The QRLinkify Short.io alternative
Short.io is a strong, technical product. It lets you attach a custom domain on the free plan, meters you by clicks rather than by link count, and ships an API that developers genuinely like building against.
That technical bent is also the reason people go looking for something else. Short.io is built for someone wiring link shortening into a system. If you are a marketer who wants to make a branded link, design a QR code for it, and read the numbers on Monday, there is more setup between you and that than there needs to be.
- Set up in minutes, no API needed
- QR design editor built in
- Metered by links, not surprise click caps
- AI QR art from a description
Stay with Short.io if
You are shortening links programmatically, you want API access without reaching our Business tier, and a free custom domain matters more than QR design. It is the more economical developer tool and we will not pretend otherwise.
Switch to QRLinkify if
You are running marketing rather than building infrastructure, you would rather not think about click ceilings, and your links have to work on printed material as well as on screens.
QRLinkify vs Short.io, feature by feature
The differences that actually change which one you should pick.
| Feature | QRLinkify | Short.io |
|---|---|---|
| Links & shortening | ||
| Free plan metering | 50 links created per month | Monthly click cap |
| Traffic limits on free plan | None — clicks are unlimited | Capped |
| Custom slugs | Yes, all plans | Yes |
| AI slug suggestions | Yes | No |
| Editable destination | Yes | Yes |
| Bulk CSV import | Yes | Yes |
| Link expiry and passwords | Yes | Yes, on paid plans |
| 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 | Yes |
| Country and city breakdown | Yes | Yes |
| Device, browser and referrer | Yes | Yes |
| Analytics history | 30 days free, 6 months on Pro | Varies by plan |
| 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) | Available on free plan |
| Setup effort | One CNAME record | DNS plus dashboard config |
| UTM presets per workspace | Yes | Limited |
| Team & API | ||
| API access | Business ($49/mo) | Available early, strong docs |
| Webhooks and integrations | Not yet | Extensive |
| Team workspace | Business ($49/mo) | Paid plans |
| Learning curve | Marketer-friendly UI | Developer-leaning |
Links versus clicks: the metering difference
This trips people up more than any feature on the table, so it is worth its own section.
Short.io meters its free plan by clicks per month, not by how many links you create. That is generous if you make a lot of links that each get modest traffic, and it becomes a problem the moment one link does unexpectedly well.
A click cap fails at the worst possible moment. The campaign that works is the campaign that hits the ceiling, and links stop resolving exactly when you have the most eyes on them. There is no graceful version of that — the visitor sees an error, not a redirect.
QRLinkify meters by links created instead, at 50 a month on the free plan. Traffic on an existing link never turns into an outage. The trade is that if you need to create hundreds of links a month, you hit our ceiling faster than theirs.
Neither model is wrong. Pick the one that fails in the direction you can live with, and be honest about which of the two shapes your usage actually has.
What you get for free
Both free plans are usable, which is not true of everything in this category. They just protect different resources.
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
Short.io free
- A custom domain included at no cost
- A monthly cap measured in clicks, not links
- Click analytics with location and device data
- Standard QR output, no design controls
- No AI QR generation
- API access available early in the plan ladder
If you are a developer who will hit an API before you hit a design tool, Short.io free gives you more. If you are running campaigns that end up in print, ours does — and the click cap is the specific thing to check against your own traffic before deciding.
Setup time, honestly measured
On QRLinkify, the path from landing on the site to having a working short link is: paste, name, copy. There is no API key to provision and no docs to read first.
Short.io is not hard, but it assumes more. The custom domain configuration comes early and expects DNS comfort, the interface exposes options that only make sense if you already know what they do, and the fastest path through the product is the API rather than the UI.
That is a design choice, not a flaw. It suits the audience it is built for. It just means that handing Short.io to a marketing coordinator produces a different first hour than handing them ours.
The QR gap, in practice
QR codes are a first-class part of QRLinkify, not an export option bolted to a link record. Every short link has a matching code, and you can style it properly in the QR design editor — module shapes, eye styles, gradient fills, a logo in the middle — instead of shipping the same black square as everyone else.
The AI QR generator has no equivalent on Short.io at all. Describe your business, get themed designs back that still scan. For anything customer-facing, a designed code gets scanned noticeably more often than a default one, because it reads as intentional rather than automated.
Export is SVG as well as PNG, so a code destined for a large-format print does not soften at size.
Where Short.io is still the right call
If you are shortening links programmatically at volume, Short.io deserves the look. Its API is available earlier in the plan ladder than ours — QRLinkify puts API access on the Business plan at $49 a month — and if API-first is your requirement, that is a real difference in their favour.
A free custom domain is also a genuine advantage if you will not pay for a subscription at all. QRLinkify keeps custom domains on paid plans and we are not going to argue that $19 a month is cheaper than nothing.
The webhook and integration surface is wider too. If link creation needs to fire events into other systems, that is their territory.
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 short.io link belongs to Short.io 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 Short.io 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 short.io, 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 short.io 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?
Choose Short.io if you are a developer wiring links into a product, you want a custom domain without paying, and QR codes barely matter to you.
Choose QRLinkify if you are running marketing rather than building infrastructure, and your links need to work on printed material as well as on screens. The QR editor and AI QR art are the part Short.io has no answer for.
The click cap is the tiebreaker worth checking first. Look at your busiest link last month. If its traffic alone would eat a monthly click allowance, that decides it before any feature does.
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.