There is no shortage of URL shortening services on the internet. The problem is that there are way too many choices. Thankfully there are plenty of articles and posts about ‘top url shortening services’ so I don’t have to cover that yet. Here, I’m trying to compile a active list of every single URL shortening service that is FREE to use without signing up first. Also, ‘private’ services wont’ be listed here, only public ones like Bit.ly (the one I primarily use).
Here are my requirements for which services are listed:
- Free to use, but a user can sign up IF THEY CHOSE TO
- User does NOT have to sign up to use the service (overlaps with first one)
- Made for public use ( ie, if I made a service on PiotrKrzyzek.com and have urls such as PiotrKrzyzek.com/Cklph which shortens to the url from http://www.Chykalophia.com … I will NOT allow such private services on this list).
- Service must have a decent standing in WOT (Web Of Trust service)
Even though I said this isn’t a ‘top list’ post, here is the quick list of the services that I see internet Marketers use the most (in no particular order):
Though truth be told, all the marketers I see switch using these services just as much as a woman switches shoes. So it really is up in the air. Though Bit.ly and Is.gd seem to be the two top ranking ones.
Read further for the full list! If I missed any popular ones let me know and I’ll add it.
Bit.ly: this is a very popular service with many great features. One of the best features is click tracking with a lot of cool analysis tools. Not only that, it also has built in integration with Twitter and plenty of other application (such as TweetDeck).
It also can do embedded previews, which is seldom done by other services. Bit.ly is definitelly at the top of the best service list because of it’s outstanding support, great and huge (and growing) feature list and clean interface … also that the url’s really are short!
![Complete List Of URL Shortening Services & Programs](http://www.piotrkrzyzek.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/url_shorteners_lst_isgd.jpg "\")
Is.gd: Pronounced “is good”, this is a simpler service than Bit.ly. It doesn’t sport as many features, but it does create shorts urls … only 17 characters long, and that includes the http:// part! Amazing! It’s fast, simple and it does a great job.
Sadly there are not users to create, so you can’t keep track of your history (as far as I know). But if you need a quick shot URL shortener this is the place to go. Since there are no users per-say, there of course are no analytics to use.
Cli.GS: This is in the heavy weight category. It has all the features of Bit.ly and then some! It has analytics, quick URL snipping support (even for many urls), world maps of clicks and visitors and plenty more.
You can create a user on here and keep track of your history. It also has a quick editor for you to manage and use your urls. They also offer plenty of tools such as one for WordPress and one for Twitter. They also have a semi-open API that you can program for! Cool!
TinyURL: First one of it’s kind. It’s old and everyone practically knows about it. It doesn’t have a pretty interface, but it does the job extremely well without any complains.
Though I do have one complaint against TinyURL: ADS! They have too many ads for my liking.
Other than that, it’s also one of the longest of the bunch. The urls are 25 characters long! Bummers, oh well. It’s a great item of history 
Sorry TinyURL guys, I love ya but your old.
SnipUrl: Just like another simple shorteners except that you can edit the shortened URL and you can do many urls at once. Not much more to say about it.
Though many of my friends agree they think the blue is pretty … guess that counts for something.
Goo.gl: Google also joined the game! Yey? Well not so much. The original way to use this service was by downloading the big and bulky 2MB Google Toolbar … no thanks. So a nice guy (or gal) created a bookmarklet to handle Goo.gl.
To use it, right click on the bookmarklet link and save it to your bookmarks. Then, when you are on a page that you want to use on Goo.gl, click on your bookmark while on that page. You will then happily get a Goo.gl link. It’s nothing special but it works. Not my choice of systems because there are better, faster and easier services to use.
Imfy.us: Simple, short, nothing special. It simplifies urls. Not much too it.
There honestly is not much to say about it. Though watch out for the pesky ads in the middle, though if you have “Ad Block Plus” for firefox it will be nicely blocked.
MemURL: MemURL is extremely well designed, simple and best of all it works . Though they have a automatic URL shortener so you can use it ‘on’ your website. Just link to memurl and it will do all the work automagically!
DwarfURL: This is another very simple service. Though it offers something that almost no other offers: anonymous (more or less) analytics. What you can do is add a ‘password’ to your link. So if you enter just the shortened url such as http://dwarfurl.com/d7822, this is the link that I will give out. Though I can view click history if I add-on the password as such: http://dwarfurl.com/d7822/test
This is a really neat feature which I wish more services offered. It’s simple and requires no special user features. It really is great for simple quick jobs.
Ix.LT: This is a simple one. It shorts to URL to something rather short and best of all you can use custom url names. So for example, I know have: http://ix.lt/piotrk
1Link.IN: Simple and fast. It allows you to enter multiple urls (one per line). I like it because of it’s simple design and quickness. No fuss nor mess.
Shrt.st: Also very simple. Actually probably one of the simplist and minimalistic designed ones I’ve seen. It’s extremely light weight and fast.
Wlink.US: This is a interesting site. They have some stuff in the works it seems so some times it doesn’t work right. Also I can’t seem to figure it out in Chromium. Oh well, it really does seem like a nice place when it works. Also it’s a rather new service, so give em a bit of slack. Because these guys really seem promising.
Tiny123.com: This is a simple service though they are rather picky about the URL you enter. For example you have to enter the “http://” part of the url, so “www.PiotrKrzyzek.com” is illeagal while “http://www.PiotrKrzyzek.com” is fine. Strange, but ok. It’s simple and it works. Nothing special here.
Special mentions:
- Qurlyq.com :: This site used to work a while ago. I liked it because it was very simple and well designed. Sadly currently all it does is give a SQL error. Oh well. Maybe it will be back up soon.
That’s it for now. If any of you know any other great URL shortening services let us know in the comments. I will try to update this list as much as I can.
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