A branded link shortener with no per-domain fee.
Branded short links on your own custom domain, carrying your name. Put as many domains on one copy of Kortli as you like — one per brand, one per country, one per client — and pay nothing extra for any of them, because there is no monthly fee at all.
Why a branded link is worth the trouble
People have been taught to be careful about what they click. A link that says your name tells them where they are going before they go there — and a generic shortener tells them nothing at all, which is exactly what a scam link also tells them.
It is also yours to keep. A link on somebody else’s domain works while your account does. A link on your domain works as long as you own the domain — whatever software is behind it, today or in ten years.
The per-domain problem
Hosted branded shorteners tend to sell domains the way airlines sell luggage: the first one is included, and every one after that has a price on it. If you run three brands in four countries, that adds up in a way nobody mentions at the start.
Renting, per domain
A monthly fee for the account, and usually another charge for each extra domain — so the cost grows with the number of brands you run, forever.
Stop paying and every branded link stops resolving, on every domain at once.
Owning Kortli
$199 once. Point one domain at it or twenty — the price does not move, because there is nothing to meter.
The only ongoing cost is the domains themselves, which you were paying a registrar for anyway.
What branded short links get you here
One domain per brand
Each brand gets its own short domain and its own look, all from one install — one self-hosted URL shortener, one place to manage.
Your own endings
Choose what comes after the slash. A link somebody can read aloud is worth more than one nobody can remember.
Matching QR codes
Your colours, your logo in the middle, as vector artwork — so it stays sharp on a poster as well as a business card. See short links with QR codes.
Putting a URL shortener on your own custom domain
A branded URL shortener is not a different kind of software — it is a shortener answering on a domain you own instead of one somebody rents you. With Kortli that is three steps, and the third one does itself.
1 — Choose the domain
A short domain of your own, or a subdomain of the site you already have — go.yourcompany.com costs nothing extra and works exactly the same.
2 — Point it at your server
One A record at your registrar, pointing the custom domain at the server Kortli runs on. One line, typed once.
3 — HTTPS, on its own
The certificate is fetched the first time somebody visits, and renewed from then on. Nothing to buy, install or diarise — for every domain you add.
Repeat that for a second custom domain, or a tenth, and the price does not move. That is the part a hosted link shortener with custom domain support cannot match: theirs meters domains because the meter is the business model.
If you run links for clients
The agency licence is $899, and it lets you run Kortli for your clients, rebranded as your own service. Each client gets their own domain and their own branded links; you get one install to look after and no per-client, per-domain or per-seat bill arriving every month.
What you may not do is resell the source code itself. Run it, rebrand it, charge for it — yes. Hand the files on as a product of their own — no.
Questions people ask
What kind of domain should I use?
Something short and obviously yours. Plenty of companies use a shortened version of their name, or their name on a different ending. You do not need a fashionable extension — you need one people recognise as you.
Can I use a subdomain of my main site?
Yes — something like go.yourcompany.com works perfectly well and costs nothing extra, because you already own the domain. It is the cheapest way to start.
Is there really no limit on domains?
None that we impose. There is no monthly fee, so there is nothing to meter. Point as many as you like at your install; HTTPS is arranged for each one automatically.
Can I use a link shortener with a custom domain I already own?
Yes, and that is the normal way to do it. Point the domain at your server with one A record and Kortli answers on it. A domain you already pay a registrar for costs you nothing more — and a subdomain of your main site, like go.yourcompany.com, needs no new registration at all.
Will branded links help my SEO?
Not directly, and anyone who promises otherwise is guessing. A redirect passes people along; it is not a page that ranks. What branded links do is get more of those people to click in the first place, because the link looks like it comes from someone real.
Do you see my links or my click data?
No. Kortli runs entirely on your server. Once a day it downloads our public list of withdrawn licence keys from pay.tradiant.net, and that request carries no licence key and none of your links or click data. The licence check itself happens on your own machine, offline.
Talk to a person
Running several brands and want to know how it would be arranged? Write to us and a person answers — usually the same working day.
Would rather just email? hello@kortli.com. Either way we read every message ourselves, and a person writes back, not a chatbot.
Your name on every link.
As many domains as you like. One payment. No per-domain fee.