Short.io Review (2023): Features, User Reviews and Ratings, Pricing - StatsDrone
Overview
Short.io is an interesting URL shortener that will allow you to create short links to use in your web domains.
Beyond just shortening your links, Short.io offers team domains, geolocation, link expiration, large-scale tools (including shortening, import, and password protection), developer APIs, deep linking, and retargeting.
Short.io has native integration with many other tools, including Zapier, Google Analytics, GTM, Facebook Pixel, Segment, and AdRoll.
These integrations will allow you to optimize the automation processes of all your work to obtain better results with less effort.
The essential part of Short.io in the digital marketing market is that it is a safe, reliable, and effective tool that also has one of the most competitive prices in the market.
Generally, these types of applications tend to be too expensive.
However, Short.io is the solution for those entrepreneurs who want to shorten their URLs and get a wide range of tools and features at a very affordable price.
Among the main features of this tool, we can highlight:
- Analytics
- Data import
- Notifications
- Third-party plug-ins and Add-ons
- Brand management
- Data export
- External integrations
- Marketing automation
- Social-media integrations
- Social media monitoring
Ease of Use and Interface
The control panel of this tool is quite complete in terms of relevant information about your links.In it, you will find info windows that include your link list, the general and individual statistics of each link, your domain settings, retargeting and deep links.
You will also find other windows showing campaign tracking (including source, medium, campaign name, content, and URL), link editing, mobile targeting, geolocation, link expiration dates (you can set a date), link hiding, password protection, and a QR code generator.
Generally speaking, this user interface is quite intuitive and easy to understand, so it won't take you too long to get used to it and get the most out of this powerful tool.
Features Explained in More Details
So far, we have provided you with a fairly general overview of what this tool can offer you.
However, there is still a lot you don't know about the functions of Short.io; in this section, we will tell you in detail all the features of this tool.
Primarily, Short.io serves to shorten links, but, in addition to this, it includes a lot of unique features to suit your needs.
Whether you will use the tool to optimize a blog, an advertising campaign, for personal use, or use in an agency, Short.io has all the solutions you need in one place.
These include:
- Branded links
- Custom domains
- Click tracking
- Redirects
- Use on multiple devices or computers
- Assignment of roles to each team member
- Geographic segmentation (by country or region)
- Link expiration
- Link masking
- Hidden referrer
- Password protection
- Deep linking
- Link permissions
- UTM creator
- Single sign-on (SSO)
- URL short code (slug) editing
- Change destination URL
- Link tags
- Redirect to home page
- QR codes
- Mobile segmentation
- 404 redirect
- 301 redirect code
- Data import and export
- APIs
- Application integration
- Tools and extensions
- SSL encryption
- Chat support
- Privacy (RGPD)
The most interesting ones, according to Shot.io itself, are:
- Mobile links: Allow you to redirect visitors who access your URLs through a mobile device (either a phone or a tablet) to the appropriate destination according to the operating system used. This option allows you to optimize the user experience by creating deeper links.
- Geolocalization: with this tool, you can send users to the most relevant web pages according to their country or region. The use of geo-localized links allows you to offer content tailored to an international audience.
- Link expiration: Keeping track of links can be a cumbersome task, especially if the number of links is large or if the time of the offer is limited. For this very reason, Short.io allows you to add and remove expiration dates for all your links (you will create temporary short links). You can also specify the URL to which the visitor will be redirected once the selected link has expired.
- Hidden links: If you are an affiliate marketer, this option is ideal for you, as it allows you to hide the original URL so that your visitors can only see the short link in their browsers.
- Password protection: with this option, you can limit access to a destination URL using a password. You can also add branding to the page with a custom CCS.
- QR Code Generator: This way, you can promote traditional advertising material URLs using QR codes, which are generated for each short link you require. In addition, you can change their color, add logos, and download them to your computer.
Pros & Cons
Every tool, no matter how good it is, has its good side and its not-so-good side. So, of course, Short.io also has its faults and virtues. In this section, we will mention them in detail to take them into account in your final decision if you choose to acquire this solution.
