Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Dub.co

YOURLS (Your Own URL Shortener) is a set of PHP scripts for running your own branded URL shortener on your domain. It provides full control over short links and includes built-in statistics and an API for automation and integrations.

Key Features

• Create and manage short URLs on your own domain
• Detailed click statistics with historical reports
• Referrer tracking and visitor geolocation insights
• Developer-friendly API for programmatic link creation and management
• Bookmarklets for quick shortening from the browser
• Extensible plugin architecture with a large plugin ecosystem

Use Cases

• Run a branded link shortener for a company, community, or personal domain
• Track engagement on shared links with referrers and click analytics
• Integrate link shortening into internal tools via the API

Limitations and Considerations

• Core storage is typically backed by a relational database; performance depends on database tuning and traffic patterns
• Advanced features (custom workflows, moderation, additional analytics) may require third-party plugins

YOURLS is a mature, lightweight option for operating a private URL shortener with solid analytics and customization. It is well suited for teams and individuals who want ownership of link data and flexible extensibility via plugins and API access.

Kutt is a modern, self-hostable URL shortener focused on managing shortened links with custom domains and detailed statistics. It provides an admin interface, user management, and an API for programmatic link creation.

Key Features

• Shorten URLs with custom aliases, descriptions, passwords, and expiration times
• Custom domain support for branded short links
• Link management: create, edit, delete, and organize shortened URLs
• Private statistics and detailed analytics per link
• Admin dashboard for managing users and links
• OpenID Connect (OIDC) login and configurable registration/anonymous link controls
• RESTful API for integrating link shortening into other services
• Theme/customization support via custom templates, images, and styles

Use Cases

• Run a branded short-link service for an organization with custom domains
• Generate trackable short links for internal tools, marketing, or documentation
• Integrate URL shortening into workflows using the REST API

Limitations and Considerations

• HTTPS for custom domains may require manual certificate management depending on deployment setup
• Some functionality (sign-up verification, password resets) depends on enabling email delivery

Kutt is a practical choice for teams or individuals who want full control over short links, branding, and analytics. It is designed for straightforward deployments while still supporting more advanced setups with external databases and caching.

Sink is a lightweight link shortening service designed to run serverlessly on Cloudflare. It provides short links with a dashboard for basic link management and traffic analytics.

Key Features

• URL shortening with customizable, case-sensitive slugs
• Built-in analytics to track link usage and traffic trends
• AI-assisted slug generation
• Link expiration support
• Serverless deployment on Cloudflare Workers or Cloudflare Pages
• Uses Cloudflare KV and Analytics Engine as backend building blocks

Use Cases

• Create and manage short links for marketing campaigns or newsletters
• Track click performance for shared links across channels
• Provide an internal short-link service for teams and documentation

Limitations and Considerations

• Cloudflare platform dependency (KV and Analytics Engine) may limit portability to non-Cloudflare environments

Sink is a good fit for users who want a simple, modern link shortener with analytics and minimal operational overhead. Its Cloudflare-native approach prioritizes speed and straightforward deployment while keeping the feature set focused.

Shlink is a PHP-based, self-hosted URL shortener that lets you create and serve short links under your own domains. It provides API-first management and a CLI, while tracking anonymized visit statistics for each short URL.

Key Features

• Create short URLs with auto-generated codes or custom slugs
• Serve short links under one or multiple custom domains
• REST API with API key authentication for full remote management and integrations
• Command-line interface for administration tasks (including API key management)
• Visit tracking with anonymized analytics and optional geolocation data
• Deployable via prebuilt distribution packages or container images

Use Cases

• Run a private branded link shortener for teams, products, or marketing campaigns
• Integrate link creation and management into internal tools via a REST API
• Track engagement on shared links while keeping link ownership under your control

Limitations and Considerations

• Requires a supported database (MySQL/MariaDB/PostgreSQL/SQL Server/SQLite) and appropriate PHP extensions
• Some administrative operations (like API key management) are available only via the CLI

Shlink is a strong choice when you want a reliable, API-driven URL shortener that you can operate under your own domains. Its combination of CLI tooling, integration-friendly API, and visit analytics makes it suitable for both personal use and organizational deployments.

Slash is an open-source platform for organizing and sharing frequently used links through memorable, human-readable shortcuts (for example, s/name). It helps teams and individuals reduce “link chaos” by making important URLs easier to find, share, and reuse.

Key Features

• Create customizable short links using an s/ shortcut format
• Tag and organize links for faster discovery and management
• Share links publicly or restrict access to teammates
• Collections for grouping and sharing sets of shortcuts
• Basic traffic analytics for link clicks and sources
• Optional browser extension for quick access via the browser search/address bar

Use Cases

• Team knowledge sharing for internal tools, dashboards, and runbooks
• Personal link hub for commonly used resources and quick navigation
• Curated collections of links shared with external collaborators or the public

Limitations and Considerations

• Analytics are focused on link traffic basics and may not replace full web analytics platforms

Slash combines a lightweight link manager with a shortcut-first workflow, making shared URLs easier to remember and distribute. It is well-suited for small teams or individuals who want a simple, searchable system for link organization and sharing.

