Link Shortener

What this does, in one line

Paste a long link, get a short one back — 1lnk.app/whatever-you-want — that sends anyone who taps it to the original page. It is free, there is no limit on how many you make, and the links do not expire.

When a short link is worth the ten seconds

Long URLs are fine when they are just tapped. They stop being fine the moment someone has to read them, type them, or trust them. A few places where a short link earns its keep:

• The Instagram / TikTok bio. You get one link and it is visible. “1lnk.app/summer-menu” reads like something you meant; a 140-character tracking URL reads like a mistake.
• Anything printed. A flyer, a menu, a banner. Nobody types a long URL off paper, but a short one they will — or you turn it into a QR code, which is the same link in a shape a camera reads.
• Anything spoken. A podcast, a video, a stage. “Go to 1lnk dot app slash tickets” is sayable. The alternative is not.
• Messages and emails. A short link with a readable back-half tells the person what they are about to open, which is why it gets tapped more than a wall of characters.

Custom back-halves

The part after 1lnk.app/ is yours to choose (letters, numbers, dashes). Leave it blank and you get a short random one; set it and you get a link people can remember. Two habits that pay off: keep it lowercase and short, and make it describe the destination — /menu, /book, /oct-tour — rather than the campaign jargon nobody else understands.

How this compares to bit.ly, TinyURL and the rest

Functionally, a short link is a short link. The differences are in what wraps it:

• Free and unlimited here, no account needed to make one. Some services cap free links per month or push you to a plan for a custom back-half.
• Links never expire and are never deleted for inactivity. A short link is a permanent public URL — it will sit in old posts for years — so this matters more than it sounds.
• Same dashboard as your other links. If you also use WhatsApp click-to-chat links or music smart links, everything lives in one place with one set of analytics.
• Analytics is an add-on, not a paywall on the links themselves. Shortening is free; the click reports are a small monthly plan if and when you want them.

What analytics gives you (when you want it)

A short link is a checkpoint — every tap goes through it, so every tap can be counted. With analytics on, each link shows you clicks over time (by day, and by hour on busy days), where people came from (the referring site), which country and city, and what device. Not who they are — it counts taps, it does not follow people — but enough to answer the question you actually have: which place I put this link is working?

The trick that makes that answer clean: make one link per place. Same destination, different short link for the bio, the newsletter and the flyer. Now you do not have to infer anything — the numbers are just there. We wrote this up properly in why your short links need analytics.

Making one

1. Paste the long URL in the box above.
2. Optionally type a back-half (or leave it blank for a random one).
3. Tap Shorten. Copy the link. That is it.
4. Log in first if you want the link saved to your dashboard, a QR code for it, and the option to turn on analytics later.

Common questions