A branded link is a short link on your own domain, like go.yourshop.com/menu, instead of bit.ly/3xYz. Every tool below can make one, but they differ on what your own domain costs and how many links a month you get. LotsLink makes links, QR codes and clicks free and unlimited, and charges $4 a month per domain of your own.
I opened each tool's own pricing page on 30 October 2026 and compared what a business owner needs: whether the free plan allows your own domain, the cheapest way to add one, link limits, QR codes and whether your AI agent can run it. If you want only free plans, Free URL Shorteners With a Custom Domain goes deeper.
Branded links at a glance
| Tool | Own domain on the free plan | Cheapest way to get your own domain | Links you can make |
|---|---|---|---|
| LotsLink | A free lots.link subdomain; your own domain needs credits or a plan | $4 a month per domain, or Starter $9 for 3 | Unlimited (up to 1,000 new links per person in any 24 hours) |
| Short.io | Yes, 5 | Free; Hobby 7 domains, Pro 10 | Free: 1,000 branded links in total; Pro: unlimited |
| Rebrandly | Yes, 1 | Essentials: 2 domains | 10, 250, 1,500, 3,500 a month by plan |
| Dub | Yes, 3 | Free; Pro 10 domains | Free: 25 new links a month; Pro: 12,000 a year |
| TinyURL | Yes, 1 (its feature table) | Pro: 3 branded domains, $9 a month billed yearly | Free: 30 a month; Pro: 125 (+$1.50 per 10 more) |
| Bitly | Not listed | Growth: $29 a month billed yearly, one complimentary custom domain | Free: 5 a month; Core: 100; Growth: 500 |
| Replug | Yes, 3 | Essentials: 5 domains, $9.50 a month billed yearly | Free: 100; Essentials: 1,000; Scale and up: unlimited |
Prices in US dollars from each vendor's own pricing page, checked on 30 October 2026. Several pages show yearly billing by default and run price tests, so the figure you see may differ; the links at the end go to each page.
1. LotsLink: free links, you pay only for your own domain
Branded links are the one thing that costs money in LotsLink. Everything you use every day is free and unlimited: short links, QR codes, click analytics, workspaces and teammates.
- Your own domain: point a DNS-only CNAME at
customers.lots.link, LotsLink verifies the hostname and the HTTPS certificate, and you keep the domain with your registrar. Pay as you go is $4 a month per domain, charged daily from credits. Plans bundle domains: Starter $9 a month for 3, Pro $24 for 10, Business $59 for 30, and yearly is ten monthly payments. Everyone also gets one free lots.link subdomain with no DNS. Current prices are on the pricing page, with the arithmetic in LotsLink pricing explained. - Free credits to try it: you get free credits when you sign up, no card, enough to run one custom domain for about a month.
- Edit a link after it's printed: change where a link points whenever you like. The short URL and its QR code stay the same, the change reaches every visitor at once, and LotsLink records each change (old address, new address, who and when). The walkthrough is in how to change a QR code's link after printing.
- Clicks: country, city, device and referrer when available, a daily timeline, click records and CSV or JSON export, on a free account. A repeat visit from the same visitor within 10 seconds counts once, and LotsLink doesn't store visitor IP addresses.
- From ChatGPT or Claude: the same account works from your AI agent through an MCP server (
https://api.lots.link/mcp, sign in with OAuth, no key) or the REST API, on every account. The dashboard does the whole job too.
Pick LotsLink if you share links and print QR codes for a shop, a service business or a campaign, and you don't want a monthly link count.
2. Short.io: five free domains
Short.io's pricing page says every plan includes custom domains. Free has 5 domains, 1 user, 1,000 branded links in total and 50,000 tracked clicks a month. Hobby has 7 domains and 2,500 links, Pro has 10 domains with unlimited branded links and tracked clicks, and Team has 50 domains and unlimited users. Destination updating, QR codes, an API and A/B testing are listed on every plan; password protection starts on Pro, and mobile deep links and a 99.9% uptime SLA on Team. Paid plans have a 7-day free trial.
Pick Short.io if you need a few branded domains for nothing and stay under 1,000 links.
3. Rebrandly: a custom domain on the free plan
Rebrandly Free includes 1 custom domain, 10 links and 10 QR codes a month. Essentials has 2 domains and 250 links, Professional 3 domains, 1,500 links and 2 or more workspaces and teammates, and Growth 10 domains and 3,500 links. Its MCP server is listed on every plan. The comparison with LotsLink is in LotsLink vs Rebrandly.
Pick Rebrandly if you want a domain on the free plan and workspaces with teammates on Professional, and a few hundred links a month is enough.
4. Dub: three free domains for developers
Dub Free has 3 custom domains, 25 new links and 1,000 tracked events a month, 1 user, QR codes and API access. Pro has 10 domains, 12,000 new links a year and deep links, and Business adds conversion tracking and A/B testing. Dub's Links pricing page doesn't mention MCP.
Pick Dub if you want conversion tracking after the click and are comfortable with developer-style tooling.
5. TinyURL: the familiar name
TinyURL's pricing page lists 1 branded domain on Free (30 links a month) and 3 on Pro. Pro shows $9 a month ($108 a year) on the annual view, with 125 links a month, $1.50 per 10 additional links, unlimited tracked clicks and 2 years of analytics history. A Bulk plan covers 50,000 links a month.
