Short.io has a free tier that includes a small number of branded domains and a per-month click allowance. Higher click volumes and team features sit on paid tiers. Current pricing lives on short.io/pricing — we do not quote numbers here because they change.

How does the SecureRedirector API compare to Short.io's?

Short.io's API is more mature today. It has a longer feature catalog, broader filter / query options, and more SDKs. SecureRedirector's API covers the core — list / create / update / delete for domains, rules, and short-link slugs, plus a click-event stream. If your integration is a thin wrapper that lets users create branded short links from your app, both work. If you need deep programmatic search across years of link inventory, Short.io's API is currently the deeper surface.

What does SecureRedirector's rule engine do that Short.io's per-link routing doesn't?

Short.io resolves one short URL at a time — slug + custom domain → destination, optionally with conditional routing on geography or device. SecureRedirector resolves entire domains through a ruleset that runs short-link lookup → port rule → path rule → domain default in a fixed order. A single rule can cover an entire path prefix or an entire domain, so you do not need a row per slug for bulk redirects. Both work for slug → URL; only the rule engine covers patterns like every request to brand-a.com going to one CMS while /promo/* goes elsewhere.

Can I self-host SecureRedirector?

Yes. Self-hosted is a first-class option, not a hidden contact-us tier. You run it on your VM, you control the database, click data never leaves your infrastructure. Short.io is SaaS-only.

Both products emit click events as webhooks. SecureRedirector webhooks are per-domain with a shared secret signature on the payload. Short.io's webhook system is per-domain with optional per-link overrides.

How do I migrate from Short.io?

Export your link inventory from the Short.io dashboard or API, point your branded domain at SecureRedirector via DNS, and import the slugs through the management portal. Existing Short.io-hosted links continue to resolve until DNS propagates; new resolutions go through SecureRedirector. The replicable surface is high — almost every Short.io concept maps cleanly to a SecureRedirector concept.

SecureRedirector vs Short.io

Short.io is loved by small product teams for its generous branded-domain support on lower tiers and a developer-friendly API. SecureRedirector aims at the same audience with the added option of self-hosting, rule-based routing beyond slug → URL, and a multi-tenant model designed for agencies running many client portfolios from one instance.

Feature	SecureRedirector	Short.io
Bring your own domain	Unlimited	Generous, even on lower tiers
Pricing model	Flat — based on deployment and team count	Per-click on paid tiers
Self-hosted option	Yes	No
Multi-tenant teams in one instance	Yes	Yes, one workspace per plan
Rule-based routing (domain / port / path)	Yes	Slug → URL with link-level routing
REST API for programmatic link management	Yes (covers core CRUD; surface is smaller than Short.io's)	Mature, well-documented
Webhooks on click events	Yes, per-domain	Yes
Own your click data	Yes	Stored by vendor

When Short.io is the right choice

Short.io has earned a strong reputation with small product teams for three reasons. First, the free and lower-tier custom-domain allowance is generous — you can run multiple branded domains without paying for an enterprise plan. Second, the API is mature and well documented; integrating Short.io into a SaaS for “let users create their own branded short links” is a couple of hours of work. Third, the UX is fast and the product team has been iterating on it for years.

If your team is small, your needs are mostly slug-based short links on branded domains, and you want to be productive in five minutes, Short.io is hard to beat at that price point. We mean this — for many teams, the right answer is “use Short.io.”

When SecureRedirector is the right choice

SecureRedirector is the right call when one of these matters more than API ergonomics or the lower-tier price:

You want self-hosted, not SaaS. Short.io is SaaS-only. If your security posture, compliance requirements, or data-residency commitments rule out a vendor storing click data, SecureRedirector is the option.
You need rule-based routing, not slug → URL lookups. This is the structural delta. Short.io is excellent at “slug X on branded domain Y resolves to destination Z, optionally with conditional routing on geo or device.” SecureRedirector adds an entire layer: domain default → port rule → path prefix rule → slug lookup, resolved in a fixed order. For a domain with thousands of slugs, this is fine on Short.io. For a domain that should redirect all of /blog/* to a CMS regardless of slug, rules collapse what would be thousands of Short.io rows into one entry.
You’re running multiple brands or clients from one instance. Short.io supports workspaces, but each workspace lives on its own plan. SecureRedirector’s multi-tenant model puts the team boundary inside one deployment, with isolated data per team and one bill for the operator.
Per-click pricing on your projected click volume is more expensive than running infrastructure yourself. Short.io’s paid tiers are click-volume structured. At a certain link-and-click mix, running a small VM and SecureRedirector is cheaper than the equivalent Short.io tier.

