Is the Bitly Free Plan Still a Good Deal?

In today’s multi-channel marketing world, tracking links and QR codes is more important than ever.

Every click and scan can tell you which campaigns are working. Bitly is one of the oldest and most popular link-management services (founded in 2008 and handling hundreds of millions of clicks monthly), and is widely recognized as a leading link shortener for marketers and businesses.

At first glance, bitly's free sounds attractive: “5 links a month for free!” But with savvy small-business owners facing tight budgets, we have to ask: is Bitly’s free tier still worth it? While bitly's free offers basic link management and analytics, there are notable limitations that may impact your digital marketing strategy.

Let’s dive in and find out. We’ll look at what bitly's free plan actually includes today, what it doesn’t, and how that affects real marketers.

What Is Bitly and Who Uses It

Bitly is a well-known URL shortening and link management platform. The company started in 2008 and grew rapidly as social media and mobile marketing took off.

By now, Bitly shortens over half a billion links every month.

Big brands and media outlets trust it: for example, publishers like The New York Times and Pepsi have even used Bitly's technology (with their own custom domains) to share links.

In short, Bitly has a strong reputation for ease of use. You paste a long link, and it gives you a short bit.ly link, and you get basic click stats.

Marketers, agencies, media companies, and even non-profits use Bitly because it’s simple and doesn’t require technical setup.

Bitly offers link shortening, QR code generation, and mobile-friendly landing pages (like “link-in-bio” pages) that anyone can create with no coding.

It works in the browser or through mobile apps, so even non-technical users can start creating short links in seconds.

However, it’s essential to know that the free plan of Bitly is very limited. It’s enough to try the service, but not to run serious campaigns.

Let’s look at exactly what you get in Bitly’s free tier.

What the Bitly Free Plan Includes

Bitly’s free plan (which costs $0/month) still exists and provides a very basic toolkit. As of late 2025, here’s what the Bitly free plan offers:

• 5 short links per month: You can create up to five new Bitly links every calendar month.

• 3 custom back-halves (slugs) per month: You can customize the tail end of up to three links per month (for example, bit.ly/YourChoice).

• 2 QR Codes per month: The free plan allows the generation of two QR codes each month. These QR codes are dynamic (you can update the link later), and you can customize their colors.

• 2 custom landing pages: Bitly offers “Pages” (mobile-friendly landing pages or link-in-bio pages). The free plan includes up to 2 of these per month.

• Unlimited link clicks and QR scans: There is no cap on how many clicks or scans your links and codes can receive. In other words, usage is limited by link creation quota, not by traffic.

• Basic analytics: You get simple analytics on each link, mainly total click counts. Bitly’s free plan does not include detailed reports such as geographic source, device type, or referral sources (which are locked behind paid tiers). You will see how many times each link has been clicked, but not much more.

In short, Bitly’s free account gives you a little bit of everything, a handful of links, a couple of QR codes, a couple of landing pages, and basic click stats.

It’s an easy way to “try out” link shortening (and it requires no credit card to sign up).

But the limits are extremely low, so it’s really only enough to test the waters.

You’ll find that most of Bitly’s useful features (custom domains, deep analytics, UTM integration, API access, etc.) are only on paid plans.

Bitly Free Plan Limitations

The flipside of Bitly’s free plan is a long list of restrictions. These limits are important for real marketers to understand.

On the free tier, you can’t do the following:

• Create more than five links a month: The link creation cap is just 5 per month. That means if you need to share multiple links. Say one for each social post, email campaign, ad, or A/B test, and you’ll reach the limit very quickly.

• Use any custom domain: Your links will all use the generic bit.ly domain. The free plan does not let you connect a branded or custom domain. In other words, every link looks like bit.ly/… rather than yourbrand.com/… This means you have no control over branding or trust signals in your links.

• Access rich analytics: You only get the simplest data (total click counts). Detailed insights, such as where clicks are coming from, which devices people use, and conversion tracking through custom events, are not available on the free plan. Those are reserved for paid plans.

• Unlimited QR codes and customization: You’re limited to only 2 QR codes per month on the free tier. For serious campaigns (flyers, posters, product packaging, etc.), two QR codes are usually not enough. Also, while free QR codes can be styled, some advanced QR customization (like logos in codes) may be limited or require an upgrade.

