though!
There's a Wordpress plugin, I believe, that supports one's domain name for creating a shortURL
Timo, drop us an email with your thoughts/requirements about custom domains at cligs -- http://blog.cli.gs/contact
might be able to work something out
While currently not the shortest of the bunch, urlShort (at http://u.mavrev.com) is my own url shortener, soon to be released on SourceForge once I finish cleaning it up a bit. What features are considered essential in your url shortener? Statistics? Length?
Hi Malcolm,
xrl.us (aka http://metamark.net/ ) does support custom names. One field you're missing (which is really close to an unknown anyway) is "how likely is this service to be around in 6 months or 6 years?".
Which then leads to: a lot of the time you really shouldn't use a shortener at all: http://getsatisfaction.com/dev/topics/dont_use_url_shorteners
- ask
After trying to use several popular URL shorteners, I decided to make my own. It is fast and clean, with simple stats -- http://go2.st
Feel free to suggest new features and improvements (twitter: @haqu)
Very useful comparison, Malcolm, thanks.
I've heard that tr.im is planning to stop their service and/or to be sold to another webdev company. Do you know anything on that?
Also I would like to ask: could you advise which one of the services mentioned above has the most extensive statistics?
All the best,
Dave
tr.im switched off their servers last year and then within a couple of days of protest restarted them. I have a suspicion that they lost a lot of loyal users after that.