Kutt vs Shrtlnk

Kutt is a free, open-source, self-hostable URL shortener supporting custom domains, link expiration, password protection, and per-link statistics. The public instance and REST API live at kutt.to (authenticated with an X-API-Key header), and the AGPL-licensed codebase can be self-hosted for full control. Note that the old kutt.it domain is no longer operated by the project — its maintainers warn it may now be a phishing site — so integrations should target kutt.to.

Shrtlnk is a lightweight, developer-focused link shortener: register for an API key, then POST a URL with an api-key header to receive a short shrtlnk.dev link and basic click counts as JSON. It is built for simple programmatic shortening rather than a full marketing dashboard, and its free tier covers typical developer usage.