Pros:
- Easy to use and setup
- Brand URLs
- QR codes
- Mobile links
- Geolocalization
- Integrated APIs
- Seamless and straightforward to understand
- Free plan available
Cons:
- Many social media platforms do not accept short links.
- The data export option might use some improvements.
- The plans have a monthly number of links rather than a monthly/yearly rate (this might be troublesome for some larger affiliates).
Pricing Plans
There are currently four types of plans available to purchase Short.io: the Free plan, the Personal plan, the Team plan, and the Company plan.
Below we show you each of them along with the features they include their monthly and annual costs.
Free Plan
You can use the tool completely free of charge. The only requirement is that you register by creating an account on the shot.io website; after that, you will be able to use it immediately (with some limitations).
This plan includes:
- 1 user
- 5 custom domains
- Up to 1,000 branded links
- Automation of up to 1,000 links
- Redirects (unlimited)
- Up to 50,000 click-throughs
- Destination URL updates
- APIs
- URL short code (slug) editing
- SSL encryption
- Mobile targeting
- Chat support
- Link tags
- QR codes
- Redirection to home page
- 404 redirect
- 301 redirect code
- Application integration
- Tools and extensions
- UTM builder
- Privacy (RGPD)
- Link import
- Link export
Personal Plan
For $20 per month or $200 per year, you will obtain the following benefits.
- One user
- Ten custom domains
- Unlimited branded links
- Automation of up to 10,000 links
- Redirects (unlimited)
- Unlimited click tracking
- Country targeting
- Link expiration
- Link expiration by number of clicks
- Link masking
- Hidden referrer
- Password protection
- Destination URL updates
- APIs
- URL shortcode (slug) editing
- SSL encryption
- Mobile segmentation
- Chat support
- Link tags
- QR codes
- Redirection to home page
- 404 redirect
- 301 redirect code
- Application integration
- Tools and extensions
- UTM builder
- Privacy (RGPD)
- Link import
- Link export
Team Plan
For a cost of $50 per month or $500 per year, you will obtain the following benefits:
- Unlimited users
- 50 custom domains
- Unlimited branded links
- Automation of up to 100,000 links
- Redirects (unlimited)
- Unlimited click tracking
- Targeting by country
- Targeting by region
- Link expiration
- Link expiration by number of clicks
- Link masking
- Hidden referrer
- Password protection
- Deep linking
- Destination URL updates
- APIs
- URL shortcode (slug) editing
- SSL encryption
- Mobile segmentation
- Chat support
- Link tags
- QR codes
- Redirection to home page
- 404 redirect
- 301 redirect code
- Application integration
- Tools and extensions
- UTM builder
- Privacy (RGPD)
- Link import
- Link export
Business Plan
For a cost of $150 per month or $1,500 per year, you will obtain the following benefits:
- Unlimited users
- Unlimited custom domains
- Unlimited branded links
- Unlimited link automation
- Redirects (unlimited)
- Unlimited click tracking
- Targeting by country
- Targeting by region
- Link expiration
- Link expiration by number of clicks
- Link masking
- Hidden referrer
- Password protection
- Deep linking
- Multiple computers
- Single sign-on (SSO)
- 99.9% disponibility guarantee
- Destination URL updates
- APIs
- URL shortcode (slug) editing
- SSL encryption
- Mobile segmentation
- Chat support
- Link tags
- QR codes
- Redirection to home page
- 404 redirect
- 301 redirect code
- Application integration
- Tools and extensions
- UTM builder
- Privacy (RGPD)
- Link import
- Link export
What Is the Best Plan Available?
If you want to get a wide range of benefits at the lowest possible cost, assuming your business is small or medium, then the free plan is ideal for you.
This plan offers you the best tool (with certain minor limitations), with the only requirement to register and create your user.
However, if what you want is to have a deep analytical knowledge of everything that happens with the links you shorten and with your advertising campaigns, then the "personal" and "team" plans are your best options (the choice depends on the size of your project, or company).
