The QRLinkify Rebrandly alternative
Rebrandly built its name on one thing: branded short links on your own domain, available even on the free plan. That is genuinely useful, and if a custom domain is the only box you need ticked, Rebrandly ticks it early and you can stop reading here.
The gap shows up the moment your links need to exist off-screen. Rebrandly treats QR codes as a small add-on to a link. QRLinkify treats them as half the product, with a full design editor and an AI generator that turns a description of your business into scannable QR art. If you print, package, or put anything on a wall, that difference is the whole decision.
- Branded domains on Pro and Business
- Full QR design editor, not a plain code
- AI QR art from a text description
- 50 links a month free, no card
Stay with Rebrandly if
A branded domain without paying is your single requirement, you already depend on one of its marketing-suite integrations, and QR codes never leave the browser for you. It gives away the custom domain and we do not.
Switch to QRLinkify if
Your links end up on menus, packaging, posters or event signage. You get the branded link plus a designed, trackable QR code for the same destination — one dashboard, one report, one bill.
QRLinkify vs Rebrandly, feature by feature
The differences that actually change which one you should pick.
| Feature | QRLinkify | Rebrandly |
|---|---|---|
| Links & shortening | ||
| Free monthly links | 50 | Limited, check current plan |
| Custom slugs | Yes, all plans | Yes |
| AI slug suggestions | Yes, reads your destination page | No |
| Editable destination after sharing | Yes, every link | Yes |
| Bulk CSV import | Yes | Yes, on paid plans |
| Link expiry by date or click count | Yes | Limited |
| Password-protected links | Yes | Limited |
| QR codes | ||
| QR code on every link | Yes, automatic | Basic QR output |
| Module shape & eye style control | Yes | No |
| Gradient fills | Yes | No |
| Centre logo | Yes, with error correction adjusted | No |
| AI-generated QR art | Yes — 1 free/mo, 10 on Pro, 100 on Business | No |
| Template gallery | Yes, 10 categories | No |
| SVG export for print | Yes | Varies |
| Analytics | ||
| Click analytics on free plan | Yes, full | Limited |
| Country and city breakdown | Yes | Yes, on paid plans |
| Device, browser and referrer | Yes | Varies by plan |
| Analytics history | 30 days free, 6 months on Pro | Varies by plan |
| CSV export | Yes | Yes |
| Scans and clicks in one report | Yes, same destination | No, QR is separate |
| Branding & domains | ||
| Custom domain | Pro ($19/mo), 5 on Business ($49/mo) | Included on the free plan |
| Domains included | 1 on Pro, 5 on Business | Check current plan |
| Setup effort | One CNAME record | One DNS record |
| UTM presets per workspace | Yes | Limited |
| Team & API | ||
| Team workspace | Business ($49/mo) | Paid plans |
| Roles and permissions | Yes, on Business | Yes, on higher tiers |
| API access | Business ($49/mo) | Paid plans |
| Marketing-suite integrations | Limited | Extensive |
How each one charges
The two tools put their paywall in different places, and that is really what you are choosing between.
Rebrandly meters branded links. The free plan is unusually generous on custom domains and tighter on everything downstream — analytics depth, bulk operations, integrations. You get your brand in the URL early and pay later for the reporting around it.
QRLinkify meters links created, at 50 a month on the free plan, and gives away the analytics and the QR tooling. The custom domain is what sits behind Pro at $19 a month. You get the measurement early and pay later for the brand in the URL.
Neither model is more honest than the other. Pick based on which thing you need in month one. If you are printing a poster next week and want to know whether it worked, our side of the split helps more. If the URL itself has to carry your brand today and you will not pay for anything, theirs does.
What you get for free
This is where most comparisons get vague, so here is the concrete version. Both tools have a free plan, but they give away different halves of the product.
QRLinkify free
- 50 short links every month
- 5 custom-designed QR codes
- 2 AI-generated QR art codes every month
- Full click analytics — country, city, device, browser, referrer
- 30 days of analytics history
- Editable destinations on every link
- Custom slugs
- No credit card, no trial clock
Rebrandly free
- A limited number of branded links each month
- A custom domain included at no cost — genuinely unusual
- Basic click counts
- Limited analytics depth on the free tier
- Standard QR output, no design controls
- No AI QR generation
The short version: Rebrandly gives away the branded domain, QRLinkify gives away the analytics and the QR design tools. If you want to shorten a link, see exactly who clicked it, and print a designed code for the same destination without paying anything, that combination only exists on one side of this table.
