comparisons
Where c1k.me loses
Comparison pages usually exist to make one product look good. This one is written the other way round: the fastest way to know whether c1k.me suits you is to read what it cannot do. All three tables use the same eleven rows, so the options are genuinely comparable. Feature details for other products change often, so check their own pricing pages before deciding.
c1k.me vs Bitly
Bitly is the default answer for marketing teams and has been for years: branded domains, deep campaign tooling, integrations with the rest of a marketing stack, and an enterprise sales motion behind it. c1k.me is a fraction of that product at a fraction of the price.
Price
€5 / year per pack
Free tier plus paid plans, priced monthly per seat and volume
Scale
10 members and 100 active links per pack, stack any number
effectively unbounded for most buyers
Custom branded domain
no
yes, a core feature
Analytics depth
Daily totals, referrer host, 7 day link history
Extensive dimensions and long retention on paid plans
Coverage labelling
yes, per day
Figures presented as counts without coverage caveats
Conversion and lead tracking
no
yes, with campaign tooling
Webhooks
no, polling change feed
yes
Native remote MCP
yes, part of the service
Not part of the core product
Open source
no, client examples only
No
Support
Email, one person, no response-time commitment
staffed support org, enterprise SLAs
Leaving
self-service CSV and JSON export
Export available on paid plans
Choose Bitly if links on your own domain matter commercially, if a marketing team needs campaign tooling and integrations, or if you need someone contractually accountable for uptime. Choose c1k.me if you want a handful of durable links, an API you can read in one sitting, and a bill you never think about again.
c1k.me vs Dub
Dub is the modern developer-facing shortener: open source, well-designed, with real SDKs, conversion tracking and a generous free tier. It is the closest thing to a direct comparison, and on raw capability it is the larger product.
Price
€5 / year per pack
Free tier available, paid plans monthly
Scale
10 members and 100 active links per pack, stack any number
higher ceilings on paid plans
Custom branded domain
no
yes
Analytics depth
Daily totals, referrer host, 7 day link history
Richer dimensions and longer retention
Coverage labelling
yes, per day
Figures presented as counts without coverage caveats
Conversion and lead tracking
no
yes
Webhooks
no, polling change feed
yes
Native remote MCP
yes, part of the service
Available, typically via a separate server package
Open source
no, client examples only
yes
Support
Email, one person, no response-time commitment
Community plus paid support tiers
Leaving
self-service CSV and JSON export
Export available; self-hosting is the stronger exit
Choose Dub if you want an open-source product you could fork, conversion tracking, webhooks, or a free tier to start on. Choose c1k.me if you specifically want a fixed annual price with no usage meter, coverage-labelled analytics, and an MCP endpoint that is the service rather than a wrapper around it.
c1k.me vs self-hosting
Running your own shortener is genuinely easy to start and genuinely annoying to keep alive. A redirect service is infrastructure: when it is down, every link you ever shared is broken, including the ones printed on something.
Price
€5 / year per pack
Hosting is cheap; your time is the real cost
Scale
10 members and 100 active links per pack, stack any number
whatever your server takes
Custom branded domain
no
yes, that is the point
Analytics depth
Daily totals, referrer host, 7 day link history
Whatever you build and keep maintaining
Coverage labelling
yes, per day
Your call, and rarely worth the effort
Conversion and lead tracking
no
Only if you build it
Webhooks
no, polling change feed
Only if you build it
Native remote MCP
yes, part of the service
Only if you build and secure it
Open source
no, client examples only
usually, and forkable
Support
Email, one person, no response-time commitment
You, including at 3am
Leaving
self-service CSV and JSON export
You already have the database
What self-hosting gives you
Your own domain, unlimited links, complete data ownership, and the ability to change anything. If any of those is a hard requirement, self-hosting wins and no comparison table changes that.
What it costs beyond the server
Certificate renewal, dependency updates, database backups you have actually tested, an upgrade path when the runtime goes end of life, and someone awake when it breaks at the wrong moment. The hosting is the cheap part.
The honest arithmetic
€5 a year is roughly five minutes of engineering time, and adding another 500 slugs costs another five. If maintaining your own instance takes more than that annually, and it will, the hosted option is cheaper in every sense except control.
Self-host if you need your own domain, have data residency rules, or enjoy owning the stack. Use c1k.me if you would rather not be the on-call engineer for a redirect table. Either way, export your links regularly; that habit is what makes the decision reversible.
Still the right fit?
Then it is €5 and about two minutes, plus another €5 whenever you need more room. If not, one of the products above will serve you better, and that is a fine outcome.
see pricing