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Bitly

Score8.7 out of 10

135 Reviews and Ratings

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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.

Categories & Use Cases

Reviews

What users are saying about Bitly.
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Came for URL shortener, stayed for the Analytics Features

Incentivized
Hannah Carnes
Marketing Director in Marketing at Selling With CC (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Bitly for nearly all URLs we put out publicly. As a real estate team, it is much easier to share a shortened bitly URL for our listings rather than a long, generated URL by our local MLS. We also use it for QR codes and eventbrites. The redirects are nice since when listings go under contract and then Back on Market and the generated URL changes, I can just edit the redirect so our shortened Bitly doesn't change and confuse the seller or mess up any marketing where we've already shared that link.

Pros

  • URL Redirects
  • QR Codes
  • Tracking Analytics for Links

Cons

  • They recently started charging after being free for a long time which was a bummer. We had already been using it for so long it wouldn't have been feasible to switch.
  • Some companies block Bitly due to potential phishing and use by scammers.

Return on Investment

  • Our MLS generates extremely long URLs that can come off as spammy or clutter emails/marketing materials. This solves that problem.
  • We used to a free QR code generator, but now you can generate a QR code straight from the shortened URL and track the analytics which the free sites didn't allow. It also updates with redirects so we're not wasting money on reprinting marketing materials.

Alternatives Considered

TinyURL

Other Software Used

Later Social, Canva, Zapier

Link shortening is good but room for improvement

Verified User
Analyst in Marketing (501-1000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

At our company, we use Bitly for various purposes. Firstly, it helps us shorten long URLs, making them more manageable and shareable across different platforms. Secondly, Bitly provides valuable insights into the performance of our marketing campaigns by tracking link clicks, geographic location of clicks, and other essential metrics. This allows us to make data-driven decisions and optimize our campaigns for better results.

Pros

  • Link shortening
  • Integration with other apps
  • Link analytics tracking

Cons

  • More detailed analytics like real time tracking
  • Better customer support
  • More clarity in documentation

Return on Investment

  • Improvement in link tracking by 10 %
  • Better decision making for campaigns

Alternatives Considered

TinyURL

Other Software Used

Hootsuite, BuzzSumo

Bitly helps with the shortening of URLs

Incentivized
GAIL PABST
Marketing in Marketing at NATIONAL GARDEN BUREAU (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We do a number of webinars and use Bitly to easily share the links on social media. It is also so much easier to use as a link on stories than the large zoom link. I also love how Bitly will tell who the Referrers were like email, Twitter, etc, the countries, and the number of clicks.

Pros

  • Shortens long zoom links.
  • Makes it easy to share links on social media.
  • Makes the link copy exchangeable so you can share easily.

Cons

  • Website where they show the links is hard to read.
  • If you have a number of links at one time, it is hard to find them.
  • It's website is hard to read.

Most Important Features

  • Easy to remember urls.
  • Easy to use.
  • Easy to find total clicks and top referrers.

Return on Investment

  • We get more clicks to our webinars and giveaways because it is easy to use and remember.
  • Reliable always, never had a problem with it not working.
  • Can use it everywhere.

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

Incentivized
John McElhenneyView profile
VP of Digital in Marketing at Fluent Social (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Bitly is one of the early URL shortener programs. I like being able to track all clicks over a limitless timeframe. I can always go to my Bitly dashboard and see the results of my shared URLs from AD campaigns, FB posts, and other content streams I push to.

Bitly is easy to use. The URL for seeing the metrics over time is also simply adding /# to the bit.ly link and there is your data.

I have created so many bit.ly links over time that I occasionally run into "unique" URL names conflicting with links I had already created.

Bitly is fast, complete, and provides excellent back-end reporting.

Pros

  • Builds unique and readable URLS: bit.ly/MYCONTENT.
  • Reporting is robust and very easy to access.
  • Using Bitly as a default shortener for Twitter or Tweetdeck provides an additional layer of accountability and reporting.

Cons

  • Shortening apps have gotten a bad rap and are blocked on some sharing platforms.
  • Increase the level of security to eliminate some of the objections to Bitly inclusion.

Most Important Features

  • Reporting
  • Unique URL if needed
  • Easy client access to link performance

Return on Investment

  • No real monetary impact, but using Bitly can provide a layer of accountability that clients appreciate.

Bitly: Please try an amazing link shortener!

Incentivized
Omar Raya LeónView profile
Redactor in Social Media at Todos Los Jugadores (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It is helpful as it can provide a short address. This feature allows our customers to reach easily to our content. It also makes it easy to share and identify links. Also, if you want to create QR codes, Bitly will do the work for you. Bitly also provides a customer service address, which is a great tool to make your brand stand by itself and differentiate from your competition.

Pros

  • Custom links for your brand.
  • Shortens internet addresses.
  • Build and strengthen your brand.
  • QR code creation.

Cons

  • Sometimes, redirection is not that fast.
  • Editing links is not currently possible.
  • There is a lack of tracking the specific sources of where the traffic comes from.

Most Important Features

  • It helps us by building a brand name.
  • Our customers can identify our links elsewhere.
  • QR feature makes this as an all in one service.

Return on Investment

  • Best content distribution.
  • This has engaged content sharing.
  • Our sales have grown.

Alternatives Considered

TinyURL

Other Software Used

LibreOffice, Calibre, GIMP