For most people buying a plan around $10 a month, TinyURL gives more: 125 links, editable destinations and two years of click history on Pro, against Bitly Core's 100 links, 5 destination edits and 30 days of history. Bitly earns its higher price elsewhere, with landing pages, integrations, team controls and the deep links and city data that start on Premium.
That is the short answer. The longer one depends on which counter you will hit first, and the two companies put their counters in very different places. Bitly meters QR codes and edits. TinyURL meters new links and, at the bulk tier, clicks. Every number below comes from the two official pricing pages, checked on October 27, 2026: Bitly pricing and TinyURL pricing.
Bitly vs TinyURL at a glance (2026)
Here are the plans most buyers actually compare. Bitly prices are per month with yearly billing, monthly billing in brackets. TinyURL Pro is sold in sizes; this table shows the smallest one.
| Bitly Free | TinyURL Free | Bitly Core | TinyURL Pro 125 | Bitly Growth | TinyURL Pro 1K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $0 | $10 (yearly only) | $9 ($11) | $29 ($35) | $29 ($35) |
| New links / month | 5 | 30 | 100 | 125 | 500 | 1,000 |
| QR codes | 2 / month | one per link | 5 / month | one per link | 10 / month | one per link |
| Destination edits | none | none | 5 / month | included | 20 / month | included |
| Click history | none | no analytics | 30 days | 2 years | 120 days | 2 years |
| Landing pages | 2 | none | 5 | none | 10 | none |
Look at the last two columns. At the same $29 a month, TinyURL gives twice the links, no QR cap and history that lasts six times longer. Bitly gives ten landing pages, bulk upload and the brand name.
Free plans: 5 links with ads, or 30 links with no data
Neither free plan is built for anything you publish to customers, but they fail in different ways.
Bitly Free gives 5 links and 2 QR codes a month, and Bitly labels it "With Ads". Its help center says free accounts get a preview page with an ad before the visitor reaches the destination. Five links is one test, not a campaign.
TinyURL Free gives 30 new links a month on tinyurl.com, a custom alias and a QR code generated for every link. Links never expire. What it does not give, per TinyURL's own breakdown of the free tier, is click tracking or the ability to edit or delete a link after you create it.
One thing worth knowing if you are reading other comparisons: Bitly's own Bitly vs TinyURL article says there is "no published cap on free link creation" at TinyURL. TinyURL's pricing page lists 30 new links a month on Free. Check the vendor's own page, not the competitor's summary of it.
So which free plan wins? On volume, TinyURL, six times over. On anything you would show a client, honestly, neither: one puts an ad in front of your link, the other cannot tell you whether anyone clicked.
The $10 tier: Bitly Core vs TinyURL Pro
This is where most buyers land, and it is where the two products differ the most.
Bitly Core costs $10 a month, but only on a yearly bill, so the real entry price is $120 upfront. You get 100 links, a UTM builder, 5 landing pages and click data for 30 days. Country data covers the top 10 countries, and data export is not part of Core. Then come the two small numbers that decide whether Core works for you: 5 QR codes a month and 5 destination edits a month across the whole account.
TinyURL Pro 125 costs $11 a month, or $9 billed yearly ($108). You get 125 new links a month, editing and deleting, click analytics with two years of history, and a QR code for every link. Go past 125 and every extra 10 links cost $1.50, which is 15 cents a link. Bigger Pro sizes exist: 250 links for $13 a month billed yearly, 500 for $19, 1,000 for $29.
Here's the thing about edits. A short link is worth paying for because the destination can change after the link is out there, and on Bitly Core that ability runs out after five changes. Print a QR code on 2,000 flyers, move the landing page twice, fix a typo on three other links, and edit number six waits for next month. That is why the difference between static and dynamic QR codes matters more than the price tag. An editable link is only editable if the plan lets you keep editing.
History is the other gap. Thirty days means a March campaign is gone from Bitly's dashboard by May. TinyURL Pro keeps two years.
If what you need is a URL shortener where the destination stays editable on every plan, without an edit counter, that is how Linxly is built: paste the long URL, choose an ending like linx.ly/spring-menu, save, and change the destination as often as the campaign needs. The QR code generates with the link and keeps working after each change.
Scaling up: Growth and Premium vs TinyURL's bigger plans
Past the entry tier, Bitly and TinyURL stop competing on the same axis.
Bitly Growth is $29 a month billed yearly ($348) or $35 monthly, with 500 links, 10 QR codes, 20 edits, 120 days of history and bulk creation of up to 100 links per upload. Premium is $199 a month yearly or $300 monthly for 3,000 links, 200 QR codes, 110 edits and a full year of data. Premium is also the first plan with city-level and device data and with mobile deep linking. The full breakdown, including cost per link, is in our Bitly pricing guide.
TinyURL scales Pro by link count, up to 4,000 links a month at $65 billed yearly. After that comes Bulk, which changes the rules. Bulk 50K costs $83 a month ($69 billed yearly) for 50,000 links, but clicks are metered too: past 50,000 a month you pay $0.60 per 1,000. Extra links cost $2 per 1,000. And Bulk links expire after 90 days by default, while Free and Pro links never expire.
