Simple URL Shortener vs Syano

Comparing two open source alternatives to Bitly and Rebrandly and Short.io. Use the comparison below to decide which one fits your needs.

Simple URL Shortener

MIT

Simple URL Shortener is a lightweight PHP URL shortener with MySQL or SQLite support, per-user history, an admin panel, REST API, and an easy self-hosted setup process.

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Syano

AGPL-3.0

Self-hosted URL shortener with analytics, QR codes, and link-in-bio pages. A privacy-first open source alternative to Bitly.

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Side-by-side comparison

	Simple URL Shortener	Syano
License	MIT	AGPL-3.0
Self-hostable	Yes	Yes
GitHub Stars	60	16
Forks	16	4
Open Issues	2	—
Last Commit	Aug 28, 2025	Sep 1, 2026
First Released	Apr 18, 2015	Apr 12, 2026
Categories	URL Shortener	Marketing & Branding Tools
Tags	#url-shortener #self hosted	#url-shortener #qr-code #analytics #docker #self hosted

GitHub stars over time

Simple URL Shortener

Syano16

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