Google URL Shortener Is Gone: 7 Best Alternatives in 2025

Google's URL shortener — goo.gl — was one of the most trusted link tools on the internet for almost a decade. It was clean, fast, and backed by Google's infrastructure. Then Google deprecated it in 2019, gave existing links a sunset date, and by August 2025 every goo.gl link in the world started returning a 404. If you had goo.gl links in old emails, on printed materials, or embedded in social media bios, they're dead now. This guide covers the seven best alternatives — what they're actually good at, where they fall short, and which one makes the most sense depending on how you use links.

Why This Matters More Than Just Changing a Tool

Most people think of URL shorteners as a one-time thing: paste your long URL, get a short one, done. But goo.gl's shutdown showed how fragile that approach is. Thousands of marketers discovered in 2025 that years of blog posts, printed brochures, and email campaigns were suddenly full of broken links — with no redirect, no warning, just a 404. The right shortener isn't just about making URLs shorter. It's about having a stable, controllable redirect layer that you actually own. That means: your own branded domain if possible, dynamic links you can update after publishing, and an analytics layer that tells you what's still getting clicks.

What to Look for in a goo.gl Replacement

Before comparing tools, here's the checklist worth running through. Not every feature matters for every use case, but knowing what you need prevents you from picking something that hits a wall in three months.

• Custom domain support — your brand in the URL, not bit.ly or t.co
• Dynamic redirects — ability to change the destination URL after publishing
• Click analytics — at minimum: total clicks, device split, geographic data
• UTM parameter support — so link traffic shows up correctly in Google Analytics
• QR code generation — every short link should have a matching QR code
• Free plan limits — how many links per month before you hit a paywall
• Link expiry — useful for time-sensitive campaigns and promotional links

The 7 Best Google URL Shortener Alternatives

1. QRLinkify — Best Free All-in-One Option

QRLinkify is the most direct replacement for what goo.gl should have been. The free plan gives you 50 links per month — compared to Bitly's 10. Every link comes with a QR code automatically. You get click analytics including device type, country, and referrer source. Custom domains are available on Pro. And the one feature no other shortener on this list has: an AI QR art generator that creates business-themed QR codes from a text description. If you run a coffee shop, you can describe your brand and get a coffee-themed artistic QR code that people actually want to photograph — not a generic black square.

The other standout is workspace UTM presets. Instead of manually adding utm_source and utm_campaign to every link, you set defaults once per workspace and they auto-apply to everything you create. For teams managing multiple campaigns, this alone saves hours of work per month. Password-protected links and link expiry are also included — features that Bitly puts behind its paid tier.

2. Bitly — Most Recognized Brand

Bitly is the default choice for most people switching away from goo.gl, and it earns that status. The product is polished, the analytics are good, and enterprise teams trust it. But the free plan is genuinely restrictive: 10 short links per month and basic analytics only. Custom branded domains require the $35/month Starter plan. If you're a solo creator or small business doing any real volume, you'll hit the free tier limits quickly. Worth considering if you already have an existing Bitly account with a history of links, but for new setups the value proposition is thin at the free level.

3. Rebrandly — Best for Branded Domains Only

Rebrandly's entire focus is branded short links — links that use your own domain. If branded domains are your only requirement, Rebrandly does it well. The free plan gives you 500 links on a custom domain, which is genuinely generous. But the product stops there. No AI QR art, no workspace UTM defaults, no password protection, no link expiry on the free plan. Teams who need collaborative link management will hit walls quickly — workspace features are locked to Business plans starting at $69/month. Good tool, narrow focus.

4. Short.io — Best for Developers

Short.io is developer-first: clean REST API, custom domain support on the free plan, and detailed webhook support for building link management into your own products. The free plan is limited to 1,000 clicks per month rather than a link count, which makes it useful for low-traffic use cases. The UI is functional but not consumer-friendly — if you're a non-technical marketer who wants something to just work without reading API docs, this isn't it. Great choice if you're building link shortening into an application or automating link creation via API.

