Bitly vs Kutt
Bitly and Kutt are both URL shortener software. Bitly is a commercial product from Bitly. Kutt is open source under MIT, with 11k GitHub stars.
Which to pick
- Pick Bitly when
- Marketing teams need branded short links and QR codes with click analytics across campaigns.
- Pick Kutt when
- You want a modern self-hosted Bitly alternative with a clean interface.
Side by side
Creates short links and QR codes with click tracking, custom domains and campaign reporting.
A URL shortener with custom domains, link editing, statistics and user management, available as kutt.to or self-hosted.
The free plan is now tight, and links or QR codes can stop working if a paid plan lapses.
The old kutt.it domain is no longer theirs and may be a phishing site; use kutt.to or your own instance.
Production-ready (both)
Cloud service
Self-hosted server and cloud service
Not published
JavaScript, Node.js, Express, SQLite, PostgreSQL and Redis
Closed source, sold by Bitly
Open source, MIT (permissive)
Closed source: you use it under the maker's terms and cannot change or resell the code.
You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice.
16k Wikipedia readers a month on phones
11k GitHub stars
Not known
Established: started 8 years ago, latest release v3.2.6.
Other comparisons
More URL shorteners
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from makers' descriptions, Wikipedia, READMEs and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.