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YOURLS

Your Own URL Shortener: the long-running free PHP script for self-hosted short links.

Open sourceSelf-hostableLink management tools
Visit YOURLSSee 4 alternatives
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5 of 5
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About YOURLS

YOURLS, short for Your Own URL Shortener, is a free, open-source PHP application that has been around since 2009. You install it on your own web server and domain, and it gives you a private or public shortener with an admin dashboard, bookmarklets, a developer API and click stats including historical reports, referrers and visitor geolocation. Its biggest strength is a plugin architecture with dozens of community plugins, which add things like QR codes, spam protection, custom redirects and integrations. The code is MIT-licensed and the documentation under Creative Commons, and the project is funded by donations and sponsors. It is free to use; you only pay for hosting. YOURLS suits bloggers, developers and organisations who want branded short links they fully control on standard PHP hosting. The default interface looks dated, many features depend on third-party plugins of varying quality, and you are responsible for updates and security.

Best for: People with PHP hosting who want a free, extensible shortener on their own domain.

Pros and cons

What works

  • Free and MIT-licensed
  • Large plugin ecosystem
  • Runs on standard PHP hosting
  • API and bookmarklets

Why people leave

  • Dated default interface
  • Many features rely on third-party plugins
  • You handle updates and security

Top YOURLS alternatives

See all 4
  1. 1Shlink logo
    Shlink

    A more modern self-hosted shortener with Docker, REST API and a web client.

    66.5
  2. 2Kutt logo
    Kutt

    Open source with a modern UI and an optional hosted instance.

    62.6
  3. 3spoo.me logo
    spoo.me

    Open source with built-in analytics and many clients.

    59.6
  4. 4Bitly logo
    Bitly

    Hosted and managed if you'd rather not run software yourself.

    57.2

Why people left YOURLS

In reviewers' own words, from reviews of the apps they moved to. These are their opinions, not ours.

No switching stories yet. If you moved away from YOURLS, review the app you switched to and tell us why.

Reviews

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YOURLS: common questions

Is YOURLS free?

Yes. YOURLS is free, open-source software that you can host yourself.

Is YOURLS open source?

Yes. The source code is on GitHub at YOURLS/YOURLS. You can also run it on your own server.

What platforms does YOURLS run on?

YOURLS is available for Self-hosted and Web.

What are the best alternatives to YOURLS?

The highest-ranked YOURLS alternatives right now are Shlink, Kutt and spoo.me. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.

See all 4 YOURLS alternatives