Kutt vs YOURLS
Kutt and YOURLS are both URL shortener software. Kutt is open source under MIT, with 11k GitHub stars. YOURLS is open source under MIT, with 12k GitHub stars.
Which to pick
- Pick Kutt when
- You want a modern self-hosted Bitly alternative with a clean interface.
- Pick YOURLS when
- You want branded short links on your own domain on cheap PHP and MySQL hosting.
Side by side
A URL shortener with custom domains, link editing, statistics and user management, available as kutt.to or self-hosted.
A PHP URL shortener you host on your own domain, with click statistics, an API and plugins.
The old kutt.it domain is no longer theirs and may be a phishing site; use kutt.to or your own instance.
The interface is dated and multi-user features need plugins.
Production-ready (both)
Self-hosted server and cloud service
Self-hosted server
JavaScript, Node.js, Express, SQLite, PostgreSQL and Redis
PHP and MySQL
Open source, MIT (permissive) (both)
You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice. (both)
11k GitHub stars
12k GitHub stars
Established: started 8 years ago, latest release v3.2.6.
Established: started 14 years ago, latest release 1.10.6.
Other comparisons
More URL shorteners
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from each project's README and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.