cutt.ly

Cuttly tracks clicks, traffic, and link performance in real time, and reports click-through rate for your short links. The analytics apply to individual links and to campaigns, so you can compare performance and adjust based on measured data. This is available as part of the platform's link management features; the site presents analytics as a core capability rather than an add-on.

What Cuttly measures

Based on the platform's own description, Cuttly's analytics cover:

• Clicks — the number of times a short link is followed. The dashboard shows a total clicks figure per account (the example on the site reads "Total clicks 2 593 703").
• Traffic — where the clicks come from.
• Link performance — how each link is doing over time.
• Click-through rate — the rate at which people who see a link click it.
• Per-link click counts — each URL in the list carries its own click number (the example entry shows "clicks 259").

Cuttly describes this as tracking "in real time," so figures update as clicks happen rather than only in a daily batch.

Where the numbers appear

The account view lists all URLs with their click counts, tags, and creation dates. From that list you can search by link or by tag, which is how you isolate a single link or a group of links for comparison. The site also frames analytics as the basis for "link optimization" — you look at what performed, then change the link or campaign accordingly.

Analytics across link types

Cuttly's analytics are not limited to plain short links. The platform bundles several link products, and the same measurement layer sits across them:

Because QR codes, Link in Bio pages, and campaigns all resolve to links, their activity shows up in the same analytics rather than in separate tools.

How to use it

1. Create a short link by pasting a long URL into the shortener. The result is a cutt.ly/... link plus a QR code option.
2. Optionally add a tag when creating the link, so you can group and search related links later.
3. Open your account's URL list to see each link's click count.
4. Search by link or tag to narrow to the set you want to evaluate.
5. Compare click-through rate and click volume across links or campaigns, then change the underperforming ones.

The expected result is a per-link and per-campaign view of what is actually being clicked, which you use to decide what to keep, rewrite, or promote differently.

What to check before relying on it

• Plan limits. The site links to a Pro pricing page, which implies feature tiers. Which analytics features sit behind a paid plan is not specified in the available material, so confirm on the pricing page before assuming a given metric is included.
• Account required. Tracking clicks requires the link to be created and managed in your account; the site prompts you to sign up to manage links.
• Real-time vs. historical. "Real time" is stated; the retention window for historical data is not described here.
• Attribution depth. The material confirms clicks, traffic, CTR, and performance, but does not detail referrer breakdowns, geography, or device-level reporting. If you need that granularity, verify it directly.

For a quick read on whether a link or campaign is working, Cuttly's click and CTR tracking covers the basics. For deeper attribution reporting, check the current feature set on the site before committing.

Branded short links in Cuttly are short URLs that use a custom domain or a custom alias instead of a generic shortener address, so the link itself carries your brand or a meaningful word. Cuttly supports both branded short links and custom URL alias/slug changes, and it still tracks clicks and link performance on those links. They're worth using if you share links in places where people decide whether to click based on the URL text — social posts, emails, and campaigns — and you want that text to look recognizable rather than random.

How a branded short link differs from a generic one

A standard short link replaces a long URL with a short, fixed-domain address plus a random code. A branded short link keeps the shortening benefit but swaps in something the audience recognizes.

The key point: branding changes how the link looks and reads, not whether it can be measured. Cuttly tracks clicks, traffic, and link performance on short links, and the platform reports figures like total clicks and links added, so branded links stay measurable.

Why use them

• Recognizability. A link that shows your brand or a clear word is easier to trust than an opaque code, which matters when the click decision happens in a feed or inbox.
• Professional appearance. Cuttly positions branded short links for social media, emails, and marketing campaigns — contexts where a polished URL supports the surrounding message.
• Memorability. A custom alias can describe the destination, making the link easier to recall or repeat verbally.
• Consistency at scale. Cuttly is built for managing links across creators, marketers, and businesses, so branded links fit campaigns and teams rather than one-off shares.

What you can control in Cuttly

Based on the platform's feature list, a short link can be adjusted in several ways beyond the alias:

• Change the URL alias / slug
• Add UTM codes
• Set a password
• Set mobile link redirects
• Set link redirect expiration
• Configure pixel settings
• Run A/B/C tests
• Generate a QR code
• Remove the short link

This means branding isn't a separate product — it's one setting among the controls you already use to manage where a link goes and how it behaves.

When branded links are the right choice — and when they aren't

Use branded short links when:

• The link appears where the URL text is visible and influences clicks (social, email, campaigns).
• You want a consistent domain across many links.
• You need the link to be memorable or spoken aloud.

A generic short link may be enough when:

• The link is shared privately or embedded behind display text.
• You don't need domain-level recognition.