The QR gap, in practice
Most link tools generate a QR code because it would look odd not to. What you get is a plain black-and-white square: functional, and visually identical to every other code a person has ignored this week.
QRLinkify treats the code as a design surface. In the QR editor you control module shape, eye style, gradient colours and a centre logo, and the code stays scannable because error correction is adjusted as you go. Export as SVG and it prints at any size without softening.
The AI generator goes further and has no equivalent on Rebrandly. Describe your business in a sentence — a family-run pizzeria, a used car dealership, a wedding photographer — and it returns themed QR art that still scans. A restaurant gets something warm and food-led; a dealership gets something metallic and sharp.
If nobody ever scans your codes off a physical surface, none of this matters. If they do, a designed code is the difference between a scan and a glance.
One destination, one report
The practical argument for combining links and codes is reporting, and it only becomes obvious after a campaign has run.
When links live in one tool and QR codes in another, a campaign that runs online and in print produces two sets of numbers that never quite line up. Somebody spends an afternoon in a spreadsheet reconciling them, and the answer they arrive at is approximate.
With one destination behind both formats, the analytics view shows clicks and scans against the same link, split by country, city, device, browser and referrer. Tag the printed version with utm_medium=print and it appears as a channel alongside email and social, in the same table, on the same axis.
Branded domains: the honest comparison
Rebrandly wins this one and it is worth saying plainly. A free custom domain is unusual in this category, and most tools including ours put it behind a subscription.
What you are trading is what comes with it. On QRLinkify a custom domain arrives on Pro at $19 a month, and that plan also carries unlimited links, unlimited standard QR codes, 10 AI QR generations a month and six months of analytics history. It is a bundle rather than a single unlock.
So the question is not "who gives me a domain for free" but "what does my month look like". If you need one branded domain and nothing else, Rebrandly free is cheaper than $19 a month, obviously. If you also want the analytics history and the QR tooling, you would be paying Rebrandly for those anyway.
Setup is comparable on both: one DNS record, live within minutes. Our walkthrough is on the branded custom domains page.
Where Rebrandly genuinely wins
Beyond the free domain, Rebrandly has been around long enough to have deep integrations with the larger marketing suites. If your workflow already runs through one of those connectors, that is a real reason to stay and no feature table changes it.
It is also more focused. Rebrandly does branded links and does them well, without a QR product competing for roadmap attention. Focus has value, and if QR codes are noise to you then our second half is dead weight you are carrying.
We would rather you knew that before switching than discovered it afterwards.
How to switch without breaking your links
Switching shorteners sounds worse than it is, but there is one hard limit worth knowing before you start: links on a provider's own domain cannot be moved. A rebrand.ly link belongs to Rebrandly and it keeps working only while that account is alive. Links on a custom domain you own are a different story, because you control the DNS.
- 1Export your links from Rebrandly to CSV. Every tool in this category offers this, usually under settings or link management.
- 2Open the CSV and check two columns exist: the destination URL and the slug. Delete the analytics columns — you are recreating links, not history.
- 3Upload the file to the QRLinkify bulk link shortener. It creates the whole batch in one pass and lets you apply tags and UTM presets to the entire import.
- 4If your links were on your own custom domain, repoint its CNAME at QRLinkify. Every printed and shared link keeps working, because the domain is yours and the slugs now resolve here.
- 5If your links were on rebrand.ly, keep that account alive for as long as those links are still in circulation. Redirect the traffic gradually rather than pulling the plug on printed material.
- 6Generate QR codes for the links that need them. Anything you print from here has a designed code rather than a default square.
The realistic timeline is an afternoon for the import and however long your printed material stays in circulation for the rebrand.ly tail. Nobody enjoys this part, but doing it once is cheaper than staying on a tool that does not fit.
So which one should you use?
If a free branded domain is the single thing you care about and QR codes are irrelevant to you, Rebrandly is the better fit and there is no point pretending otherwise.
If your links end up on menus, packaging, posters, business cards or event signage, QRLinkify covers both halves of the job. You get the branded link and a designed, trackable QR code for the same destination, in one dashboard, on one bill.
And if you are undecided, the free plan costs nothing to test — 50 links, full analytics, and two AI QR generations is enough to run one real campaign and see which half you actually use.
Competitor plans and prices change, so check their pricing page before you decide. The QRLinkify numbers here are current: free covers 50 links a month, Pro is $19 a month, and Business is $49 a month.