1pt vs CleanURI

1pt is a free, keyless public URL shortener maintained by members of the University of Waterloo Computer Science Club. A single POST to /addURL returns a compact 1pt.co short link, with an optional custom back-half, and no account or API key is ever required. The trade-off is that it is a hobby-run service with no uptime guarantee, and its backend host has migrated over time (currently a csclub.uwaterloo.ca deployment).

CleanURI is a minimal, free URL shortener with a single documented endpoint: POST /api/v1/shorten takes a (URL-encoded) long URL and returns a short cleanuri.com link as JSON. It needs no account or API key, making it one of the simplest shorteners to call programmatically, though it offers no analytics, custom aliases, or link management beyond creation.