Have you ever thought about why some URL shorteners are free, while the other ones are paid? Let’s consider why this happens. Nothing is free. The work costs money, and the hosting costs money. If a URL shortener is entirely free, it likely sells your clicks for $10 per million.
If you need to shorten a link for a once-off occasion, a free URL shortener might be the perfect solution. Generic link shorteners serve a functional purpose — shortening URLs. However, they can’t deliver trust, security, and an appealing look to a link.
Let’s examine the main features that differentiate paid link shorteners from free ones.
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Trusted Domains
Free services provide only a generic domain (e.g., goo.gl). You can’t add your branded domain to shortened links. Why is this bad? Generic domains are probably used to spam, so they have a bad reputation on social networks and email providers. Branded domains are credible as users see the brand name, which promotes the link. A branded domain belongs solely to your company, so you manage the domain and its reputation.
Nobody except you is interested in a link’s reputation because URLs are a reflection on your brand—just as your logo and your website are. If your links look untrustworthy, people will think you’re a spammer. If URLs redirect customers to an error page, they likely won’t come back.
The paid link shorteners need a fee for providing branded domains as hosts demand costs.
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Stable Work
Free shorteners don’t guarantee stable work. They aren’t responsible for your short links and reputation. You can’t surely say if a free shortener will work in two weeks or not. Paid shorteners, on the contrary, are responsible for the qualitative work because of the service payments.
Also, most of the paid link shorteners provide SLA to ensure users have the maximum safety. Consequently, that feature also needs resources to be implemented.
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High Security
Free link shorteners may not guarantee the data safety as they aren’t responsible and may maliciously use credentials. So, before signing in to a free service, make sure it meets GDPR requirements.
It’s vital to consider the pros and cons of anything before implementing it into your business. There are many factors to think about when choosing a free URL shortener.
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Get started for freeThe article is about:
- Why paid shorteners are better than free ones.
- How to choose a paid URL shortener.
- Free URL shortener.
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