How to create one

1. Paste the long URL into the shorten field.
2. Choose or set your branded domain and edit the alias/slug to the word you want.
3. Optionally add UTM codes, a password, expiration, or redirect rules.
4. Create the short link, then generate a QR code if you need an offline or print version.
5. Check analytics afterward to confirm clicks are being recorded.

The expected result is a short link that displays your brand or chosen word and still reports click data. If you want the fuller feature set — campaigns, Link in Bio, surveys, and teams — Cuttly points users to sign up and a Pro option; the free shortener is described for shortening URLs, creating branded short links, and tracking clicks.

Start with the free version if you only need to shorten long URLs, create basic short links, and track clicks. Consider going Pro when you need the "more powerful features" Cuttly advertises for advanced link management — branded short links, deeper analytics, QR codes, Link in Bio pages, campaigns, surveys, and team tools. The deciding factor is whether your work depends on managing and measuring many links, not just making them shorter.

What the free version covers

Based on Cuttly's own product description, the free URL shortener lets you:

• Shorten long URLs into short links like cutt.ly/aBcDeF
• Create basic short links for social media, emails, and campaigns
• Track clicks on your links

The homepage frames this as the entry point: "Use the free Cuttly URL shortener to shorten long URLs, create branded short links, and track clicks." So basic shortening and click tracking are the core free use case.

What Pro is positioned to add

Cuttly describes Pro as the way to "unlock more powerful features and manage your links in an intuitive and efficient way." The platform's broader feature set — the things it markets as "more than a URL shortener" — includes:

Cuttly also lists granular controls such as URL alias/slug changes, UTM code generation, password protection, mobile link redirects, redirect expiration, pixel settings, and A/B/C testing. These are the kinds of controls that typically separate a paid tier from a basic free one — but the page does not state exactly which of these sit behind Pro versus free, so treat the table as the platform's overall capability list, not a confirmed free/Pro split.

How to decide

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do you need branded links? If your links appear in marketing, social bios, or print, a custom branded short link looks more professional than a generic one.
2. How deep does your analytics need to go? Basic click counts may be enough for casual use. If you're optimizing campaigns and need click-through-rate tracking, the analytics layer matters more.
3. Do you need QR codes, Link in Bio, surveys, or team access? These are platform features beyond shortening, and they're the reason Cuttly calls itself a "complete link management platform."
4. Are you managing links at scale? The homepage cites 2.26B+ links managed and 1B+ monthly clicks, positioning Cuttly for "modern link management at scale" — useful context if you expect high volume.

If you answered yes to most of these, Pro is the direction to evaluate. If you just need short links that work, the free version covers that.

What to check before upgrading

Cuttly has a dedicated pricing page at cutt.ly/pro-pricing and a "Go Pro" call to action on the homepage. The page itself does not publish the specific free-vs-Pro feature breakdown or price, so the practical next step is to open the pricing page and compare the plan limits directly — particularly around branded links, analytics depth, QR codes, and team seats, since those are the areas most likely to drive an upgrade decision.

One note: the homepage shows a "Sign up" option alongside "Pricing," and using Cuttly means accepting its Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Signing up is presented as the path to the fuller feature set, so if you want to test Pro-level tools, creating an account is the starting point.

Cuttly positions itself as more than a URL shortener: its own homepage describes it as a "complete link management platform" that bundles branded short links, QR Codes, Link in Bio, Campaigns, Surveys and Teams into one product. If you only need to turn a long URL into a short one, the basic shortener is enough. The extra features matter when you want to track clicks, run a link-in-bio page, connect offline materials to online destinations, or manage links across a group of people.

QR Codes

Cuttly generates a QR code alongside each short link. On the homepage example, a short link (https://cutt.ly/wow) is paired with a QR code and a set of controls:

• Size and quality options — the interface shows L, M, H, Q quality levels and a 1024 output size.
• Style options — "Rounded" and "Square" module styles.
• Branding — an "Add image / logo" option lets you place a logo inside the code.

This is useful when the same destination needs to work both online (a clickable short link) and offline (a printed code on packaging, a poster, or a business card). Because the QR code points to the short link, you can later change where that short link redirects without reprinting the code.

Link in Bio

Link in Bio is listed as one of the platform's core modules, alongside URL shortening, analytics, campaigns and surveys. The idea is a single page that holds multiple links, which you place in a social profile where only one URL field is available. Instead of swapping that one URL every time you publish something new, you point it at your bio page and update the links behind it.

Cuttly's homepage frames this as part of "connecting online and offline experiences," so the bio page sits in the same account as your short links and QR codes rather than in a separate tool.