• Use integrations or API: The free plan does not include access to Bitly’s API or integrations (like Zapier, Shopify, etc.). So you can’t automate link creation or use Bitly’s tools inside other software unless you pay.

• Avoid ads: Unfortunately, Bitly now places ads on free links. As of 2025 Bitly has introduced an interstitial ad page for all free-plan links. That means anyone who clicks a link you shorten on the free plan will first see a Bitly preview page with a random ad. Bitly openly states that they do this to keep the free plan going. (To avoid this, you must upgrade to a paid plan.)

These limitations create a gap between what marketers need for integrated campaigns and what Bitly's free plan provides.

Put simply, the Bitly free plan strips out nearly every advanced feature. You get only the bare basics, and Bitly uses the free tier mainly as a gateway to paid subscriptions.

It’s enough to get a taste of link shortening, but any real marketing effort will quickly hit a wall.

Why These Limits Hurt Real Marketers

Let’s make it real with an example. Imagine Grace, a small business marketer who wants to run a multi-channel campaign.

She plans to send out a weekly email newsletter, post on social media twice a week, and even hand out some flyers with QR codes.

Grace needs to create several unique links and QR codes, track how each one performs, and keep her brand front and center.

• Link limit: With only five new links per month, Grace would exhaust her quota in just a couple of posts. A single email newsletter might use 2 or 3 links (to different articles or offers), and each of her social posts needs its own link for tracking. Bitly’s 5-link cap is gone almost instantly in this scenario. She’d either have to reuse links (which makes it impossible to know what worked) or stop creating new links altogether.

• No branding: Grace wants her links to reinforce her brand, not Bitly’s. But on the free plan, every link is a generic bit.ly. To the customer, that looks like a random Bitly domain,cnot very professional. If Grace wanted something like sale.GraceShop.com for brand trust, she can’t do that on a free Bitly.

• QR code shortage: Suppose Grace has flyers and business cards, she’ll need multiple QR codes (one per flyer or per product). Bitly only allows two free QR codes per month. That’s clearly not enough for multi-part campaigns or for testing different placements. She might run out of QR codes before her campaign ends.

• Poor analytics: Grace cares about results. She wants to know not just how many people clicked, but where those people came from and what they did next (e.g. signed up, purchased, etc.). Bitly’s free plan only shows total clicks, with no breakdown by country, referral source, or device. And there’s no way to track conversions (like newsletter signups) tied to those clicks.

• Ad interruptions: Every time a customer clicks a Bitly link Grace created, they’ll first see an ad page. This isn’t just distracting, it also slows access to her content and can erode trust (not to mention it’s advertising a competitor or random brand for free!).

All of these friction points add up. In practice, Grace would find that Bitly’s free plan forces compromises (reuse links, remove branding, guess about performance) or pushes her to upgrade. For any marketer running real campaigns or reporting to clients, those limitations can be a deal-breaker.

A Smarter Free Alternative: ShortPen

Enter ShortPen, a modern link-management platform designed with real marketers in mind, and it offers a much more generous free tier than Bitly.

Without being too self-promotional, here’s a quick look at what ShortPen’s free plan gives you (all with no credit card required):

• Unlimited link creation: ShortPen lets you create unlimited short links on the free plan. You never have to worry about hitting a monthly cap. (This completely solves the “5 links” bottleneck.)

• Unlimited QR Codes: You can generate as many QR codes as you like, dynamic and fully customizable, without any per-month limit.

• Branded domain: Even on the free plan, ShortPen gives you one free custom domain. That means every link and QR code can use a URL that matches your brand (e.g., go.YourBrand.com), instantly boosting trust and consistency.

• Analytics: ShortPen provides detailed stats right out of the gate. You’ll see not just click counts, but also where those clicks came from (country, referral source, device). Plus, you get event tracking (up to 100 tracked events/month) so you can tie clicks to real actions like sign-ups or sales. Advanced filters and deep analytics require an upgrade, but the basics are not crippled by row limits.

• Campaign tools: ShortPen supports UTM parameter building and custom tags. You can consistently tag links for each campaign or partner. It also lets you organize links into folders. This makes it easy to keep track of campaigns, clients, or different teams, something most free tools don’t offer.

• No ads ever: ShortPen does not inject any ads or interstitial pages on your links. The experience is clean for end users. (By contrast, Bitly’s free plan now shows ads.)

• No credit card needed: You can sign up and start using ShortPen’s free plan immediately, with all these features in place.

