Overview
YOURLS (Your Own URL Shortener) is free, open-source software that organisations install on their own web server and domain. Its website calls it the de facto standard self-hosted URL shortener and describes it as free software with “no strings attached”, licensed under the MIT licence with documentation under CC BY 4.0[13].
Features include historical click reports, referrer tracking and visitor geolocation, a developer API, bookmarklets and a plugin architecture with dozens of available plugins[13]. The project’s GitHub repository was created in August 2012, has more than 12,000 stars, and published release 1.10.6 on 30 August 2026[14]. It is supported by sponsors through OpenCollective[13].
YOURLS gives full control of click data, which matters to organisations that cannot send visitor data to a third-party service, and there are no link or click quotas beyond those of the host. The trade-offs are operational: the owner is responsible for hosting, updates, backups, security hardening and spam prevention, and functions such as team permissions, QR codes or SSO depend on plugins or custom work rather than being built in.
YOURLS features
- Self-hosted on own domain
- Click history, referrers and geolocation
- Developer API and bookmarklets
- Plugin architecture
- MIT licence
- No usage quotas
YOURLS pricing
Free and open-source (MIT); hosting and administration costs borne by the user.
YOURLS strengths and limitations
Strengths
- Free with no usage limits
- Full data ownership
- Large plugin ecosystem
- Long-running, actively released project
Limitations
- Requires hosting and maintenance
- Team features depend on plugins
- No vendor support
- Security is the operator's responsibility
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