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Bitly → ShortyBuild: the founder's playbook

Switch from Bitly to ShortyBuild and swap a $29/mo subscription for a one-time lifetime license — projects, UTM tags, retargeting pixels, and deep links included.

Difficulty
Easy
Time required
1-2 hours
Year 1 save
$339
3-year save
$1,035
Used by
—
On this page

Why switch in the first place

Bitly costs you money every month for software that's effectively the same as ShortyBuild. ShortyBuild gives you the same workflow with a one-time payment, so the savings compound over the years instead of going straight to the vendor.

The math: If you're paying $29/mo for Bitly, that's $339/year you could be keeping. ShortyBuild LTD pays for itself in months, then saves you money forever.

Pricing, side by side

B

Bitly (current)

$29/mo
$348/yr · $1,044 over 3 years
S

ShortyBuild (LTD)

LTD
$9 once
$0/mo forever · $0 over 3 years
Get ShortyBuild · $9 LTDOne-time payment. No subscription.

Before you start

  • Block 1-2 hours of focused time
  • Have your Bitly login ready
  • Sign up for ShortyBuild first (one-time $9 via our link)
  • Have your most-used apps' logins ready
  • Plan 1 week for parallel testing before you turn off Bitly

The migration steps

1

Audit your Bitly account and export everything

Log into Bitly and open your Links dashboard. Before you touch anything, get your data out — Bitly does not let you hand links to another service, so an export is the only record you keep.

  • Go to Links, select all, and use Export (CSV) to download every short link with its long destination and title.
  • Open Analytics and export your click history — this is the audit trail you lose access to the moment you downgrade or cancel.
  • Note which links sit on a custom domain (e.g. yourbrand.link) versus the default bit.ly domain.
  • Flag your highest-traffic links: the 10–20 that drive most of your clicks are the ones worth migrating carefully.
Keep the CSV somewhere safe. Once you cancel Bitly, the click history behind it is gone for good.
2

Pick the right ShortyBuild tier

ShortyBuild's lifetime deal has three tiers, and the right one comes down to two numbers: how many links you keep active, and whether you need a branded domain.

  • Tier 1 ($9): 50 projects, 2,000 links, UTM tags, pixels, scheduling, password protection — but no custom domain and no API.
  • Tier 2 ($19): 100 projects, 5,000 links, plus API access, custom back-half slugs, and ad removal.
  • Tier 3 ($29): 100 projects, 10,000 links, everything in Tier 2 plus custom domains and removable/custom branding.

If you ran branded links on Bitly (your own domain) or hit Bitly's API, you want Tier 3 — it is the true feature match for Bitly's $29/mo Growth plan, at $29 one time. If you only ever used bit.ly-style links, Tier 1 is plenty.

Count your active links from the Step 1 CSV before you choose — sizing down a tier later is not possible.
3

Redeem your code and rebuild your projects

After buying on DealMirror you receive a redemption code (sub-account codes for multi-code tiers arrive by email within 24–48 hours). Redeem it to activate your account.

  • Create a project for each campaign, client, or channel you tracked in Bitly. Projects are ShortyBuild's answer to Bitly's tags and Campaigns — group links so stats roll up per project instead of into one flat list.
  • Mirror the structure from your Bitly export: if you tagged links by 'newsletter', 'twitter', or 'ads', make a project for each.

This is the step people skip and later regret. A tidy project layout now is what saves you from the '400 unlabeled links' problem down the line.

4

Recreate your active links

You cannot import bit.ly links — each one is recreated as a new ShortyBuild link pointing at the same destination. Work from your CSV, highest-traffic and most recent first.

  • Paste the long URL, drop it into the right project, and set a custom back-half (Tier 2+) if you want a readable slug like /spring-sale.
  • Re-attach UTM parameters. ShortyBuild has a built-in UTM builder, so you rebuild the source/medium/campaign tags you had on Bitly.
  • Re-add retargeting pixels — copy the pixel IDs from your ad platforms into ShortyBuild's pixel manager (10 pixels on Tier 1, 20 on Tier 2/3).
You do not need to recreate every link you ever made — only the ones still in active circulation. Dead campaign links can stay in the CSV archive.
5

Move your custom domain (if you had one)

If your Bitly links used a branded domain, you can re-point that domain at ShortyBuild (Tier 3) so new links stay on-brand.

  • In ShortyBuild, add your custom domain and follow the DNS instructions (a CNAME or A record change at your registrar).
  • Point the domain at ShortyBuild instead of Bitly. DNS changes can take up to 24–48 hours to propagate.
  • Important: the moment your domain stops pointing at Bitly, every existing bit.ly-hosted link on that domain stops resolving. Recreate the active ones in ShortyBuild first, then cut over.
If the branded domain is business-critical, finish Step 6 (parallel testing) before you change any DNS.
6

Run both in parallel and swap your sources

Do not cancel Bitly on day one. Keep both live for about a week while you swap the short links at their source.

  • Update the places your links actually live: scheduled social posts, email templates, link-in-bio pages, ad campaigns, and any new printed or QR assets.
  • Click-test a sample of new ShortyBuild links on desktop and mobile, and confirm deep links open the right app screen.
  • Watch ShortyBuild's stats fill in as traffic shifts over from the old links.

Parallel running is your safety net: if a ShortyBuild link misbehaves, the Bitly original is still there while you fix it.

