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Bitly

Bitly

Overview

What is Bitly?

Bitly (Bit.ly) is one of the most popular link shortening tools. The vendor says it shortens 1 billion links per month. The company is privately held, based in New York City, and was founded in 2008.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Bitly has proven to be an invaluable tool for users across various industries and roles. By shrinking and customizing long URLs, Bitly …
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TrustRadius Insights
TrustRadius Insights

The go-to URL shortner

9 out of 10
March 27, 2022
Incentivized
Not only super useful URL shortening - but the additional features like the ability to integrate webhooks or QR codes with the shortened …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

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Pricing

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Basic

$35

Cloud
per month

Free

Free

Cloud

Customized

Contact sales team

Cloud

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos

bitly project demo

YouTube

Bitly Video Demo

YouTube

bitly demo

YouTube

CMPE281 Bitly Demo

YouTube

CMPE281 Bitly Project Demo

YouTube

READ DESCRIPTION! -- Review & Demo Of Switchy.io Tutorial -- Bitly And Clickmagick Alternative

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Product Details

What is Bitly?

Bitly Video

Creating and managing powerful branded links is easy. Check out our tips for using popular Bitly features, including custom domains, redirects and Campaigns. Learn more at: bitly.is/resources Check out the Bitly blog: bitly.is/blog

Bitly Integrations

Bitly Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Bitly (Bit.ly) is one of the most popular link shortening tools. The vendor says it shortens 1 billion links per month. The company is privately held, based in New York City, and was founded in 2008.

Reviewers rate Usability highest, with a score of 9.5.

The most common users of Bitly are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(130)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Bitly has proven to be an invaluable tool for users across various industries and roles. By shrinking and customizing long URLs, Bitly makes it easier for users to remember and share links. Marketing and communications departments have found Bitly particularly useful in shortening lengthy URLs for social media posts, helping them meet character limits and build trust in their posts. The analytics provided by Bitly have enabled users to track outbound clicks and gather data on how their content is performing beyond social media platforms. In addition, Bitly has been used in email marketing campaigns to implement shortened links required for XML product data coding. Users have also found Bitly helpful in shortening URLs on product labels, allowing customers to easily access product information. Overall, Bitly's ease of use, ability to create user-friendly URLs, and comprehensive analytics have made it a preferred choice for managing tracking links, creating UTM codes for marketing campaigns, and tracking click rates on social media posts. With features like webhooks and QR codes, Bitly has further enhanced its usefulness in shortening long URLs for digital brochures, event materials, and even offline sharing.

  • Customizable links: Many users have praised the ability to customize links in Bitly, as it allows them to easily manage and identify each link. This feature prevents their URLs from getting lost in a sea of indistinguishable links.
  • Analytics insights: The analytics feature in Bitly is highly valued by users, as it provides valuable insights for each link created. Users appreciate being able to see the number of clicks, the source of visitors, and trends in traffic behavior, which helps them make data-driven decisions.
  • Searchability: Users find Bitly's searchability feature beneficial, as it allows them to easily find links by using keywords. This saves users time and effort when retrieving links that were used months ago.

Confusing User Interface: Numerous users have reported encountering difficulties with the user interface of Bitly, stating that it is confusing and in need of improvement. This confusion hampers their ability to perform tasks effectively and diminishes their overall experience with the platform.

Limited Analytics: Many reviewers have expressed dissatisfaction with the analytics provided by Bitly, as they are limited in scope. Specifically, Bitly only offers 30 days of reports and does not track specific sources of traffic. As a result, users feel constrained in their ability to gather comprehensive data and make informed decisions based on it.

Lack of Customization Options: A significant number of users have highlighted the lack of customization options for Bitly links, particularly in the free version. The absence of robust customization features restricts users' ability to personalize and tailor their shortened URLs according to their preferences, limiting its usefulness for branding purposes.

Users commonly recommend the following when using Bitly:

  • Prioritize starting with the free version of Bitly before subscribing to assess its suitability and benefits.
  • Consider upgrading to a custom domain for a superior experience and a more professional appearance in social media posts and other online content.
  • Utilize Bitly for effective URL shortening, comprehensive analytics tracking, and valuable insights into external website links. This allows users to enhance their marketing efforts and effectively monitor link performance.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 52)
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March 29, 2022

Use Bitly for Reliable Linking!

