SEO & marketing tools / Bitly

Bitly

Bitly makes it easy to create, share, and track short links and QR Codes. Find what's resonating and scale it into bigger reach, more clicks, and more sales.

Visit bitly.com

Free optionSignup unclearFile handling unclearWebsite health 4.4 / 5

Where it stands

4.2 / 5

Signals score

Not a hands-on test

Based on 2 of 3 signals

Website health4.4 / 5 · weight 50%
Measured from the tool's public website
Facts stated5 / 5 · weight 30%
How many of the five facts the tool's own pages state

Built only from what we can measure or quote without using the tool. How ranking works

Rank by signals

1 of 8 · Link shortener 8 of 89 · SEO & marketing tools

We have not run our own hands-on test on Bitly yet. Facts checked 2026-11-01. How tests work

Disclosure: agathox makes some of the tools listed here. They are labelled and scored by the same method as every other tool.

Should you use Bitly?

A quick read built only from what the tool's own pages state and from our tests, not from opinion. Facts checked 2026-11-01.

A good fit if…

You want a free option. It states: “Free plan ($0, labelled 'With Ads'): 2 QR Codes and 5 links per month, 2 custom landing pages, 3 custom back-halves per month,…”

Check first

The free option has limits: “Free plan ($0, labelled 'With Ads'): 2 QR Codes and 5 links per month, 2 custom landing pages, 3 custom back-halves per month,…”

Does: Link shortener

Measured signals

4.4 / 5 · measured 2026-11-08

Read automatically from Bitly's public website: how reliable, secure, private and open the site is. This is not a test of how well the tool does its job. How this is measured

Reliability5 / 5The page answered and finished downloading in 188 ms.
Security3.5 / 52 of 5 protective headers set (strict-transport-security, x-frame-options).
Privacy4 / 51 third-party tracking service found: Google Tag Manager.
Transparency5 / 5Links a privacy policy; links a pricing page.

Community feedback

Not enough discussion yet: 1 classified comment from 1 thread. We need at least 12 from 2 threads.

Critical
“If you don't reuse that password anywhere else, and you don't have anything else depending on bitly, then the worst case is that someone could post links as you.”
Read in the thread

Threads: Urgent Security Update Regarding Your Bitly Account (2014, 9 comments)

Free tier: Free plan ($0, labelled 'With Ads'): 2 QR Codes and 5 links per month, 2 custom landing pages, 3 custom back-halves per month, unlimited clicks and QR Code scans. No historic data access.
Paid plan: Core $10/month ($120 charged yearly), Growth $29/month ($348 yearly), Premium $199/month ($2,388 yearly), shown with annual billing. Page mentions a monthly payment option but lists no monthly prices. Enterprise is custom quote.
Signup: Every plan button leads to a sign-up page; the page does not explicitly say an account is required. Free-trial pop-up says no credit card required.
Watermark: Free plan is labelled 'With Ads' and its landing pages are listed as 'Bitly Branded'.
Where files go: Privacy policy says data may be processed in the United States and other countries outside the EU/EEA; no data centers listed. Product usage data is anonymized or erased three years after the account is deactivated. Created Bitly products cannot be deleted even if the account is deleted.

From the tool's own pages, checked 2026-11-01. Sources: Pricing, Privacy. Prices and limits change; check the tool before you rely on them.

Get an email if Bitly changes

We check its official pages every week. If they change, we tell you, so you can see if the price or limits moved. No other email, and one click stops it.

Are you the maker of Bitly? Link to this page

Copy this into your site. The link goes to this page, and it does not change any score.

<a href="https://agathox.com/tools/bitly">Bitly on agathox: compared and tested</a>

Tasks and scores

Link shortenerNot tested yet