Shlink
by Shlink · Self-hosted URL shortener with REST API, CLI and web app
BenchRank score
Screenshots of Shlink
Homepage
Overview
Shlink is a self-hosted, PHP-based URL shortener that serves short links from your own domains. It installs from a dist file or a Docker image, and short codes can be generated automatically or set as custom slugs. It is managed via a REST API, a command line tool, or a progressive web app covering multiple instances, and it records anonymised visit stats with geolocation.
- Best for
- Teams that want to run their own URL shortener on their own domains, with API and CLI access.
- Pricing
- No prices are shown; the site presents Shlink as an MIT-licensed open source project that you host yourself.
- Runs on
- WebSelf-hostedCLI
Strengths and trade-offs
Strengths
- Self-hosted, so short URLs run on your own domains
- REST API, CLI and progressive web app for management
- Open source under the MIT licence, hosted on GitHub
- Records anonymised visit stats and geolocates visitors
Trade-offs
- Self-hosting only; no managed or hosted option is mentioned
- Needs a PHP stack or container infrastructure to run
- Homepage shows no pricing, support or version details
How Shlink markets itself
A structured read of the promise, proof and page design on Shlink’s captured homepage.
Homepage capture
“The definitive self-hosted URL shortener”
- Angle: Open source / ownership
- Hero: Illustration
Pricing
Published plans and prices from Shlink’s own pricing page.
How this score is made up
Each dimension is scored out of 100 and combined into the headline score using fixed weights.
MCP support
Whether an agent can drive the product through the Model Context Protocol, and how much setup that takes.
API quality
Public API surface: machine-readable spec, official SDKs, documented auth, errors, rate limits and versioning.
Documentation
Publicly reachable docs — coverage, freshness, code samples and machine readability.
Agent friendliness
How readable the site is to an automated client: llms.txt, structured data, server-rendered content, crawler access.
Changelog
A public, dated record of what shipped and when — the clearest signal that a product is still alive.
Marketing site structure
Whether the site answers a buyer's questions: clear positioning, the pages that matter, and accessibility.
Page speed
How fast the site loads for real visitors: Chrome UX Report 75th-percentile LCP, INP and CLS, with a Lighthouse mobile run standing in where a site has too little traffic for field data.
Operational trust
Status page and incident history, security disclosure, compliance and data-processing documentation.
Measured, but not part of the score
Useful to know, but not a mark for or against the product — so these do not affect the ranking.
Openness
Source availability, self-hosting, data export and open standards. Scored and shown, but not part of the composite — paid SaaS is not worse for being paid SaaS.
Maintenance
Release cadence and repository activity. Scored and shown, but not part of the composite — it is only measurable for open repositories.
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Where this comes from
The Shlink pages BenchRank reads when it scores the product — its documentation, release notes, status and security pages, and its repository where there is one.
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Is this your product?
Claim Shlink to manage its profile. Claiming lets you suggest edits to the descriptive fields — it never changes scores or rankings.