Verified User
Administrator in Marketing
Information Technology & Services Company, 11-50 employees
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
I think Bitly is well suited for most linking needs. I find it easy to use and it is very reliable. It shortens links for social posts, so you don't have to worry about character counts. Large organizations would be well suited to use their paid plan, which includes the option of customizing your links as well as their tracking options.
March 29, 2022

Bitly gets the job done

Verified User
Manager in Marketing
Environmental Services Company, 51-200 employees
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Generally I would recommend. If you are doing a tiny amount of volume (price sensitive and/or your team needs hands on support) you may be better served elsewhere, but I don't think you're going to get the easy of use and feature set that you would with Bitly. We have found that our user base is also used to seeing Bitly-shortened links in their daily browsing, so are less reticent to click a URL that isn't on our domain.
March 29, 2022

Bitly is a great product to "shorten" my workload

Jeff Crockett | TrustRadius Reviewer
Jeff Crockett
Marketing specialist
Wheeler Machinery (Wholesale, 501-1000 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
It was very easy to use. I didn't have to spend a lot of time learning the product. I was able to create an account and begin using it right away. That is extremely helpful as there are many different tools and I look for something that is very user friendly. I saw a higher click rate on our landing pages due to this program.
March 27, 2022

The go-to URL shortner

Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Publishing Company, 201-500 employees
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
The ability to shorten an URL to a legible format - while incorporating your brand(s) via custom domains is very powerful and relatively simple to get up and running. The QR generation on the shorten URL's is a great feature and the ability to get simple top level tracking is good.
March 26, 2022

Bitly: Please try an amazing link shortener!

Omar Raya León | TrustRadius Reviewer
Omar Raya León
Redactor
Todos Los Jugadores (Writing & Editing, 51-200 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Bitly is a very appropriate tool if you are looking to build a brand name. This will help your customers recognize a shortened link address that can be memorable. It is also an easy tool to use, which means that you won't spend a lot of time learning how to manipulate it.
March 26, 2022

Fantastic service, excellent interface, valuable insight!

Trevor Rideout | TrustRadius Reviewer
Trevor Rideout
Marketing Business Development Manager
Technical Rope & Rescue Inc. (Marketing & Advertising, 1-10 employees)
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
It's an excellent option when needing to shorten lengthy URLs such as our Google page review link. It may be less appropriate when linking to secure links as it may seem suspicious to users.
March 25, 2022

Great easy-to-use link shortening tool

Verified User
Manager in Marketing
Insurance Company, 10,001+ employees
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Bitly is really well suited to novice users who have limited understanding of how domains work and need a simple way to be able to create ‘marketing friendly’ URLs that they can create for collateral across multiple channels. It is less well suited for use in environments where there is SEO value in avoiding creating a redirect chain.
March 25, 2022

Using Bitly as a Software Marketer

Verified User
Employee in Marketing
Consumer Services Company, 1-10 employees
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
If you need to shorten a URL for social media posts (Twitter, Instagram, etc.), it is helpful. For example, when you need to shorten a post for the Twitter character count limit, it is useful. In addition to shortening the character count, it allows you to track the clicks for each campaign. If you want to do Influencer campaigns, this can be helpful to see how many views/clicks the link got. For link tracking or app download tracking, I might use a different program because Bitly doesn't show advanced analytics.
March 25, 2022

Bitly helps with the shortening of URLs

GP
GAIL PABST
Marketing
NATIONAL GARDEN BUREAU (Non-profit Organization Management, 1-10 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
I use Bitly often for shortening links for general URLs like ones I use for webinars, sweepstakes, etc. The zoom webinar link is so long and so confusing it would be easy to make a mistake but with Bitly, it is small and I can change it to describe the event.
March 25, 2022

Bitly makes easy to generate custom and short links

Verified User
Team Lead in Other
Media Production Company, 1001-5000 employees
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
The custom links of Bitly are very helpful to understand the behavior of different types of users. How many people are actually visiting our site from different promotional campaigns can also be tracked very easily. But it is a bit difficult to analyze the data of old custom URLs on a very large scale which needs to be simplified.
March 25, 2022

Bitly Is Efficient and Cost-Effective URL shortener and tracking service.