In short, ShortPen’s free tier is built for real-world use and demonstrates the power of a robust link management platform that supports advanced marketing needs.

It offers practically every core feature that Bitly reserves for paying customers.

For example, ShortPen’s pricing page highlights that free users get unlimited links & QR and one domain.

That’s already a game-changer for anyone serious about growth. (If you want more details, you can check ShortPen’s pricing page or sign up here for free.

Clearly, the philosophies differ: Bitly’s free plan is a barebones teaser, whereas ShortPen’s free plan is a fully functional starting point.

If you need to run marketing campaigns (even on a small budget), having unlimited links, brandable URLs, and rich analytics without paying upfront is a huge advantage.

How to Decide Which Tool Fits You

How do you choose between Bitly’s free plan and an alternative like ShortPen? It really depends on your needs:

• Casual, one-off use: If you only need to shorten a personal URL once in a while, for example, sharing a Google Maps link with a friend or posting one link on social media, then Bitly’s free plan might be enough. In such limited use cases, the brand of the link and deep analytics aren’t crucial.

• Frequent or branded campaigns: If you’re a business owner, marketer, or content creator doing weekly or multi-channel campaigns, you’ll likely need more flexibility. ShortPen’s free plan gives you breathing room to create lots of links and codes without worrying about caps.

• Testing & scaling: If you’re experimenting (running A/B tests on ads, tracking multiple social ads, using QR codes in different places), Bitly’s 5-link and 2-QR limits will almost immediately become hurdles. ShortPen removes those hurdles.

• Budget-conscious growth: Both tools offer free plans so that you can try them without cost. If you’re unsure which one fits, sign up for both and test with your next small campaign. See how far you get with Bitly’s limits, and compare with the freedom ShortPen offers. In practice, many marketers find they reach Bitly’s wall almost instantly, whereas ShortPen lets them keep going.

Ultimately, think about your growth.

If you want a quick URL now and then, Bitly’s free plan is serviceable. But if you’re building an audience or running a business, you’ll want a tool that supports you beyond one or two links.

The more generous free offerings of ShortPen (unlimited links, domain, analytics) mean you can run a serious marketing effort right from the start, and only pay later when you actually need even more advanced features.

FAQ

Does Bitly have a free plan?

Yes. Bitly still offers a free tier. For $0/month, you can create short links and basic QR codes with very limited quotas. However, this free account only includes minimal features (see above), so it’s really more of an entry-level demo of the platform.

How many links can I shorten for free on Bitly?

On the free plan, you are allowed 5 new links per month. After that, Bitly will not create any more new links until the next month (or until you upgrade to a paid plan).

Are there ads on Bitly free links?

Yes. Bitly’s free links include an interstitial ad page. In 2025, Bitly introduced ads on all free-plan links to support offering a free tier. Users clicking a Bitly link on a free account will see a Bitly preview that includes an advertisement.

What’s a good free alternative to Bitly?

Many link shorteners exist, but one standout is ShortPen. Its free plan allows unlimited links and QR codes, and even one custom domain (far more generous than Bitly’s 5/2 limit). It also provides advanced analytics and no ads on links. Other free options like TinyURL or Rebrandly exist, but they typically have their own limits (often lower than ShortPen) and fewer analytics. For a small business marketer, ShortPen’s free plan is often the best way to start without paying.

Can I use custom domains on Bitly’s free plan?

No. Bitly’s free account does not allow custom or branded domains. All free-link URLs will use the default bit.ly domain (or another Bitly-owned domain). To use your own custom domain for links, you must upgrade to a paid Bitly plan.

Final Verdict: Is Bitly’s Free Plan Worth It?

In short, Bitly’s free plan is only worth it for very casual or infrequent use.

It’s a quick way to get a taste of link shortening, but it’s extremely limited. As one analysis bluntly noted, the Bitly free tier “feels more like a quick demo than a sustainable tool for a small business”.

Any regular marketing effort will quickly hit the limits of the free plan.

For hobbyists (just shortening a URL now and then) it can be “good enough,” but professional marketers will outgrow it fast.

If you need anything beyond the bare minimum, be it more links, QR codes, branding, or analytics, you’ll likely find yourself needing a better solution.

ShortPen’s free plan offers the room to grow from day one: unlimited links, free branding, and deeper insights.

It’s designed to handle real campaigns without forcing you to pay upfront.