Bitly alternative: Linkhiver vs Bitly, compared for 2026
Bitly is the default answer to “shorten this link”, and it has grown well past that: QR codes, custom landing pages and a digital business card all sit on the same ladder. That makes this a closer comparison than most on this site — the two products overlap on four surfaces. Where they separate is what you get without paying, and how long the numbers stick around.
Quick answer
Linkhiver is a Bitly alternative at $6/month · $45/year with 30 days of per-link click history on the FREE plan, where Bitly's free plan keeps no history at all and its cheapest paid tier is annual-only at $120/year for 30 days of data — but Bitly's free plan mints 5 new links every month against Linkhiver's standing total of 10 (as of September 2026).
Summary
- Bitly's free plan records no click history. Its own comparison table prints a dash against Data History on Free; 30 days starts at $120/year. Linkhiver gives 30 days free.
- Bitly Core is annual-only at $120/year. Linkhiver Pro is $45/year and includes the custom domain Bitly puts two tiers up at $348/year.
- Bitly wins on volume, and that is a real loss for us: 5 new links a month free and 100 a month at Core, against a standing total of 10 free and 100 on Pro here.
Feature-by-feature comparison
| Feature | Linkhiver | Bitly |
|---|---|---|
| Plans & price | Free, or Pro at $6/month · $45/year (R$17/month in Brazil, ₺89 in Turkey) | Free, Core $10/month billed annually only ($120/year), Growth $29–35, Premium $199–300 |
| Short links | 10 free and 100 on Pro — a standing total, not a monthly allowance | 5 a month free, 100 a month on Core, 500 on Growth, 3,000 on Premium |
| Click history | 30 days per link, free; all-time on Pro | None on Free. 30 days on Core ($120/year), 120 days on Growth, 1 year on Premium |
| QR codes | 5 free across 8 types, 20 on Pro; your logo and SVG export on Pro | 2 a month free, 5 on Core, 10 on Growth. SVG on every tier; custom logo from Core |
| Custom domain | Pro — $45/year | Not on Free or Core. Included with Growth, $348/year |
| Link-in-bio page | 10 links and 11 themes free, 50 on Pro, at your own linkhiver.com address | 2 custom landing pages free, carrying Bitly branding; 5 on Core |
| Digital business card | 2 free, 20 on Pro, with Apple and Google Wallet passes on Pro | Yes — “limited” on Free, full version from Core |
| Bulk creation & campaigns | Not available. Links are created one at a time | CSV upload of 100 links per file from Growth, campaign grouping and UTM presets |
| Mobile deep linking | Not available | Premium — $2,388/year |
| Sell from the same page | Free shop with 5 products, 50 on Pro, with your own iyzico or Mercado Pago checkout | None |
Bitly figures read from bitly.com/pages/pricing on September 13, 2026, including its own detailed feature comparison. Bitly's link and QR quotas are monthly allowances; Linkhiver's are standing totals, which is why row two reads the way it does. Details change — check both pricing pages before deciding.
When Bitly fits better
An honest list — Bitly is the better buy for a lot of people:
- You create links in volume. Five new links every month on a free plan beats a standing ten, and Core's hundred a month is a different order of magnitude from anything here.
- You upload links by CSV, group them into campaigns, or reuse UTM presets. Linkhiver has none of that.
- You need links that open a mobile app rather than a web page, or several custom domains at once.
When Linkhiver fits better
Choose Linkhiver if these sound like you:
- You want to know what your links did. 30 days of per-link click history are free here and costs $120/year at Bitly, which records none at all on its free plan.
- You want your own domain without moving up two tiers: $45/year here against $348/year there.
- The short link is one of several things you hand out — the same free plan carries a bio page, five QR codes and a business card, none of them Bitly-branded.
- You sell something. A free shop, email capture and a public page sit beside the links rather than on a separate ladder.
Switching from Bitly to Linkhiver
- Create your free Linkhiver page and claim your username.
- Export your Bitly click data first if you are on a paid tier — the history does not travel, and on Free there is none to take.
- Recreate the short links that still matter. Ten are free, and you can pick your own back-half on any plan.
- Add a QR code for anything printed and your links, so one address carries all of it.
- Leave the Bitly links alive — they are printed and pasted in places you no longer control, and clicks on them keep working.
Frequently asked questions
Is Bitly free?
Bitly has a free plan with 5 new short links a month, 2 QR codes a month, 3 custom back-halves a month and 2 Bitly-branded landing pages. Clicks and scans are unlimited. What it does not include is any click history at all — Bitly's own comparison table shows a dash against Data History on Free — and no custom domain. Those start at Core, $10/month billed annually only, which is $120 a year (as of September 2026).
How much does Bitly cost compared with Linkhiver?
Bitly Core is $120 a year and cannot be bought monthly; Growth is $348 a year, or $35 a month; Premium is $2,388 a year. Linkhiver Pro is $45 a year, or $6 a month — R$17 in Brazil, ₺89 in Turkey. The closest comparison is Core against Pro: $120 buys 100 links a month and 30 days of data; $45 buys 100 short links, 50 links on a bio page, 20 QR codes, a custom domain and analytics with no time limit.
Does Linkhiver give more short links than Bitly?
No, and this is the row where Bitly wins. Bitly's free plan mints 5 new links every month — sixty over a year — while Linkhiver's free plan holds a standing total of 10. On Pro you get 100 short links in total against Bitly Core's 100 every month. If raw link volume is what you are buying, Bitly is the better tool and this page will not pretend otherwise.
Can I keep my click history if I move?
Not from either side, and it is worth knowing before you switch. Bitly does not export history into another tool, and if you are on its free plan there is no history to move in the first place. Old Bitly links keep working after you stop paying, so the practical approach is to leave them alone and start new links here, where the first year of clicks is recorded for free.
Is a link shortener the same thing as a link-in-bio page?
No, and Bitly is the clearest example of why the two keep being confused: it sells both. A shortener turns one long URL into one short one. A link-in-bio page is a single address holding all of them, with a design, a business card and somewhere to sell. Linkhiver's shortener exists because the page needs one — not the other way round, which is why its quotas are counted as totals rather than as a monthly allowance.
Where our incentives sit
A comparison written by one of the two products is only worth reading if you can see what the author stands to gain. Here is ours, and what you can check without taking our word for it.
We are never in your payment path
Linkhiver does not process sales, tips or subscriptions, so there is no cut for us to take. Link a Shopify, Ko-fi or Gumroad storefront from your page and the buyer pays that storefront directly — the money never passes through us. That is structural rather than a promise: we cannot start taking a percentage of something we never handle.
No ads on your page, on either plan
Your page carries your links and nothing we sold to somebody else. The free plan shows a small Linkhiver badge, which Pro removes; that badge is the only thing on your page you did not put there.
Our own counters are rounded down
The creator, page-view and click totals on our home page are read live from the database, floored to the nearest step and shown with a plus, so they can only understate. The real figure is a few hundred creators, and that is what we print.
A claim we have withdrawn fails our build
An audit in August 2026 found inflated numbers on this site: a template count, a hardcoded view count, a user count. Each was corrected, and a test now scans all seven language catalogs on every deploy and refuses to build if one of them comes back.
Prices on this page are in US dollars, because that is how each vendor publishes them. Linkhiver Pro is billed in local currency where we have set one; the exact amount appears at checkout.
Compare other link-in-bio tools
Free links that tell you what happened
Set up in about a minute — 10 short links, 10 links, 5 QR codes, a business card and 30 days of click stats, free.