What is Polr used for?

Polr is a free, self-hostable, GPL-licensed URL shortener built on PHP and Laravel, with a REST API, link branding and usage analytics. It is a good fit for branded short links for a company domain.

Yes. Polr is open source under the GPL-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at cydrobolt/polr and is written mainly in PHP.

Yes. Polr is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host Polr?

Yes. Polr can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What is Polr an alternative to?

Polr is an open-source alternative to Rebrandly, Short.io and Bitly. Other open-source alternatives to Rebrandly include YOURLS, Kutt and Shlink.

Is Polr actively maintained?

The most recent commit to Polr was on 28 May 2024, and the latest release is 2.3.0b, published on 28 January 2021. The project has 5.1k stars on GitHub.

Polr: open-source alternative to Rebrandly, Short.io, Bitly

About Polr

Polr is an open-source URL shortener that organizations and individuals can host themselves to create branded short links while keeping control over the underlying click data. It targets users who want an alternative to third-party shorteners for privacy or branding reasons.

It is built in PHP on the Lumen micro-framework with MySQL as its database, and includes a themable web interface along with a documented REST API for programmatic link creation. The project also lists a Safari browser extension and a Python client library, mypolr, for interacting with the API.

Installation involves cloning or downloading the repository, pointing a web server's document root at the public folder, creating a MySQL database and completing a setup wizard. Polr uses semantic versioning and notes that upgrading from its 1.x line to 2.x involves breaking changes. It is released under the GPL license.

Key features

Self-hosted branded URL shortening
REST API for programmatic link creation
Themable web interface
Click analytics per link
Browser extension and Python client library

Good fit for

→Branded short links for a company domain
→Self-hosted alternative to public shorteners

Built with: PHP; Laravel; Angular; JavaScript
Tags: url-shortener; self-hosted; php; laravel; analytics; rest-api; link-management

Polr: questions and answers

What is Polr used for?: Polr is a free, self-hostable, GPL-licensed URL shortener built on PHP and Laravel, with a REST API, link branding and usage analytics. It is a good fit for branded short links for a company domain.
Is Polr open source?: Yes. Polr is open source under the GPL-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at cydrobolt/polr and is written mainly in PHP.
Is Polr free?: Yes. Polr is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Polr?: Yes. Polr can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is Polr an alternative to?: Polr is an open-source alternative to Rebrandly, Short.io and Bitly. Other open-source alternatives to Rebrandly include YOURLS, Kutt and Shlink.
Is Polr actively maintained?: The most recent commit to Polr was on 28 May 2024, and the latest release is 2.3.0b, published on 28 January 2021. The project has 5.1k stars on GitHub.