Overview
Shlink is a self-hosted URL shortener distributed as a PHP application under the MIT licence and hosted on GitHub; it is maintained by Alejandro Celaya[15]. It can be installed from a distribution file or run from a Docker image on container infrastructure[15].
Shlink is designed API-first: short URLs can be created and managed through a REST API with simple authentication, from the command line, or through a progressive web application that can manage several Shlink instances. It supports multiple custom domains, custom human-readable slugs and anonymised visit statistics with visitor geolocation[15]. The GitHub repository, created in April 2016, has more than 5,000 stars and released version 5.1.8 on 21 October 2026[16].
Compared with YOURLS, Shlink suits teams already running containerised infrastructure and wanting a clean API for integration into their own products. Like any self-hosted option, it requires the operator to run databases, updates and backups, and it does not include hosted extras such as QR-code design studios, link-in-bio pages or vendor support.
Shlink features
- REST API and command-line tool
- Docker image
- Multiple domains and custom slugs
- Anonymised visit stats with geolocation
- Web client for several instances
- MIT licence
Shlink pricing
Free and open-source (MIT); self-hosted.
Shlink strengths and limitations
Strengths
- Clean API for integration
- Container-friendly deployment
- Anonymised statistics
- Free with no quotas
Limitations
- Self-hosting overhead
- Small maintainer base
- No marketing extras
- No commercial support
Appears in
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