Both plans add a lot of value to the tool, as you could see in the previous section, and, best of all, their monthly cost is not at all high. Which makes it easy to take them into account to make a small investment that will result in a considerable benefit for your analytics.
User Reviews and Ratings
Knowing in advance the opinions of other users who have already used the tool for some time allows you to have a broader (and accurate) picture of what awaits you if you decide to get such a tool.
These reviews usually include what users liked the most, what they wanted the least and the recommendations they would give to people looking to use the tool in their business or personal project.
For this reason, we want to share with you some reviews that users across the internet have published based on their experience using Short.io daily.
A user named Jasmine K. posted the following comment on g2crowd.com:
"Great, up-and-coming tool for short links. It's effortless to use for shortening links. I like that my team could get a custom branded short domain for a fairly low price. The pricing structure is very manageable as we scale as a company."
She also added that this was the best product that she has worked with so far:
"I really like the product better than other links shorteners I've used."
However, she also pointed out some flaws that the tool does have:
"The weekly report of links clicks can look a little funky, but I'm confident it will improve over time. The hardest part was setting up the domains, but our in-house web development was able to assist with the help of the short.cm team."
She also recommends this tool for new users as it is seamless and straightforward and will definitely improve your work once you have it installed and running.
On the other hand, Arseniy R. posted a review on g2crowd.com mentioning the following about short.io:
"Overall positive experience. We can use our custom branded short URL domain with Short.cm, always can see the stats for the links click-through."
However, what this user didn't like about the tool was:
"The plans are somewhat inconvenient with a total number of links rather than monthly/yearly new links count used."
Is Short.io a Good Purchase?
Short answer: yes! It totally is, and you should at least give the free plan a try.
As mentioned in this review, Short.io is a powerful tool for shortening links and achieving better conversion with your target audience.
The best part is that they give you most of their top features for free! And the rest of the plans are very cheap compared to other options in the market that practically do the same as Short.io.
So, if you ever feel like the free plan is not enough for you anymore, then simply invest $20 or $50 a month to get the following two plans for your business and get even more benefits, perks, and features in the process.
However, even with all the above-mentioned, Short.io may not be the option you were looking for. Below you will find a list of alternative applications that serve the same purpose as Short.io:
- Bitly: a link management platform that individuals, businesses, brands, and companies can use securely and reliably. In addition, Bitly allows them to share and track the content of their links while obtaining relevant data and information about each click that is generated.
- Rebrandly: an excellent URL shortener that allows link customization for brands to easily recognize the web. It also includes tools for tracking the popularity of each link.
- TinyURL: If you are in a hurry and need to short a link ASAP that will never expire, then TinyURL is the solution for you. Also, you don't even need to create an account to use the tool; however, the paid plan does include features such as tracking and analytics, branded domains, and the ability to edit where each URL goes.
Short.io FAQ
What is Short.io?
Short.io is an URL shortener that will allow you to create short links to use in your web domains.
Short.io offers team domains, geolocation, link expiration, large-scale tools (including shortening, import, and password protection), developer APIs, deep linking, and retargeting.
What is Shot.io used for?
This tool is primarily used for its link-shortening features; however, it is also used for:
- Link analytics
- Link branding
- Link retargeting
- UTM builder
What features does it offer?
Short.iooffers several outstanding features such as:
Branded links, custom domains, click tracking, redirects, use on multiple devices or computers, assignment of roles to each team member, geographic segmentation (by country or region), link expiration, link masking, hidden referrer, password protection, deep linking, link permissions, UTM creator, single sign-on (SSO), URL shortcode (slug) editing, change destination URL, link tags, redirect to the home page, QR codes, mobile segmentation, 404 redirect, 301 redirect code, data import and export, APIs, application integration, tools and extensions, SSL encryption, chat support, and privacy (RGPD)
Can I buy a domain?
You can buy one through Shot.io; if you don't own a custom domain or a brand domain, you can buy one through Shot.io. The best part is that Short.io does not charge any additional fees for these services, and you won't need to go through the setup process of the domain.
Is it possible to create an App that uses short.io?
Yes! You can use short.io's API to integrate your App to the link shortening features included.