Pick TinyURL if you already use it and 125 links a month covers you.
6. Bitly: the best-known brand
Bitly's pricing page lists Free at 5 links and 2 QR codes a month, Core at $10 a month (annual only) with 100 links and 5 QR codes, and Growth at $29 a month billed yearly ($348) with 500 links, 10 QR codes and a complimentary custom domain. Premium is $199 a month with 3,000 links and 200 QR codes, and Enterprise adds multiple users and group permissions. Bitly also lists an MCP server for connecting AI agents. See LotsLink vs Bitly for the full side-by-side.
Pick Bitly if your company already uses it and one branded domain is enough.
7. Replug: branded links with bio pages and white label
Replug Free has 3 custom domains, 1 workspace, 100 short links and 1,000 clicks a month. Essentials is $9.50 a month billed yearly with 5 domains and 1,000 links, and Scale has 15 domains and unlimited links. The Agency plan adds white label (more in the agencies section below).
Pick Replug if you want bio pages and white label in the same account.
What LotsLink doesn't do
LotsLink records clicks. It doesn't attribute conversions, run A/B tests, route by country or device, open links in mobile apps or build link-in-bio pages, and it publishes no uptime figure. Dub and Short.io cover parts of that, and Short.io lists a 99.9% uptime SLA on Team and Rebrandly a 99.99% uptime target on Enterprise. If you need any of those, pick one of them.
Which to choose
- One brand, links you can print, no counting: LotsLink.
- Several domains free, fewer than 1,000 links: Short.io or Dub.
- A domain on the free plan, and workspaces or conversion tracking later: Rebrandly (workspaces) or Dub (conversions).
- You already pay for Bitly or TinyURL: stay, and check your plan's link limit.
- Bio pages and white label: Replug.
Connect your own domain from your AI agent
Connect LotsLink first (setup for each agent is on lots.link/mcp; in Claude Code it is claude mcp add --transport http lots-link https://api.lots.link/mcp). Then ask:
Add go.example.com as a custom domain in my workspace and show me the DNS record to add. After I add it, verify the domain, then create a link on it to https://example.com/menu with the slug spring-menu and make a 1024 pixel QR code for it.
Behind that prompt the agent uses lotslink_add_custom_domain, lotslink_verify_custom_domain, lotslink_create_link and lotslink_create_qr_code. The exact DNS steps, including registrars with a CAA record, are in how to connect a custom domain for branded short links.
For agencies: a URL shortener for several clients
If you manage links for clients, two things matter: a domain and a set of reports per client, and how much of the tool's own branding a client sees.
- Per client: in LotsLink a workspace per client is free, the client's own domain is $4 a month or part of a plan (Starter $9 for 3, Pro $24 for 10, Business $59 for 30), and client staff can be viewers who read the numbers and change nothing. The setup is in Link Management for Agencies.
- White label: a white label URL shortener replaces the tool's name and logo with yours. Replug's white-label page says its Agency plan ($99 a month, or $79 a month billed annually) lets you replace Replug's branding with your agency name, logo and favicon and use your own domain for the client sign-in app; it includes 10 workspaces and 50 custom domains. LotsLink doesn't offer a white-labelled client portal. Your clients' short links sit on their own domains instead.
- Many tools side by side: The Best Branded Link Management Tools compares nine on domains per plan, workspaces and what ten client domains cost.
FAQ
What is a branded link?
A branded link is a short link on a domain you own, such as go.example.com/spring, instead of a shared shortener domain. Visitors see your name, and you keep control of the domain.
Can I get a branded short link for free?
Yes, with limits. Short.io's free plan includes 5 custom domains, Dub's 3 and Rebrandly's 1, each with a cap on links. LotsLink's links, QR codes and clicks are free and unlimited, with a free lots.link subdomain, and your own domain costs $4 a month.
Which URL shortener is best for branded links?
It depends on volume. LotsLink suits businesses that print QR codes and share many links and don't want a monthly count. Short.io or Dub suit a few free domains with modest volume, and Dub's Business plan adds conversion tracking.
How much does a custom domain cost on a URL shortener?
In LotsLink it is $4 a month per domain, or $9 a month for three, $24 for ten and $59 for thirty. On Bitly a complimentary custom domain starts on Growth at $29 a month billed yearly. TinyURL Pro, with 3 branded domains, shows $9 a month on its annual view.
Do I need to buy a domain to use branded links?
You need a domain you control, usually a subdomain such as go.yourshop.com, with a DNS record pointing to the shortener. In LotsLink it is a DNS-only CNAME and you keep the registration. Until then, a free lots.link subdomain works with no DNS.
Can I change a branded link's destination after printing the QR code?
In LotsLink yes: edit the destination and the short URL and QR code stay the same, with no monthly count of edits. Check each other tool's page for its own edit rules before printing.
Competitor details checked on 30 October 2026 on each vendor's own pages: bitly.com/pages/pricing, rebrandly.com/pricing, short.io/pricing, tinyurl.com/app/pricing, dub.co/pricing/links, replug.io/pricing and replug.io/white-label. LotsLink details from lots.link/pricing, api.lots.link/docs.md and lots.link/mcp. Prices and features change; check their pages for the latest.