How to Get Started with LittleLink

Updated

LittleLink is an open-source, DIY alternative to Linktree: a single static page of branded buttons that link to your profiles, shops, and contact channels. To get started, you fork or download the project, edit the HTML to keep only the buttons you need, and deploy it to a static host. The site itself points to two official starting points — "Deploying LittleLink with Vercel" and "Making LittleLink Yours" — plus one-click deploy buttons for Cloudflare, DigitalOcean, Vercel, Netlify, and AWS Amplify.

What you get out of the box

The project advertises these characteristics on its homepage:

  • 100+ branded buttons (Instagram, GitHub, YouTube, Spotify, Patreon, Bluesky, Mastodon, and many more)
  • Light, dark, and automatic themes
  • SEO, accessibility, and performance best practices
  • No frameworks, no JavaScript

That last point matters for how you work with it: because there is no build step or framework, customization is mostly editing HTML and CSS directly.

Step 1: Get the code

You have three practical routes, all linked from the homepage:

Route What it gives you When to use it
Fork on GitHub Your own copy you can edit and keep in sync You want version control and future updates
Download latest release A snapshot of the code You just want to upload files somewhere
One-click deploy buttons A hosted instance on a platform You want a live page with minimal setup

The one-click options listed are Cloudflare, DigitalOcean, Vercel, Netlify, and AWS Amplify. If you are unsure which to pick, the site's own guidance is to start with the Vercel deployment guide.

Step 2: Deploy

The homepage links directly to "Deploying LittleLink with Vercel." Follow that guide if you chose Vercel. If you chose a different platform, use its corresponding deploy button and then complete that platform's normal setup flow (connecting your Git account or uploading the files).

Expected result: a live URL serving your LittleLink page with the default button set. At this stage it is not yet personalized.

Step 3: Make it yours

The second official guide, "Making LittleLink Yours," covers customization. In practice this means:

  1. Open the main HTML file.
  2. Delete the button blocks you do not need.
  3. Replace each remaining button's link (href) with your own profile or page URL.
  4. Adjust the theme if you do not want the default.

Because the page is plain HTML and CSS, you can verify each change by opening the file in a browser before deploying again.

Helper tools worth knowing

  • Button Builder — generates button markup so you do not have to hand-write it.
  • LittleLink Extended — an extended variant of the project, with a preview page.
  • Figma Community File — for designing or previewing the layout in Figma.
  • All LittleLink Buttons — a reference list of every available branded button, useful for checking whether the service you need is already covered.

Common sticking points

  • Button not in the list? The site includes a set of "Generic LittleLink Buttons" (Visit Website, Email Us, Download File, RSS Subscribe, and similar) that you can repurpose for anything not covered by a brand.
  • Deployment platform choice paralysis. The project explicitly recommends the Vercel path for beginners; the other buttons exist for people already using those platforms.
  • Assuming there is a dashboard. There is no admin panel or database — every change is a file edit followed by a redeploy.

Where to go next

Start at the LittleLink homepage, pick either the Vercel deployment guide or the "Making LittleLink Yours" guide depending on whether you already have hosting, and use the Button Builder once you are ready to add your own links. If you want to compare this approach against a hosted service first, the relevant trade-off is control and cost versus setup effort — LittleLink gives you the former at the price of doing the deployment yourself.