Bitly vs YOURLS
Bitly and YOURLS are both URL shortener software. Bitly is a commercial product from Bitly. YOURLS is open source under MIT, with 12k GitHub stars.
Which to pick
- Pick Bitly when
- Marketing teams need branded short links and QR codes with click analytics across campaigns.
- Pick YOURLS when
- You want branded short links on your own domain on cheap PHP and MySQL hosting.
Side by side
Creates short links and QR codes with click tracking, custom domains and campaign reporting.
A PHP URL shortener you host on your own domain, with click statistics, an API and plugins.
The free plan is now tight, and links or QR codes can stop working if a paid plan lapses.
The interface is dated and multi-user features need plugins.
Production-ready (both)
Cloud service
Self-hosted server
Not published
PHP and MySQL
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
12k GitHub stars
Not known
Established: started 14 years ago, latest release 1.10.6.
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.