Short.io
Tool · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.
Overview
Short.io is a link shortener with domains of your own, click statistics and QR codes. It describes itself like this: "Free URL shortener with custom branded domains, analytics, and QR codes. Create up to 1,000 branded short links at no cost. No credit card required" (homepage). This self-description is the tool's own claim about itself, not an independent assessment.
A programming interface is confirmed: the homepage carries a link to the developer documentation, the page opens and carries the signs of documentation. This was checked by opening the address, not deduced from the word "api" in the link — an earlier edition of the database allowed such guesses, and they have been corrected. What exactly is available through the interface the sources we checked do not describe.
The interface language of the homepage is English. The hreflang markup declares language versions: ar, bg, bn, de, en, es, fr, he, hi, id, it, ja and 13 more (homepage). The figure "13 more" is our own count of the remaining hreflang links in the markup, not a claim by the tool: there is no such number on the page.
The site is prepared to be read by programs: there is a machine-readable index llms.txt of 11,602 characters. The length is our own measurement on the date of the check; this file testifies nothing about the capabilities of the product.
Which platforms it works with
The direct answer: there are no social platforms in the confirmed sources.
The integrations page names Zapier, Make, Segment, extensions for Google Chrome, Firefox and Edge, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Meta Pixel, AdRoll, Slack, and also applications for iOS and Android. Social networks as platforms are not named in this list.
Meta Pixel in the list is an advertising pixel, an event counter, not support for Facebook or Instagram. It should not be taken for a connection to a platform: these are different things. The same goes for Slack here — it is a receiver of notifications.
This agrees with the purpose of the tool: a shortener works with a link, not with an account on a platform. It has no need to connect social networks, and it does not declare that it does.
What is free
The only thing known about the free tier is the tool's own wording in the description of the homepage: "Create up to 1,000 branded short links at no cost. No credit card required" (homepage). That is, up to a thousand branded short links the tool calls free, and it does not ask for a card in the process.
A reservation is obligatory: this is a figure from the self-description, not a pricing page that has been examined. What happens after the thousandth link, whether the statistics, the domains and the QR codes are included in the free tier — the sources we checked do not report.
How you earn with it
An affiliate programme is not announced (homepage). The addresses /affiliate, /affiliates, /affiliate-program, /partners, /referral, /partner-program were checked — all six return 404. There are no links to a programme in the footer of the homepage, and the sitemap https://short.io/sitemap-0.xml contains a single address in all.
What it will not do
Short.io will not publish in social networks for you and does not declare that it does: there are no platforms on the integrations page at all — only automators, counters, browser extensions and mobile applications.
The tool does not offer to pay for referred clients: all six expected addresses return 404, and the sitemap consists of one address.
The tool names no prices in the sources we checked — that is why this deep dive has no section on plans, and the boundaries of the free tier are known only from the words of the homepage itself. No daily or other limits of operation are declared either — from which it does not follow that there are none.
Of what can be done through the programming interface, all that is known from what has been checked is that the documentation exists and opens.
Verified data
The checked data this deep dive rests on.
About the platform
the platform describes itself as follows: «Free URL shortener with custom branded domains, analytics, and QR codes. Create up to 1,000 branded short links at no cost. No credit card required.»
Self-description: this is the platform's claim about itself, not an independent assessment
source, checked 2026-07-28
API access
the home page has a link to the developer documentation: https://short.io/features/api — the page opens and contains signs of documentation
CORRECTED the previous version declared any address containing the word api or dev found on the home page to be a developer section. All 57 such records were checked by opening the address: 24 turned out to be documentation. See data/technical/dev-links-verified.tsv and docs/research/S195-догадка-по-адресу.md
source, checked 2026-07-28
Languages
the interface language of the home page: en; declared language versions: ar, bg, bn, de, en, es, fr, he, hi, id, it, ja and 13 more
The language is taken from the markup attribute, the versions from hreflang. The "and N more" figure is OUR count of the remaining hreflang links in the markup, not a claim by the source: that number does not appear on the page.
source, checked 2026-07-28
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