Free URL Shortener

It stores your address under a short code and looks it up when someone opens that code. The visitor stops at a preview page showing where they are about to go, then continues.

A custom URL shortener lets you pick the ending instead of taking a random code. Type spring-sale in the alias field and the link reads za.gl/spring-sale. The alias costs nothing on the free plan.

Paste a long address, then choose Shorten URL. You get back a unique code, and anyone who opens it lands on the original in under a second.

A long URL with tracking parameters can run past a hundred characters, break across lines in email, get truncated in a bio and turn into a dense QR code. Shorten a URL once with a free URL shortener and the same short URL fits everywhere, and you see how many people opened it.

Short links fit inside social media posts, look cleaner in marketing emails and printed materials, and are easier to remember. URL shortening also enables click tracking, including how many people clicked and where they came from.

Yes. Shorten a URL and press nothing else; the URL shortener asks you to register nothing. An account opens quietly behind the first link so your short URLs have somewhere to live, and this browser stays signed in to it. You only need the access token when you switch device.

Yes, everything works in a mobile browser: shortening, the QR code and the analytics. There is nothing to install.

The preview page. It shows the destination domain, whether the connection is secure and how others rated it, then sends the visitor on. A wait timer can hold it a few seconds if the owner set one. Crawlers skip it and go straight through.

It adds one hop, answered in well under a second. The visitor also stops at the preview page unless they are a crawler, which is the part they actually notice.

Yes. You can create short links for free without filling in a signup form. Your first link opens an account where you can manage everything.

Most of the time you do not have to. Your first link opens an account and keeps this browser signed in, so every link you shorten later stays there. To access your links on another device, or after clearing your browser data, paste your access token into the Sign in with a token page.

You will rarely need it, this browser stays signed in on its own. It matters the day you clear your browser data or move to a new device. Add an email address to your account and you can request a new token whenever you need one. Without an email on file we have no way to confirm the account is yours, so it is worth adding one early.

Yes. You can type any slug you want, for example /summer-sale, so your short URL stays on brand. If the alias is already taken, you will be prompted to pick another.

Type the ending you want in the alias field before you press Shorten. If it is already taken you will be asked for another.

Title and description on the free plan. Changing where the short URL points, or its alias, password or expiry, is on Pro.

It holds the visitor on an intermediate page for a set number of seconds before the link opens. It is useful for showing an announcement, getting confirmation of terms, or simply slowing down automated crawlers.

When you turn it on, anyone who clicks the link sees a password prompt first. They will not reach your destination URL until they enter the correct password.

Yes. Turn it on when you create the link and the preview page asks for it before it lets a visitor continue.

Yes. You can set a custom title and description for the page shown before the link opens. Useful when you want to give visitors context about where they are heading.

When creating a short link, open the settings and pick a date and time. After that moment, the shortened URL stops working and shows an expiration notice to anyone who tries to visit it.

Yes, that is one of the common uses. One short URL in the bio, and every tap counted by country and device. Device targeting can also keep the link working on phones only, if that is what you want.

Yes. The bio takes one link, so put the short one there. Its click count tells you which post actually sent people, by country and device.

Yes. It is a normal link, so it pastes into a chat like any other, and you find out how many people opened it.

Yes. Every link gets its own analytics page showing total clicks, the countries requests came from and the device types. Data appears from the moment the first click lands.

Ours does, by country and device, and the numbers stay in your account. Nothing is handed to an advertising network.

Counts, not identities. You see how many opened it, from which countries, on what device and browser, and where they came from.

Yes. The URL shortener counts clicks, countries and device types itself and shows them in your account, with no third-party tag involved. Google Analytics and a GTM container stay optional on top.

Yes. Enter your GTM container ID in the link settings and it fires your GTM container before the redirect. This lets you track clicks as conversion events inside your existing GTM setup. Your container is yours to manage: if the tags you load need consent in the visitor's country, collecting that consent is your responsibility.

Yes. Even with automatic redirect on, the page waits about a second before sending the visitor on, which is enough for your container to load and fire. You do not need the wait timer for tracking to work.

By default a link keeps resolving and nothing retires it on a schedule. If you want one to stop, set an expiry date when you create it.