John McElhenney | TrustRadius Reviewer
John McElhenney
VP of Digital
Fluent Social (Marketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Any time you need robust and independent tracking of your links bit.ly works like a charm. There are scenarios and platforms where shortened URLs are prohibited due to the potential of link baiting or link switching.
March 24, 2022

Great Free and Premium Features.

Verified User
Advisor in Other
Publishing Company, 11-50 employees
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
It is always appropriate for any company or person trying to shorten URLs to make them more appealing visually and it tracks the data views and post page. Any company that needs to share posts to social media, this is right for them. The free option is available to anyone.
March 24, 2022

Excellent tool for Startups that want to improve their user experience.

PA
Pablo Albani
COO (Chief Operating Officer)
Mauna (Financial Services, 1-10 employees)
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
It is very good for a startup or a project that starts, because of the ease to start, the comfort of the UI, and the speed of implementation. Perhaps a bit inconvenient if a large number of simultaneous links are handled or that require them to be generated programmatically or with automatic criteria.
March 24, 2022

Happy with our time using Bitly. Would recommend.

Aaron Wallace | TrustRadius Reviewer
Aaron Wallace
Co-Founder
Inspire Uplift (Retail, 51-200 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
I think that Bitly is one of the best, if not the best, URL shortening platforms out there today. I think if you are looking for a URL shortener to use for social media (like our case) Bitly is the best platform available on the market on functionalities as well as pricing.
March 24, 2022

Good tool for social media teams tracking canpaigns

Verified User
Manager in Marketing
Medical Device Company, 201-500 employees
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
It’s well suited for social media teams that want to differentiate between their paid ca organic performance. Also, to track the specific performance of a campaign. It’s especially helpful to transform a long URL into a shorter one, and to be able to customize the text. Having random letters and numbers is an option, but spelling out words is more powerful.

Perhaps less appropriate if you aren’t tracking. For example, sometimes teams don’t use UTM parameters, and if that were the case, it would be more simple to use the URL.
March 24, 2022

Bitly is Worth the Subscription

Verified User
Manager in Marketing
Telecommunications Company, 501-1000 employees
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
The most effective use we have for Bitly is with UTM codes. We can always use shorter URLs, and Bitly does a great job with that. Since we market digitally, over the air, and in print, we often need short URLs or QR codes to help make links more readable. With SMS campaigns, having a short link is invaluable. Bitly handles all of this for us, plus allows us to include our brand in the link.
March 23, 2022

Bitly Review

Verified User
Manager in Marketing
Computer Software Company, 201-500 employees
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
The easy to understand interface coupled with allowing users to choose the short link text and the ability to get analytics on link performance such as clicks makes Bitly a great tool to have in the marketing stack. The simplicity of the platform js what makes it even more powerful to use and deploy.
March 23, 2022

Helpful For Users!

Shannon Miller | TrustRadius Reviewer
Shannon Miller
Project Manager, Talent Development
Endeavor Air (Airlines/Aviation, 1001-5000 employees)
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Bitsy is well suited if you need to give your users a shorter link that can be quickly used on the spot. Well suited if you are able to pay for an account and have the additional bells and whistles for customization and tracking. Less well suited if you do not have the budget or purchase approval to work with outside software. Bitly does work in our high-security environment though!
April 22, 2021

Just need help from a human in customer service. Please.

Verified User
C-Level Executive in Corporate
Retail Company, 1-10 employees
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Likelihood to Recommend
Prior to this incident, I would have rated this as a 10. I work with business owners across the US (we have a current following of over 200K founders). The extreme lack of customer service and ability to receive accurate and timely help is just so disappointing. I feel like I am being taken advantage of -- Bitly takes your money at lightning speed but has no one to help with existing accounts. This is very, very bad business.
April 19, 2021

Bitly helps us maintain trust with our community

Amanda Akey | TrustRadius Reviewer
Amanda Akey
Marketing Coordinator
Infirmary Health (Hospital & Health Care, 5001-10,000 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
This has been an extremely helpful tool for our social media, providing links that our community can trust. It has also helped with printed marketing materials providing easily remembered brand links for events and articles.
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