What is Shlink used for?

Shlink is a self-hosted URL shortener written in PHP that serves short links under your own domain, with a REST API and a Docker image. It is a good fit for branded short links for campaigns and link shortening on private infrastructure.

Is Shlink open source?

Yes. Shlink is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at shlinkio/shlink and is written mainly in PHP.

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

Can I self-host Shlink?

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

What is Shlink an alternative to?

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

Is Shlink actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Shlink was on 21 September 2026, and the latest release is v5.1.7, published on 21 September 2026. The project has 5.3k stars on GitHub.

Shlink: open-source alternative to Bitly, Rebrandly

About Shlink

Shlink is a self-hosted URL shortener that serves shortened links under a domain you control. Because you run it yourself, the link data stays on your own infrastructure instead of a third-party shortening service, and short URLs carry your own branding.

It is built in PHP and exposes a REST API for creating and managing short URLs. It runs on PHP 8.4 or 8.5 with a database of your choice among MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server and SQLite, and it can integrate with RabbitMQ. Users can deploy a pre-bundled dist package, build from source, or use the official Docker image configured through environment variables.

Shlink is released under the MIT licence and written in PHP. The README covers only the basics, while the full searchable documentation on shlink.io explains configuration and everything else the tool can do once it is running. Contributions are welcome.

Key features

Short links on your own domain
REST API for managing URLs
Official Docker image
Choice of MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite and more
Optional RabbitMQ integration
Pre-built distributable packages

Good fit for

→Branded short links for campaigns
→Link shortening on private infrastructure

Built with: PHP
Tags: url-shortener; self-hosted; php; rest-api; docker; links; marketing

Shlink: questions and answers

What is Shlink used for?: Shlink is a self-hosted URL shortener written in PHP that serves short links under your own domain, with a REST API and a Docker image. It is a good fit for branded short links for campaigns and link shortening on private infrastructure.
Is Shlink open source?: Yes. Shlink is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at shlinkio/shlink and is written mainly in PHP.
Is Shlink free?: Yes. Shlink is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Shlink?: Yes. Shlink can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is Shlink an alternative to?: Shlink is an open-source alternative to Bitly, Rebrandly and Short.io. Other open-source alternatives to Bitly include YOURLS, Polr and Pygmy.
Is Shlink actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Shlink was on 21 September 2026, and the latest release is v5.1.7, published on 21 September 2026. The project has 5.3k stars on GitHub.