I built a free URL shortener with built-in analytics — here's why

Every few months I find myself needing a short link. Maybe it's for a newsletter, a tweet, or a slide deck. So I go to one of the popular URL shorteners and... immediately regret it. Bitly wants $35/month if you want to see where your clicks come from. TinyURL barely tells you anything. The free ones plaster ads everywhere. And half of them look like they were built in 2011. I got tired of it. So I built my own. Meet Briefly Briefly is a URL shortener with built-in click analytics. No ads. No signup walls just to create a link. And you can actually see who's clicking your links without paying enterprise pricing. Here's what it does: Shorten any URL — clean, short links you can share anywhere Click analytics — track clicks by country, device, browser, and referrer Dashboard with charts — not just a number in a table, actual visual breakdowns Custom slugs — pick your own short code if you want QR codes — because apparently people still scan those (they do, I checked my own analytics) The