They keep resolving. Shorten a URL here and it does not expire because the account went quiet, and nobody reclaims an alias you already used. The only thing that stops a short URL is an expiry date or a click limit you set yourself.

Yes, from the dashboard. The short URL stops resolving immediately and anyone who opens it gets nothing. The alias stays reserved to you, so nobody else can claim an address you already printed somewhere.

Only you. Your links and their click counts live in your account, behind your token. There is no public directory of what people shorten here.

Nothing. The preview page shows the destination and the connection status, never who created the link. On your side, the analytics record the visit, including the visitor IP, the same way any web server does.

Safer when the shortener shows you the target before you go. Ours opens a preview with the domain, the connection status and how other visitors rated it, and anyone can flag one for review.

Every link is served over HTTPS. You can add a password so only the people you choose can open it, and set an expiry date so it stops resolving on its own.

Visitors do. The preview page shows the destination domain, whether the connection is secure, when the link was created and how many people have marked it safe or unsafe. Each visitor gets one vote, and we use those votes to find links worth looking at. A person reviews a flagged link before anything happens to it.

The one that keeps your attribution intact. Shorten a URL for a campaign and it carries UTM parameters, and if the URL shortener drops them in the redirect you lose the report. Yours are appended to the destination here, and the click is counted by country and device on top.

Yes, and social is where most people shorten links. Short URLs fit inside a character limit, survive a copy into a bio and read cleanly in a caption. The same link works anywhere you can paste one.

Yes, mainly for attribution. Add UTM tags when you create the link and your analytics tool still sees which newsletter sent the visit.

No. Links are minted on za.gl, so there is nothing to buy or point at anything. The alias after the slash is yours to pick.

The domain plus the ending you pick. Leave the alias empty and you get a six-character code instead.

A short link adds one redirect between the click and the destination, which search engines follow. What hurts is a chain of several redirects, or a shortener that goes offline and takes every link with it.

Unlimited links from this URL shortener, an alias on the free plan, and a preview page that shows the destination before the redirect. Most free tiers meter at least one of those, and the terms move around, so compare on the day you decide.

Free covers unlimited links from the URL shortener, custom aliases, QR codes as PNG, click analytics, geo and device targeting, click limits and page styling. Pro adds CSV export of the analytics, SVG and PDF for the code, and editing the target, alias, password or expiry after you shared the link.

It depends on the URL shortener. Open the preview here and you see the destination domain, whether the connection is secure and how other visitors rated it, before you go anywhere. Anyone can flag a destination and a person reviews the ones that get flagged.

As long as you want. Shorten a URL here and it keeps resolving; nothing retires it on a schedule, which matters once the link is printed on something. Set an expiry date yourself and it stops then.

Not yet. Links are minted on za.gl, and the alias is what carries your campaign name. If your own domain is a hard requirement, a branded URL shortener is the category to look at.

Yes. Shorten a URL and its code comes back beside the link, PNG on the free plan, SVG and PDF on Pro. Scans land on the same short URL, so they show up in the same analytics as clicks.

Yes. One POST request to the URL shortener returns the link, with the same options you get in the form. There is no SDK to install and no separate key to buy; the docs live at /api-docs.

Ours. One POST request returns the link with the same options the form gives you, no SDK and no separate key. The docs live at /api-docs.

That a visitor can see where a link goes before opening it, that the alias is yours and not a random code, and that nothing retires your links on a schedule.

Both, usually. Shorten the address first, then use the code that comes back with it. A shorter address makes a less dense code, which scans better off paper.

This one. Pick the ending yourself in the alias field and the link reads za.gl/spring-sale instead of a random code, at no cost.

A new account starts with room for 50 links and 100 API calls a month, and creation is capped at 10 a minute so scripts cannot flood it. Ask and the ceiling moves.

You would not need to for the basics. Pro is for changing where a live link points, exporting a link’s detailed analytics, and SVG or PDF versions of the QR code for print.

Self-hosting buys you your own domain and costs you the uptime. Hosting it here is the shortcut when you want the link working tonight instead of a server to watch.

No, the code is not published. It runs as a hosted service, and your links come out of the dashboard as a file whenever you want them.