Head-to-Head Comparison · Alternative to Bitly · 📊 analytics
Bitly vs Dub
Bitly with deeper attribution; self-hosting means recreating half a startup's infrastructure. Here is how Dub ($0/mo open source) stacks up against Bitly ($35/mo) across cost, hosting, data privacy, and real-world trade-offs.
Bitly vs Dub Specification Matrix
facts verified 2026-08-10
| Dimension | Bitly (Paid) | Dub (Replacement) |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Price | $35 / mo | $0 / mo |
| 1-Year Cost (1 seat) | $420 / yr | $0 / yr (Save $420) |
| 1-Year Cost (5 seats) | $2,100 / yr | $0 / yr (Save $2,100) |
| 1-Year Cost (10 seats) | $4,200 / yr | $0 / yr (Save $4,200) |
| Source & License | Proprietary SaaS | open source AGPL-3.0 |
| Where It Runs | Vendor Cloud | Local or hosted (your machine or their cloud) |
| Platforms | Web / Cloud | webself-hostedself-host, real ops |
| GitHub Stars | — | ★ 24k (active aug 2026) |
Deep Dive: Switching from Bitly to Dub
Trade-offs, installation & data architecture
What you trade away
Dub has richer attribution, but self-hosting depends on several external databases, queues, analytics, storage, email, and deployment services and still lacks Bitly's enterprise support and governance.
How to deploy Dub
Hosted signup, or a source deployment assembled across Vercel, MySQL/PlanetScale, Tinybird, Upstash and Cloudflare R2/AWS
What it takes to run
Self-hosting is not one Compose file: the official guide requires accounts, credentials and configuration across GitHub, Tinybird, Upstash, MySQL/PlanetScale, Vercel and Cloudflare or AWS.
Where your data lives
Dub Cloud stores links, users and analytics in Dub's infrastructure; the documented self-hosted stack keeps link/user metadata in PlanetScale-compatible MySQL, click events in Tinybird/ClickHouse, redirect cache and jobs in Upstash Redis/QStash, and assets in Cloudflare R2 or AWS.
Why fork Dub instead of vibe-coding a Bitly clone?
A slug, a lookup, a 302, and a row in a table. Cloudflare Workers plus KV and D1 does the whole job on the free tier, and QR codes are one library call. The only thing you are really buying is that bit.ly resolves links created in 2012 and will presumably still resolve them in 2032, which is an institutional promise rather than a technical one. If the links are going in a magazine ad or on packaging, that promise is worth something. If they are going in this week's newsletter, it is worth nothing, and Growth is 420 USD a year.
Bitly vs Dub FAQ
Is Dub a good free alternative to Bitly?+
Yes. Dub is a verified open-source (AGPL-3.0) replacement for Bitly. Bitly with deeper attribution; self-hosting means recreating half a startup's infrastructure.
What is the catch when switching from Bitly to Dub?+
Dub has richer attribution, but self-hosting depends on several external databases, queues, analytics, storage, email, and deployment services and still lacks Bitly's enterprise support and governance.
How much do you save switching from Bitly to Dub?+
Bitly costs $35/mo ($420/yr) per seat, whereas Dub is $0/mo. Switching saves $420/yr for a solo user, $2,100/yr for a 5-person team, and $4,200/yr for a 10-person team.
How do I install or self-host Dub instead of Bitly?+
Install: Hosted signup, or a source deployment assembled across Vercel, MySQL/PlanetScale, Tinybird, Upstash and Cloudflare R2/AWS. Setup: Self-hosting is not one Compose file: the official guide requires accounts, credentials and configuration across GitHub, Tinybird, Upstash, MySQL/PlanetScale, Vercel and Cloudflare or AWS.