Chhoto URL is a simple, self-hosted URL shortener designed to be fast and minimal, avoiding unnecessary features. It provides a small web app and CLI-oriented workflows for creating and managing short links.

Key Features

• Create shortened links with optional random slug generation
• Web application for basic URL shortening workflows
• CLI usage support for automation and scripting
• Designed for high performance with a small footprint
• Container-friendly deployment (commonly used with Docker/Compose)

Use Cases

• Running a private link shortener for a homelab or organization
• Creating short links for internal documentation and tools
• Automating short-link creation in scripts or simple workflows

Limitations and Considerations

• Uses a database-backed store; enabling SQLite WAL mode is recommended for better reliability/performance
• For large numbers of links, longer UID-style slugs are recommended to avoid collisions and creation failures
• For mission-critical use, regular versioned database backups are advised

Chhoto URL is a good fit when you want a no-frills URL shortener that is easy to deploy, fast, and focused on the core feature set. Its minimalist approach makes it especially suitable for private deployments and straightforward link management.

Fli.so is a fast, modern URL shortener and link management platform. It helps teams and individuals create branded short links, organize them, and track performance through built-in analytics.

Key Features

• Custom short URLs and branded slugs
• Link preview controls (metadata) for social sharing
• QR code generation for any link
• Tagging to organize and filter links
• Security controls such as password protection and expiry dates
• Keyboard shortcuts for power users

Use Cases

• Creating branded short links for marketing campaigns and social posts
• Generating QR codes for print materials, events, and packaging
• Managing and tracking many links across projects with tags and analytics

Limitations and Considerations

• Built on PocketBase (SQLite-based), which may be less suitable for very high-scale, multi-node deployments compared to traditional SQL servers

Fli.so combines a clean UI with practical link management features, making it a good fit for lightweight, privacy-conscious link tracking. It is especially useful when you want an all-in-one short-link dashboard without heavy operational overhead.

Anchr is a compact, self-hosted toolbox for light-weight internet tasks, focusing on bookmark collections, a URL shortener, and encrypted image uploads, with an optional hosted service at Anchr.io. It emphasizes privacy, simple workflows, and easy deployment.

Key Features

• Link shortening with safety checks and easy sharing, leveraging Safe Browsing to guard against malicious URLs
• Searchable bookmarks collections with tagging and quick retrieval
• Client-side encrypted image uploads using CryptoJS for privacy
• Self-hosted and open-source core, plus a hosted Anchr.io service, plus OAuth 2 authentication and a Telegram bot for automation and access
• Prometheus metrics for monitoring and integration with ShareX for quick sharing

Use Cases

• Personal bookmark management: save, categorize and search links across devices
• Quick, private image hosting: upload images with client-side encryption for secure sharing
• Short links for chat/docs: generate compact URLs with built-in safety checks
• Optional hosted deployment: run your own instance or use the hosted service for collaboration

Conclusion

Anchr provides a focused, privacy-conscious toolkit for bookmarks, short links, and image hosting, with both self-hosted and hosted options to fit different needs. Built on a Node.js/MongoDB stack, it emphasizes observability with Prometheus and secure authentication via OAuth 2.

bit is a fast, lightweight self-hosted URL shortener designed for minimal click tracking and low resource usage. It provides an API and CLI for creating and managing short links, supports multiple users via API keys, and ships as a small Docker image for easy deployment.

Key Features

• Minimal tracking: captures country, browser, OS, and referer without cookies or persistent client-side tracking
• X-Forwarded-For support for proxied client IPs
• API key authentication with multi-user support and CLI tooling for key creation and management
• Uses a simple SQLite database by default for storage and a small runtime footprint
• Small container image and low memory usage; optimized for high throughput and low latency
• Automatic updates for user-agent regexes and GeoIP (GeoLite2) database
• Simple, Rails-inspired project structure that is easy to extend

Use Cases

• Provide short links for internal tools or projects with lightweight click metrics
• Offer a programmatic short-link API for applications, webhooks, or marketing campaigns
• Replace third-party link shorteners to retain control over analytics and data

Limitations and Considerations

• Default SQLite storage is convenient but may limit horizontal scaling for very high write volumes or multi-node deployments
• Tracking is intentionally minimal; it does not provide advanced analytics, user-level tracking, or persistent cookies
• The project is maintained with a focus on stability and minimalism; new feature additions are limited by design

bit is suitable for teams and hobbyists who need a simple, performant URL shortener with basic analytics and easy deployment. It emphasizes low resource usage, straightforward configuration, and minimal operational complexity.

Simple-URL-Shortener is a small, KISS PHP-based URL shortener that stores links in MySQL or SQLite and provides per-user link history. It aims to be dependency-free and easy to install for simple link shortening needs.