On TinyURL Bulk, a link that goes viral costs money and a link you forgot about stops working after 90 days. Neither happens on Pro. Before you jump from Pro 4K to Bulk 50K for the price per link, check how long your links need to live.
Where Bitly is the better buy
Bitly costs more per link at almost every level, and it still wins some buyers fair and square.
Landing pages are included on every plan, from 2 on Free to 20 on Premium. TinyURL has nothing comparable, so a TikTok or Instagram bio with several destinations needs a second tool. Bitly also has the integrations a marketing stack expects, such as Shopify, Canva and a HubSpot connector, plus API access on every plan (1,000 requests a month on Free, 50,000 on Premium) and an MCP server for AI agents.
Then there is the top end. Bitly Enterprise adds multiple users with group permissions, SSO logins and a 99.99% uptime commitment. If procurement requires SSO, the conversation is over before price comes up.
Mobile deep linking is the feature people most often buy Premium for. It is a real feature. It is also $2,388 a year, which is why we cover cheaper routes in why marketers are replacing Bitly.
Bitly or TinyURL: which one to choose
Pick TinyURL if you create a steady flow of links, edit them after publishing and want the history to still be there next year. Pro 125 at $9 to $11 a month covers a solo marketer or a small shop. Teams that create links in bulk get the lowest cost per link here, as long as they watch the Bulk click meter and the 90-day expiry.
Pick Bitly if you need pages as well as links, your stack already runs on its integrations, or a security review demands SSO and user roles. Just size the plan against the edit counter, not only the link counter.
Pick neither if your real job also involves a bio page, printed QR codes you will edit often, or one link that sends iPhones to the App Store and Android phones to Google Play. Bitly charges Premium for the last one. TinyURL does not do it at any price. Our roundup of seven URL shorteners lines up the other options by entry price and first limit.
A third option: Linxly, with no edit counter and bio pages and deep links in one account
In the comparison above, each service traps you in a different place. Bitly meters edits and QR codes. TinyURL has no bio page and no deep links at all. Linxly is built for exactly those two gaps.
| Monthly price | Short links | Destination edits | QR code | Click history | Bio pages | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linxly Pro | $7.99 | 250 a month | unlimited | automatic for every link | 2 years | 20 |
| Linxly Business | $39.99 | 5,000 a month | unlimited | automatic for every link | 5 years | 50 |
| Linxly Starter | $0.99 | 5 a month | unlimited | automatic for every link | 30 days | 2 |
The numbers side by side:
- Bitly Growth ($35) vs Linxly Pro ($7.99): Bitly gives 20 edits, 10 QR codes and 120 days of history a month. Linxly Pro counts neither edits nor QR codes, keeps history for 2 years and costs less than a quarter of the price.
- TinyURL Pro 125 ($11) vs Linxly Pro ($7.99): Linxly gives twice the links (250) with the same 2 years of history, plus 20 bio pages. TinyURL has no bio pages.
- Bitly Premium ($300) vs Linxly Business ($39.99): Linxly gives 5,000 links instead of 3,000 and 5 years of history instead of 1. City and device stats and deep links are included, at about a seventh of the price.
On Bitly, city, device model, OS and referrer stats start at Premium ($199+). On Linxly they start at Pro. Starter shows clicks by country and device type, with QR scans counted separately. Your logo and brand colors on the QR code come with Pro and Business.
With Bitly or TinyURL you end up running three tools: a link shortener, a bio page and an app link. Linxly puts all three in one dashboard. A link in bio page holds product cards, video and map blocks. Deep links route iPhones to the App Store and Android phones to Google Play.
Trying it takes five minutes:
- Start the 7-day trial.
- Paste a link you change often, such as a printed QR code or a bio link.
- Pick an ending like
linx.ly/fall-menu. The QR code is ready with the link. - Change the destination as often as you like. Nothing is counted, and the QR code keeps working.
The row-by-row versions are on Bitly vs Linxly and TinyURL vs Linxly, and the TinyURL-specific move is covered in our TinyURL alternative guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is TinyURL better than Bitly?
For a buyer at the $10 tier, usually yes: more links, editing with no monthly counter and two years of history. Bitly is better if you need landing pages, its integrations or Enterprise controls like SSO.
Is TinyURL free?
Yes, with limits. The free plan gives 30 new links a month and a QR code for each, and links never expire. You get no click data and cannot edit or delete a link once it is created.
Can you edit a Bitly link after creating it?
On paid plans, within a monthly allowance: 5 destination changes on Core, 20 on Growth, 110 on Premium. The Free plan shows no destination edits.
Do TinyURL and Bitly links expire?
Free and Pro TinyURL links never expire. TinyURL Bulk links expire after 90 days by default. Bitly does not list an expiry on its regular plans, and link expiration as a setting starts on Growth.
Do Linxly links keep working if I stop paying?
Yes. Links and QR codes you created keep redirecting after the plan ends. Editing destinations and viewing new stats need an active plan.
How much does Linxly cost?
Linxly starts at $0.99 a month. Pro is $7.99 and Business $39.99. Every plan opens with a 7-day free trial with all features unlocked, and you can cancel anytime.