Campaigns and Surveys

Two modules go beyond simple redirection:

• Campaigns — grouped link activity, so a set of links belonging to one push can be managed and measured together.
• Surveys — interactive link experiences, meaning the link destination itself can collect responses rather than just send traffic to a page.

For the shortener itself, the homepage also lists link-level controls that support campaign work: UTM code generator, custom alias/slug, password protection, mobile link redirects, link redirect expiration, pixel settings, and A/B/C testing. These are the settings you would typically reach for when a link is part of a measured campaign rather than a one-off share.

Teams and Centralized Link Management

Cuttly includes a Teams module and a dashboard that keeps all links in one place. The homepage dashboard shows, for a single account:

• All URLs, total clicks, links added this month, and link growth.
• Search by link and search by tag, plus favourites and bulk selection ("Hide selected URLs").
• Per-link rows with the short URL, creation date, tags, and click count.

For collaboration, this means link ownership and performance live in a shared account view instead of scattered across individual browsers or spreadsheets. The scale figures Cuttly publishes — 2.26B+ links managed, 1B+ monthly clicks, 99.96% uptime over the last 30 days — are its own reported numbers and are worth treating as vendor claims rather than independently verified statistics.

Analytics as the Thread Connecting Them

Every module feeds the same analytics layer. Cuttly describes tracking clicks, traffic and link performance in real time, and the dashboard surfaces click counts per link. That is what makes the extra features more than decoration: a QR code, a bio page link, or a campaign link all report back into the same click data, so you can compare an offline scan against an email click against a social bio click.

How to Decide Whether You Need the Extras

A practical way to test this: create one short link, attach a QR code to it, and check whether the click shows up in your dashboard. If that loop works the way you expect, the larger modules — bio pages, campaigns, surveys, teams — are built on the same foundation. If you only ever need the redirect, the additional modules add surface area you may not use.

Pricing for the paid tier is referenced on Cuttly's site via a "Pricing" link and a "Go Pro" call to action, but the specific plan limits and costs are not stated in the material available here, so check the pricing page directly before committing to a plan.

Cuttly is a URL shortener and link management platform. You paste a long URL, and it generates a short link (for example, cutt.ly/aBcDeF) that redirects visitors to the original destination while recording clicks. Beyond shortening, the same account holds QR codes, branded short links, Link in Bio pages, campaigns, surveys, and team features — so it fits creators, marketers, and businesses that need to create, organize, and measure many links rather than just trim one URL.

Core function: shortening and redirecting

The basic workflow is the same as any shortener:

1. Paste a long URL into the "Shorten" field.
2. Cuttly returns a short link plus a QR code option.
3. Anyone who opens the short link is redirected to the original destination, and the click is logged.

The site reports scale signals on its homepage: 2.26B+ links managed, 1B+ monthly clicks, and 99.96% uptime over the last 30 days. Treat these as the platform's own published figures, not an independent audit.

What separates it from a plain shortener

Cuttly's own framing is "a URL shortener that does more." The extra capabilities listed on the page include:

• Branded short links — custom aliases/slugs instead of random characters.
• QR codes — generated alongside the short link, with size and error-correction options (L/M/H/Q), rounded or square styles, and the ability to add an image or logo.
• Link analytics — click counts, traffic, and click-through rate tracked per link.
• Link in Bio — a single page collecting multiple links.
• Campaigns and Surveys — grouped link management and interactive survey links.
• Teams — shared link management across people.
• Link controls — UTM code generator, password protection, mobile-specific redirects, redirect expiration, pixel settings, and A/B/C testing.

A dashboard view on the page shows the practical shape of this: a list of all URLs with total clicks, links added this month, tags, and per-link click counts.

Who it's aimed at

The page positions Cuttly for creators, marketers, and businesses managing links at scale — the phrase used is "modern link management at scale." If you only need to shorten an occasional link, the free shortener covers that. The broader feature set (branded links, analytics, teams, campaigns) matters more when links are part of ongoing marketing or multi-person workflows.

What to check before committing

• Pricing and plan limits — the site links to a Pro pricing page, but the free tier's exact limits (links per month, analytics retention, custom domains) aren't specified in the material here. Check the pricing page directly before relying on a specific quota.
• Account requirement — shortening is presented as usable via the free tool, but features like branded links, analytics history, and teams imply a signed-up account. Confirm what requires login.
• Your actual need — if you need QR codes, click tracking, and a bio page in one place, the combined platform is the reason to pick it over a bare shortener. If you need none of those, a simpler tool may be enough.