5. TinyURL — Simplest No-Account Option

TinyURL has been around since 2002 — yes, before goo.gl ever existed. It does one thing: make long URLs short. No account needed, links don't expire, it's free. What it doesn't do: analytics, custom domains, UTM parameters, QR codes, or link management of any kind. If you need to shorten a link one time to share in a text message or a document, TinyURL is the fastest path. For anything involving campaigns, tracking, or branding, it's not the right tool.

6. Cutt.ly — Mid-Range Analytics

Cutt.ly sits in a reasonable middle ground. The free plan includes 20 branded links per month, a custom domain option, and analytics that show clicks, countries, devices, and referrers. It also has link expiration and UTM parameter support. The QR code feature is there but basic — no AI generation, no custom design options. Paid plans start at $12/month. Solid choice if you need more than Bitly free but aren't ready for a Pro plan, and don't need AI QR codes or team workspaces.

7. YOURLS — Self-Hosted Open Source

YOURLS (Your Own URL Shortener) is an open-source PHP script you install on your own server. You get full control: unlimited links, your own domain by definition, no monthly fees beyond hosting. The tradeoff is obvious — you're responsible for setup, maintenance, uptime, and backups. There's no QR generator built in, no AI anything, and the interface looks like it was designed in 2012 (because the core was). For technically inclined users who value data ownership above everything else, YOURLS is the right call. For everyone else, it's more work than it's worth.

Side-by-Side: How the 7 Compare

• QRLinkify: 50 free links/mo, custom domain (Pro), UTM presets, auto QR, AI QR art, password protection, link expiry, workspace teams
• Bitly: 10 free links/mo, custom domain ($35/mo+), manual UTM, basic QR, no AI QR, no password protection
• Rebrandly: 500 free links/mo on custom domain, no UTM presets, basic QR, no AI QR, no password protection (free)
• Short.io: 1,000 free clicks/mo, custom domain free, API-first, no QR generator built in
• TinyURL: unlimited free links, no custom domain, no analytics, no QR, no UTM
• Cutt.ly: 20 free branded links/mo, custom domain, UTM support, basic QR, no AI QR
• YOURLS: unlimited if self-hosted, full custom domain, no built-in QR or analytics UI

The One Feature Most Alternatives Are Missing

Every tool in this list will shorten a URL. Most will give you some analytics. A few will let you add UTM parameters. But only one — QRLinkify — includes an AI QR art generator as part of the core product.

Here's why that matters more than it sounds. Plain black-and-white QR codes are invisible in most marketing contexts. They sit on packaging or posters and nobody notices them. An AI-generated QR code that actually looks like your brand — a gym with a bold, athletic-themed QR, a bakery with a food-art QR — gets noticed and gets scanned. The scan rate on branded AI QR codes is meaningfully higher than generic ones, and QRLinkify's analytics show you exactly which placements are converting. You can explore what the AI generator produces on the AI QR art page.

“A URL shortener that only shortens URLs is just a redirect. The shorteners worth using in 2025 are the ones that give you insight into what happens after the click.”

How to Migrate Your Dead goo.gl Links

If you have existing goo.gl links that stopped working in August 2025, here's the fastest path forward. Start by auditing where those links appear — old blog posts, email campaigns, social media bios, printed materials. For digital placements, you can update the link directly. For physical materials like business cards or brochures, you'll need to either reprint or use a dynamic QR code going forward so you can update the destination without reprinting.

1. 1Make a list of every place you used goo.gl links — email footers, blog posts, social bios, print.
2. 2Check your Google Analytics to see which dead links were still getting traffic (the data will show referrer paths even if the link is broken).
3. 3Create replacement short links in QRLinkify with matching UTM parameters so your attribution doesn't reset.
4. 4Update digital placements first — these take minutes. Blog posts and social bios are the priority.
5. 5For print, generate a dynamic QR code for each location. You'll be able to update the destination URL later without reprinting.

The migration isn't complicated — it's just a bit of work. The payoff is that you end up with links you actually control, on infrastructure that isn't subject to Google's product decisions. QRLinkify's free plan covers 50 links per month, which is enough to migrate most use cases without spending anything. Check the full features list to see what's included at each plan level.