rs-short

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.