Skip to main content
TrustRadius
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.

Read more
Recent Reviews
Read all reviews

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

Video Reviews

Leaving a video review helps other professionals like you evaluate products. Be the first one in your network to record a review of Bitly, and make your voice heard!

Return to navigation

Pricing

View all pricing

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
Return to navigation

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

YouTube
Return to navigation

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 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).
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews and Ratings

(130)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 53)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Jeff Crockett | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Omar Raya León | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Trevor Rideout | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
John McElhenney | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Aaron Wallace | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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!
Hannah Walker | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I have been very pleased with Bitly so far. It is definitely a product I would recommend. It was a game-changer for me as a business professional who often shares online links. Bitly is well-suited for any company that does a lot of link sharing and wants both better attribution and a friendlier-looking links.
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
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.
Return to navigation