Short.io vs cutty.dev — which one to choose for branded links

The first time I connected Short.io to my own domain was probably about three years ago, for a campaign for a client in the cosmetics industry. It worked right out of the box, a nice panel, and links like marka.link/promo made a good impression during the presentation. I was satisfied. Until the moment when the client (specifically their legal department) asked one simple question: "where are these clicks being recorded?".

And here I got stuck. Because I didn't know. I started digging and it turned out that the logs are sitting on infrastructure outside the EU, and I had just promised in an email that "data stays in Europe". Awkward.

This question is where my fun with comparing URL shorteners began. So if you are looking for a conscious short.io alternative, this won't be a glowing review. I will simply show you where these two tools truly diverge.

At the basic level, they are twins

Both services do exactly the same thing when you take a superficial look. You take your domain, connect it, and blast branded links. That's it. The difference lies in three places, and that is where it gets interesting: where the data resides, how much you pay for it, and what you are actually collecting about the people who click.

Short.io is a mature, American product. Large, proven, with years of development behind it. Cutty.dev is smaller, European, and intentionally collects as little information about users as possible. This is not a "David vs. Goliath" story. It is simply two different models, and the question is which one fits what you are doing.

Where every click physically lands

Most people never ask about this. And then an audit comes along or a contract with a larger client, and suddenly that question comes back like a boomerang (from my story above, you already know how that tastes).

Every click is an HTTP request. With someone's IP, user-agent, referrer. All of this must land somewhere and be saved somewhere. Short.io operates globally, with infrastructure outside the EU. If you are running a campaign for a company that has data processing in the EU in its contract, simply saying "we have a signed DPA" can sometimes be too weak. An auditor will ask just one thing: where does this log physically land.

At cutty.dev, the redirection is handled by a server in the EU. And the IP does not enter the database in its raw form; it is hashed even before anything is saved. In practice, it looks like this:

Short.io  → klik → log z pełnym IP na infrastrukturze globalnej
cutty.dev → klik → IP hashowane → statystyka bez surowego identyfikatora

Do you work with the public sector, healthcare, or finance in Poland or the EU? Then this is not just cosmetic. It is the difference between an hour of explaining yourself to an auditor and a short "no way."

Statistics, or profile vs. ordinary numbers

Short.io showers you with analytics. Geo charts, devices, sometimes integration with trackers. You get a lot. However, you pay for it with a currency that isn't visible in the pricing: you build a profile of the person who clicked.

Cutty.dev goes the opposite way. You have the number of clicks, the distribution over time, and roughly the context. Without gluing it all together into the profile of a specific person. For a campaign report in the style of "how many, when, and roughly from where," this is more than enough. If you are building remarketing funnels that drill down to an individual user, Short.io will give you more. Along with all that baggage of consents that comes with it.

What you are actually paying for

Let's be honest. Short.io has a free plan and it is a good free plan. It's just that branded domains, larger volumes, and team features quickly push you into a monthly subscription, often per number of links or clicks. More campaigns, higher bill. Simple math.

Before you change anything, sit down and do the math:

• how many branded domains you actually connect (for me, it turned out to be two, even though I paid as if I had ten)
• how many links you create per month, and how many are one-off shots
• whether you pay for analytics that you don't even check later
• whether the click limit in your plan won't cut off exactly that one campaign that took off

If this list shows that you are mostly paying for an overly expanded dashboard and "team seats," and you need a solid redirect with a branded suffix, it is a classic moment to look for a short.io alternative that doesn't drive the price up so sharply. Cutty.dev targets exactly this scenario.

What cutty.dev does not pretend to be

To prevent this from becoming a joke: Short.io has several things that cutty.dev is consciously not chasing.

• Deep integrations and enterprise-grade APIs. Webhooks, extensive SDKs, automations for large marketing teams.
• Advanced redirection targeting. Targeting by country or device, based on multiple conditions at once.
• Mature ecosystem. Plugins, ready-to-use connectors, years of corporate support.

There is, however, one thing that cutty.dev does really cleverly, and people notchoriously overlook. The replaceable link destination. You printed marka.link/menu on flyers, stuck that QR code on a stand in the establishment, and then you change where it leads. Without reprinting. I once encountered this with a restaurant menu that changed a day after the flyers were printed, and that one feature saved me a thousand printed sheets. Plus a branded suffix and an instantly generated QR code, without adding a third tool to the puzzle.

So who wins?

There is no single answer. There is a decision that you must make yourself.

Stay with Short.io if you live for deep per-user analytics, enterprise integrations, and don't lose sleep over infrastructure outside the EU or a subscription that grows along with you.

Go to cutty.dev if you want branded links, redirects in Unia, hashed IPs, statistics without profiling, and that replaceable target. And you don't want to pay extra for a panel that you only check once a quarter.

And the simplest way? Take your domain, place one branded link on both sides and compare it with your current bill. Sometimes "less" turns out to be exactly what you needed. And sometimes not, and that is also a good answer.