7

Decide what to do with your legacy Bitly links

Every Bitly migration comes down to this one decision: what happens to short links already printed, posted, and shared that you cannot move.

  • If those links still matter (business cards, printed flyers, posts you cannot edit), keep a Bitly Free plan alive purely as a redirect host — Bitly Free keeps existing links working.
  • If the legacy links are disposable (expired campaigns), let them lapse and cancel Bitly entirely.
  • Going forward, every new link is a ShortyBuild link — so your Bitly dependency shrinks toward zero over time.
There is no way to make bit.ly/xxxx resolve through ShortyBuild. Plan for the links already in the wild; own every link you make from here.

Gotchas we hit (so you don't)

Existing bit.ly links do not transfer

This is the single most important thing to understand. Short links are hosted on Bitly's own domain (bit.ly/xxxx), and there is no mechanism to move them to ShortyBuild. Anything already printed or posted keeps pointing at Bitly. You recreate active links as new ShortyBuild links, and keep a free Bitly plan alive if old links still need to resolve.

Click history stays with Bitly

Your historical analytics — total clicks, referrers, and locations built up over the years — live in Bitly and do not come with you. Export the click data to CSV before you downgrade or cancel. ShortyBuild starts your stats fresh and retains click data for 90 days, which covers most campaign windows but is not the unlimited history Bitly's paid plans keep.

Custom domains and API need the right tier

Branded short links (your own domain) and API access are not in ShortyBuild's $9 Tier 1. Custom domains unlock on Tier 3 ($29 one-time) and API on Tier 2+ ($19). If you ran a branded domain or automated Bitly through its API, budget for the higher tier — it is still a one-time cost versus Bitly Growth's $29 every single month.

90-day analytics retention

ShortyBuild keeps click statistics for 90 days. For live campaign measurement that is plenty, but if you rely on year-over-year link performance reports, export periodically. Bitly's paid plans retain longer history, so this is a genuine trade-off for the lifetime price.

QR codes need a second look

If you generated QR codes in Bitly, those images encode a bit.ly URL — they break the moment that link stops resolving. ShortyBuild's focus is link management rather than QR generation, so confirm your QR workflow before you cut over, and regenerate any active QR codes to point at links you control.

Link volume caps per tier

Tier 1 allows 2,000 short links, Tier 2 allows 5,000, and Tier 3 allows 10,000. If your Bitly account has years of accumulated links you do not need to recreate all of them — only the ones still in circulation — but do check your active count against the tier cap before buying.

FAQ

Can I import my existing Bitly links into ShortyBuild?+
No. Bitly short links are hosted on Bitly's own domain, and no third-party shortener can take them over. You recreate your active links as new ShortyBuild links pointing at the same destinations, working from a CSV export of your Bitly account. Links already printed or posted keep pointing at Bitly, which is why many people keep a free Bitly plan alive as a redirect host for legacy links.
Will I lose my Bitly click analytics?+
Your historical click data stays in Bitly — it does not transfer. Before you downgrade or cancel, export your analytics to CSV so you keep the record. ShortyBuild then tracks new clicks from scratch and retains that data for 90 days. You keep the business value (your destinations still work), but Bitly's long-term click history is Bitly's, not yours to move.
Does ShortyBuild support custom branded domains like Bitly?+
Yes, on Tier 3 of the lifetime deal ($29 one-time). You add your own domain and re-point its DNS from Bitly to ShortyBuild. Tier 1 ($9) and Tier 2 ($19) use ShortyBuild's default domain. If branded links are core to your workflow, Tier 3 is the direct replacement for Bitly's Growth plan, which charges $29 every month for the same capability.
How much does ShortyBuild cost compared to Bitly?+
ShortyBuild is a one-time payment: $9 (Tier 1), $19 (Tier 2), or $29 (Tier 3) on the DealMirror lifetime deal. Bitly's usable paid plan, Growth, is $29 per month — about $348 a year, or $1,044 over three years. Bitly's cheaper Core plan is $10 a month but caps you at roughly 1,500 links a year with no custom domain. The lifetime deal pays for itself inside the first month.
Is ShortyBuild a true replacement for Bitly?+
For the core job — shortening, organising, and tracking links with UTM tags, pixels, and deep linking — yes. ShortyBuild covers project organisation, retargeting pixels, UTM parameters, scheduling, click limiters, and password protection. Where Bitly still leads is brand recognition, unlimited analytics history on higher plans, and its mature QR-code suite. For most solo marketers and small teams, ShortyBuild's feature set is more than enough at a fraction of the lifetime cost.
How long does the migration take?+
Plan for 1–2 hours for a typical account. Most of that is recreating your active links and re-adding UTM tags and pixels — the setup itself (redeeming the code, creating projects) takes minutes. If you have a custom domain to move, add time for DNS propagation, which can take up to 24–48 hours. The recommended approach is to run Bitly and ShortyBuild in parallel for about a week before you decide what to do with your old plan.
What happens to links I've already shared if I cancel Bitly?+
Any bit.ly link already in circulation stops working if you fully cancel Bitly, because ShortyBuild cannot host those URLs. If you have links on business cards, printed materials, or posts you cannot edit, keep a Bitly Free plan active purely to serve those redirects. Every new link you create goes through ShortyBuild, so your reliance on Bitly shrinks to just the legacy links over time.

Ready to make the switch?

One-time payment. Forever.

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