Top 6 URL Shorteners to Replace Goo.gl
By March 30 2019, goo.gl users will be unable to use the service to shorten and customize their URLs. Should they be freaking out? Nah, we don’t think so.
In March 2018, Google announced they’ll no longer support the goo.gl URL Shortener but links will continue to direct traffic even after the date. If you have found this service to be really useful, you might be wondering, “What are the best URL shorteners and how do they differ from one another?”
There are at least 10 other URL shortening services that work great as alternatives to goo.gl and we picked out 6 of the best link shorteners. While they are not free URL shorteners and neither do all offer free analytics like goo.gl, these URL shorteners are just as effective and have better customization than goo.gl.
Here are the 5 best URL shorteners to replace goo.gl:
Rebrandly
Rebrandly is arguably one of the most trusted link management platforms available in 2019. As a URL shortener, you can create, measure and manage your links with a custom domain name. For example, you are an author with various purchase links, you can use Rebrandly to create links with a custom domain name like “your.name/amazon”, “your.name/bloomsbury”.
As a URL shortener, Rebrandly also supports QR code generation.
A free account offers you 500 links with 5 custom domains, Starter account offers you 5,000 links with 5 custom domains, and then the Premium account offers you 200,000 branded links and 20 custom domains.
Read more: How to generate QR Codes for your online form.
Bit.ly
Bitly is one of the most widely used URL shortening options available. It integrates well with other third-party apps like TweetDeck, TwitterFeed and Zapier. With it, you can track the number of clicks your shortened links get and also view them on your own personalized Bitly dashboard.
Bitly offers a free and enterprise version of its URL shortening service. Ordinarily, using bitly requires no signup but then you will only be able to create links that end with random characters. On the other hand, creating an account allows you to manage and create custom URLs with your preferred keywords, e.g. bit.ly/customname. You can only use keywords and names that other people have not taken.
Bl.ink
“Blink and you’ll miss something”
That’s one way to look at this URL shortener. Bl.ink is a robust link shortener service that helps to track link statistics like clicks, traffic, device, location, time, referrers etc. Small businesses, teams, and enterprises find it really useful because is a wide variety of options, depending on the number of links you need to generate and track.
Users on the free plan can generate 1,000 links and track up to 1,000 clicks per link. Unlike Bit.ly, the analytics for a link created on a free account remain private.
TinyURL
TinyURL is one of the first URL shorteners to be established (they’ve been around since 2002) and even used to be the top shortening platform at some point. Years later, a lot of people still find it useful to customize their links.
The created links usually look like tinyurl.com/customname and the platform also has a toolbar button that lets you create a short link from the webpage on your current screen. TinyURL is entirely free and anonymous to use, but it doesn’t contain any reports or information about your links and their popularity.
Ow.ly
Leading social media application HootSuite has a popular URL shortening service called Ow.ly. With it, you can shorten links, share files, images, and videos in various formats.
Until recently, you could shorten a link right away after entering a CAPTCHA code, but now, you’ll need to sign up to a Hootsuite account to use Ow.ly. This means that you can use it in conjunction with HootSuite for all your social media marketing.
Formplus URL Shortener
The Formplus URL shortener is a little bit different from the others; it is reserved for online forms created with Formplus. But just like goo.gl, you can use this URL shortener to track clicks, views, location, devices and the abandonment rate of your online form.
These shortened links are important in cases where online forms are used; contact forms, mailing list sign-ups, job application forms, etc. Shortened form links take up less space and keep the text in your branding materials tidy. Like Rebrandly, you can also generate QR codes for Formplus form links, all for a monthly fee. Sign up for a free 21-day trial here.
As you look for a custom URL shortener since goo.gl has just about shut down, you can be sure that all previously made links will continue to work. Remember that, you have until March 30, 2019 to view your analytics and download a .csv file of your data from goo.gl.