API depth and rule depth — the two questions worth thinking about

Most of the structural choice between Short.io and SecureRedirector lives in two questions.

Where does the redirect decision logic live? On Short.io, every routing decision lives in a row — one row per slug, optionally with geo / device branching attached. The product is excellent at this and the dashboard surfaces it cleanly. On SecureRedirector, routing decisions live partly in rows (slugs for short links, individual rules) and partly in higher-level abstractions (domain defaults, path-prefix rules that match many incoming paths to one rule). If your redirect inventory is naturally row-shaped — every campaign URL is hand-crafted and has a distinct destination — Short.io’s model is a clean fit. If your inventory has shape — most traffic to a domain goes to one place, with exceptions — rules are the more natural representation.

How programmatic is your integration? Short.io’s API surface is broader and more documented than ours today. If you are building “Short.io but inside our SaaS” and need a deep API to talk to, Short.io is the deeper API. If you are running a redirect substrate and want a small REST surface that covers the core CRUD plus a click-event stream, SecureRedirector’s API is sufficient. Be honest about which you actually need.

What you give up

We are honest. SecureRedirector v1 does not match Short.io on:

API surface area for programmatic link management (Short.io’s API is bigger).
Number of SDKs and pre-built integrations.
Per-link conditional routing UX (geo / device branching on Short.io is a polished surface; on SecureRedirector you do this with rules and the result is more flexible but less obvious).
The free tier. Short.io has a real free tier; SecureRedirector does not.

If your primary integration point is “Short.io’s REST API, called from our backend at high frequency,” do not switch unless self-hosting or rule-based routing matters more than API ergonomics.

What a migration usually looks like

Short.io → SecureRedirector migrations are usually the cleanest of the three on this site because the conceptual mapping is high. Slugs map to slugs, branded domains map to branded domains, webhooks map to webhooks.

Export your Short.io link inventory via the API or CSV export. Include slug, destination, branded domain, tags, and any per-link routing rules.
Stand up SecureRedirector (hosted or self-hosted; either is fine for the migration). Configure your branded domains.
Import the slug table through the management portal or the bulk-import API.
Recreate any per-link conditional routing as rules or as per-slug logic in SecureRedirector. Most simple cases (geo split, mobile vs desktop) translate cleanly; a few edge cases need an explicit rule.
Point DNS for the branded domain at SecureRedirector. Existing Short.io-hosted resolutions continue until DNS propagates; new resolutions hit SecureRedirector. Run in parallel for 48–72 hours, watching both click logs for parity.
Cancel the Short.io tier once you are satisfied with parity.

For hosted-plan customers, we walk through the migration with you. Self-hosted customers get the playbook and a checklist; the cutover is yours.

FAQ

Is Short.io free?: Short.io has a free tier that includes a small number of branded domains and a per-month click allowance. Higher click volumes and team features sit on paid tiers. Current pricing lives on short.io/pricing — we do not quote numbers here because they change.
How does the SecureRedirector API compare to Short.io's?: Short.io's API is more mature today. It has a longer feature catalog, broader filter / query options, and more SDKs. SecureRedirector's API covers the core — list / create / update / delete for domains, rules, and short-link slugs, plus a click-event stream. If your integration is a thin wrapper that lets users create branded short links from your app, both work. If you need deep programmatic search across years of link inventory, Short.io's API is currently the deeper surface.
What does SecureRedirector's rule engine do that Short.io's per-link routing doesn't?: Short.io resolves one short URL at a time — slug + custom domain → destination, optionally with conditional routing on geography or device. SecureRedirector resolves entire domains through a ruleset that runs short-link lookup → port rule → path rule → domain default in a fixed order. A single rule can cover an entire path prefix or an entire domain, so you do not need a row per slug for bulk redirects. Both work for slug → URL; only the rule engine covers patterns like every request to brand-a.com going to one CMS while /promo/* goes elsewhere.
Can I self-host SecureRedirector?: Yes. Self-hosted is a first-class option, not a hidden contact-us tier. You run it on your VM, you control the database, click data never leaves your infrastructure. Short.io is SaaS-only.
What about webhooks?: Both products emit click events as webhooks. SecureRedirector webhooks are per-domain with a shared secret signature on the payload. Short.io's webhook system is per-domain with optional per-link overrides.
How do I migrate from Short.io?: Export your link inventory from the Short.io dashboard or API, point your branded domain at SecureRedirector via DNS, and import the slugs through the management portal. Existing Short.io-hosted links continue to resolve until DNS propagates; new resolutions go through SecureRedirector. The replicable surface is high — almost every Short.io concept maps cleanly to a SecureRedirector concept.