Key Features

• Lightweight PHP application with no external dependencies beyond PHP and a database
• Supports MySQL or SQLite backends for storage
• User accounts with per-user link history and optional comments on links
• Bookmarklet/shortcut to quickly create short URLs from the browser
• Works when deployed in a subfolder and includes example configurations for Nginx and Apache
• Installation script to initialize the database and create the first admin user
• Secure cookie settings require HTTPS for authentication

Use Cases

• Internal team or personal URL shortening service for sharing compact links
• Simple link-tracking and history for individual users or small teams
• Embedding a minimal shortener in an existing site (subfolder deployment)

Limitations and Considerations

• The project is no longer actively maintained by the original author; no ongoing feature development or regular updates are guaranteed
• Authentication relies on secure cookies and requires HTTPS in production environments
• Feature set is intentionally minimal (no built-in analytics, custom domains, or advanced link management features)

Simple-URL-Shortener is best suited for users who need a tiny, easy-to-run shortener with user history and prefer a minimal, dependency-free codebase. It is not intended as a full-featured commercial link management platform.

elixire is an open-source, lightweight image hosting and link-shortening application implemented primarily in Python. It provides a web UI, account management and an API for uploading images and creating shortlinks, and is distributed under a permissive FOSS license.

Key Features

• Web-based image hosting with an online file list and per-file delete controls.
• Integrated link shortening using multiple vanity domains for images and links.
• Account system and API access for programmatic uploads (API keys required by client libraries).
• Admin panel for managing site content and settings.
• Docker-friendly deployment and project assets include container configuration for easy installation.
• Public instance emphasizes client-side handling and a JavaScript-driven UI; project source and configuration are available in the repository.

Use Cases

• Quickly share screenshots or images in chat, forums or bug reports with disposable or persistent shortlinks.
• Host and manage small image libraries with per-file deletion and account-based file lists.
• Provide a simple shortlink service for campaigns, testing, or ephemeral content sharing.

Limitations and Considerations

• The official/public instance is highly client-side (JavaScript) driven; functionality and uploads may be limited or unavailable for non-JavaScript clients.
• The project focuses on lightweight hosting and link shortening rather than advanced on-the-fly image transformations or a built-in CDN; high-volume/production use may require external CDN or caching layers.
• Public instance privacy notes indicate some request processing by third-party providers for service operation and statistics; deployments should review privacy and hosting choices.

elixire is a pragmatic, minimal image host and shortener aimed at simplicity and quick sharing workflows. It is suitable for users who need a compact upload/shorten service and for operators who want a Docker-friendly, open-source instance to run and customize.

rs-short is a minimal, lightweight link shortener written in Rust. It focuses on low resource usage, simple templated server-side rendering, and built-in protections against spam and phishing.

Key Features

• Server-side rendered UI using Askama templates (no JavaScript required)
• Supports SQLite and optional PostgreSQL or MySQL backends
• Robust caching to keep serving content during database locks
• Built-in captcha to reduce automated spam submissions
• Phishing and suspicious-link detection, plus regex-based URL blocking with a default blocklist
• Click counting, user-initiated link deletion, and the ability to flag links as phishing
• Localization support (multiple languages) and light/dark themes
• Privacy-oriented design: no tracking features and user IPs are not stored in the database

Use Cases

• Self-hosted short links for organizations, communities, or personal use
• Safer public URL shortener with basic anti-spam and anti-phishing controls
• Low-resource URL shortening for small servers and homelab environments

Limitations and Considerations

• The built-in captcha is intentionally minimal and may not be sufficient for all high-abuse environments.
• SQLite is supported, but deployments with higher write concurrency may prefer PostgreSQL or MySQL.

rs-short is a good fit when you want a straightforward URL shortener that is fast, memory-efficient, and designed with privacy and abuse resistance in mind. Its small codebase and server-side templates make it easy to audit and customize for simple deployments.

clink is a super-minimal URL shortener written in C, built to be fast and small while staying easy to deploy. It uses the embedded Mongoose web server and is typically run behind a reverse proxy for HTTPS.

Key Features

• Very small binary size and low resource usage
• Embedded HTTP server via Mongoose (no heavy external runtime)
• Supports query-string based creation (useful for integrations that expect it)
• URL decoding support for encoded URLs
• Per-link deletion keys generated from a server-side seed
• Optional provided systemd unit and NGINX reverse-proxy configuration
• Includes a companion CLI utility (clinkctl) for administration

Use Cases

• Self-hosted link shortener for a personal domain or organization
• Short links for tools that require query-string based submission
• Lightweight redirect service for homelabs or internal networks

Limitations and Considerations

• No built-in blacklists/word filters for destinations or short codes
• HTTPS is expected to be handled by a reverse proxy (for example, NGINX)

clink is a good fit when you want a straightforward, no-frills shortener with minimal dependencies. Its tiny footprint and simple operational model make it especially attractive for small servers and homelabs.