A self-hosted URL shortener you actually own.
Kortli installs on your own Linux server in an afternoon. Your links, your click data, your customers’ data — on your machine, under your control, with the complete source code in your hands. One payment, no monthly fee, no account that can be closed.
Launch price until 31 December 2026. After that the same licence is $299.
What “self-hosted” actually means
It means the software runs on a computer you rent or own, not on somebody else’s. When a visitor clicks one of your short links, the request goes to your server and nowhere near ours.
That one difference decides everything else: who can switch your links off, who sees your click data, who sets the price next year, and what happens to twenty thousand printed QR codes if a company you have never met changes its mind.
Hosted, on their server
- Your links work while your card does
- Click data sits in their database
- Price is theirs to change
- Extra domains usually cost extra
- Nothing to install — that part is genuinely easier
Self-hosted, on yours
- Your links work as long as your server does
- Click data is on your disk, and only there
- Paid once. There is no next year’s price
- As many domains as you like, at no extra cost
- You look after the server — or we do, for $79 a month
What you need to run it
Less than people expect. A short link is a tiny amount of work for a computer — it reads one row and sends the visitor on their way.
A small Linux server
Anything with Docker on it. A $6-a-month box is plenty for most people, and it will sit there mostly idle.
A short domain
Something brief to hang the links on. You can point as many as you like at one copy of Kortli — see branded short links on your own domain.
One command
That is the install. HTTPS sets itself up and backups run nightly from the first day, without being asked.
What you get that the free ones do not have
Password-protected links
Ask for a password before anyone is sent on. For a price list, a draft, a client folder — anything not meant for the whole internet.
A/B testing
Send some visitors one way and some another, then see which wins. Up to four destinations on a single link, with the split you choose.
QR codes worth printing
Choose the shape and colours, drop your logo in the middle, download as PNG, SVG or JPG. Sharp at any size, because it is real vector artwork. More on short links with QR codes.
Honest about what this is
If you are looking for a self-hosted shortener, you will find Shlink — an excellent open-source one under the MIT licence, free to download today. Kortli is built on it, and we would rather tell you that than have you find out later.
What Shlink does not have is password-protected links, A/B testing, or QR codes of any kind. That is what we built — along with the interface, the one-command install, the nightly backups and somebody to ask when it goes wrong. That is what you are paying for. If you are happy to wire it all up yourself, do — genuinely.
Questions people ask
How much technical skill do I need?
Enough to rent a Linux server and paste one command into it. If that sentence worries you, we will install it for you for $199 + $499 — licence and setup together, paid once — or host it for you for $199 once and then $79 a month, so you never touch a server at all.
What happens if my server goes down?
Your links stop working until it comes back — the same as your website. That is the honest trade for owning them. Backups run nightly from the first day, so moving to a new server is restoring one file, not starting again.
Can I move my existing short links over?
You can import the list, so the same endings point at the same places on your own domain. What you cannot do is keep links that were printed on somebody else’s domain working — those belong to whoever owns that domain. Worth knowing before you print anything else.
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.
Can I use it from an AI assistant?
Yes. Kortli ships an MCP server — a small file that lets an AI assistant work your links directly. Point your assistant at it once, then just say what you want: “shorten this and put a password on it”, “how many clicks did the March email get?”
It reaches everything, passwords, A/B tests and QR styling included. It uses the API key you already have, runs on your own machine, and talks only to your own server — nothing goes through us.
Is it really the full source code?
Yes. Every file, yours to read and change. You are not renting access to a black box — you own your copy outright.
Talk to a person
Not sure your server is up to it? Want to check it does the one thing you need? 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 server. Your links.
One payment. Full source code. None of your links or clicks sent to us, ever.