Top pick · highest health
Shlink
URL shortener with REST API and command line interface. Includes official progressive web application and docker images.
★ 5.4k 45 commits / 90d ⟳ 6 days ago MIT Docker
Category
Open source url shorteners
URL shortening is the action of shortening a URL to make it substantially shorter and still direct to the required page. Before hosting one, please see disadvantages of URL shorteners. This page ranks 11 open-source URL shorteners projects by a health score recomputed every night from repository data; nothing else affects the order. Shlink leads at 95/100 with 45 commits in the last 90 days and 5.4k stars, followed by Chhoto URL (92) and Flare (89). 5 of the 11 score 70 or above, 7 publish a Docker image, and the median health is 67. MIT is the most common licence, carried by 8 of them. Between them they stand in for Bitly.
updated Oct 2026 11 tools ★ 30k stars 7 with Docker median 67
Best for…
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Most starred
12,295 stars on GitHub, the largest community in the category.
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Most active
159 commits in the last 90 days, the fastest-moving codebase here.
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Most permissive
MIT licence with health 95/100: the strongest option if you need to embed or fork commercially.
Ranked by health
Table view
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Chhoto URL
Simple, lightning-fast URL shortener with no bloat (fork of simply-shorten).
★ 996 159 commits / 90d ⟳ today MIT Docker
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Flare
A nonbloated, modern, and highly configurable file/screenshot vault server with support for ShareX, Flameshot, and Spectacle. Offers OCR search and more.
★ 138 79 commits / 90d ⟳ 4 days ago MIT Docker
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snowshare
File and link sharing platform with URL shortening, code snippet sharing, and file uploads, featuring customizable expiration, privacy settings, and QR codes.
★ 91 69 commits / 90d ⟳ 2 days ago CC0-1.0 Docker
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YOURLS
YOURLS is a set of PHP scripts that will allow you to run Your Own URL Shortener. Features include password protection, URL customization, bookmarklets, statistics, API, plugins, jsonp.
★ 12k 28 commits / 90d ⟳ 3 days ago MIT
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bit
Fast, lightweight, resource-efficient, compiled URL shortener.
★ 108 12 commits / 90d ⟳ 25 days ago MIT Docker
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Kutt
Modern URL shortener with support for custom domains and custom URLs.
★ 11k 4 commits / 90d ⟳ 11 days ago MIT Docker
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Flink
Create QR Codes, embeddable link previews for your website and crawls/scrapes metadata.
★ 20 0 commits / 90d ⟳ 5 months ago MIT Docker
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rs-short
Lightweight link shortener written in Rust, with features such as caching, spambot protection and phishing detection.
★ 5 0 commits / 90d ⟳ 5 months ago MPL-2.0
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Simple-URL-Shortener
KISS URL shortener, public or private (with account). Minimalist and lightweight. No dependencies.
★ 60 0 commits / 90d ⟳ 1.2 years ago MIT
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clink
A super-minimal link shortening service written in pure C, focusing on small executable size, portability, and ease of configuration.
★ 0 0 commits / 90d ⟳ 1.1 years ago AGPL-3.0
| # | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shlink Docker | 5.4k | 45 | MIT | 6 days ago | |
| 2 | Chhoto URL Docker | 996 | 159 | MIT | today | |
| 3 | Flare Docker | 138 | 79 | MIT | 4 days ago | |
| 4 | snowshare Docker | 91 | 69 | CC0-1.0 | 2 days ago | |
| 5 | YOURLS | 12k | 28 | MIT | 3 days ago | |
| 6 | bit Docker | 108 | 12 | MIT | 25 days ago | |
| 7 | Kutt Docker | 11k | 4 | MIT | 11 days ago | |
| 8 | Flink Docker | 20 | 0 | MIT | 5 months ago | |
| 9 | rs-short | 5 | 0 | MPL-2.0 | 5 months ago | |
| 10 | Simple-URL-Shortener | 60 | 0 | MIT | 1.2 years ago | |
| 11 | clink | 0 | 0 | AGPL-3.0 | 1.1 years ago |
How the URL shortener tools compare
Shlink edges Chhoto URL 95 to 92, and most of the difference is stars: 5.4k stars against 996 stars. Chhoto URL is the busier codebase, though, with 159 commits in 90 days to 45. YOURLS has the largest following at 12k stars, yet ranks #5 of 11, held back mostly by Docker support (no Docker image).
The most recent release is Chhoto URL 7.10.5, published today. clink publishes no tagged releases, which costs up to 25 of the 100 points. rs-short, Simple-URL-Shortener and clink score under 40, so check recent activity before adopting them. By stack, Nodejs (3), PHP (3) and Rust (2) are the most common. Shlink, Chhoto URL, Flare and 7 more are permissively licensed; clink is copyleft.
URL Shorteners: common questions
What is the best open source URL shortener tool?
By Repoly's GitHub health score, Shlink at 95/100 (45 commits in 90 days, v5.1.8 from 9 days ago). Chhoto URL is next at 92; Shlink's lead comes mostly from stars. The score measures maintenance, not features, so shortlist the top few and try them.
Which URL shortener tools are the most actively developed?
Chhoto URL (159 commits in 90 days), Flare (79 commits in 90 days) and snowshare (69 commits in 90 days). Commit activity is 35 of the 100 health points, the largest single term.
Which URL shortener tools can I run in Docker?
7 of 11 publish a Docker image or Compose file, led by Shlink, Chhoto URL, Flare, snowshare, bit and 2 more.
Which URL shortener tools have a permissive licence?
10 of 11: Shlink (MIT), Chhoto URL (MIT), Flare (MIT), snowshare (CC0-1.0), YOURLS (MIT) and 5 more. 1 are copyleft.
Which paid products can open source URL shortener tools replace?
Bitly (Shlink ranks highest here).
