Channel: affiliate
Best link shortener for affiliate marketing
Affiliate links have jobs normal links do not: hide an ugly tracking URL, split traffic across offers, send each country to the right store, fire a retargeting pixel, and keep bots from poisoning the conversion data you are paid on. This is the one channel where ReSlug is not the first pick.
The five jobs of an affiliate link
- Cloaking. Replace
partner.example.com/?aff=38213&sub=ytwithgo.yoursite.com/camera. Every tool here does this; the difference is whether you can edit the destination later. - Rotation and splits. Send 50 percent of clicks to offer A and 50 to offer B, or rotate through three merchants. Linkly calls these rotators; ReSlug and Short.io call them A/B splits with weights.
- Geo and device routing. A UK click should land on the UK store. An iPhone click should open the App Store. ReSlug Pro, Linkly Pro, Short.io and Dub Pro do this.
- Pixels. Fire a Meta or Google retargeting pixel on the click so you can re-market to people who never bought. Switchy is built around this; ReSlug Pro, Short.io, Rebrandly and Linkly Pro support it.
- Bot control. Scrapers and preview fetchers inflate clicks and wreck EPC calculations. ReSlug filters on all plans; Linkly manages bots from Starter; Cuttly charts them from Single.
Affiliate features compared
| Tool | Rotators / A/B | Geo & device routing | Pixels | Bot control | Click caps | Price for the full set |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linkly | Rotators, Pro | Pro | Pro | Starter and up | 500 clicks/mo free, 10,000 on Pro | $32/mo annual |
| ReSlug | Weighted 2 to 5 destinations, Pro | Pro | Pro | All plans | 1,000 tracked clicks/mo free, unlimited Pro | $9/mo |
| Short.io | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not documented | 50,000 tracked clicks/mo free | $18/mo Pro |
| Switchy | Not documented | Not documented | Unlimited, all plans | Not documented | 10,000 on Team | $47/mo |
| Dub | A/B, Pro | Pro | No | Not documented | 1,000 events free | $27/mo |
| Rebrandly | No | Yes | Yes | Not documented | 100 engagement clicks/mo free | $39/mo |
Sources: vendor pricing pages. Switchy figures from a third-party listing confirmed 2 November 2026; its pricing page is JavaScript-only.
Why Linkly leads this entry
Linkly is designed around the affiliate workflow. Click- and time-limited links, rotators, geo and device redirects, tracking pixels and explicit bot and social-crawler management are all on the pricing page as named features, with Zapier, Make and n8n hooks for automation. The free plan includes a custom domain and the API, which is enough to test a setup.
Its weaknesses are the click caps. 500 clicks/mo on free, then plans priced by clicks, with links pausing when the quota is exceeded. For a campaign driving real traffic you will be on Pro at $32 a month billed annually, and watching the meter.
Where ReSlug fits
ReSlug Pro covers most of the affiliate job list for $9 a month: geo, device, UTM and scheduled routing with up to ten rules per link, weighted splits across two to five destinations, retargeting pixels, password and click-capped links, and bot-filtered analytics kept for a year. Links never pause for volume on Pro, which matters when a video goes viral overnight.
What it lacks against Linkly is affiliate-specific vocabulary and tooling such as public analytics pages and link cloaking modes, and against Switchy the unlimited-pixel model. If you are an affiliate who also runs a newsletter, a bio page and QR codes, ReSlug is the single tool that does all of it.
Click hygiene for people paid per conversion
- Compare clicks in your shortener against clicks in the merchant's affiliate dashboard weekly. A widening gap is bots or a broken redirect.
- Use 301 redirects for permanent links and 302 for rotators, so browsers do not cache a split decision.
- Keep one domain per niche site. Merchants and ad networks look at referring domains.
- Disclose affiliate links where you publish them; the shortener does not do that for you.
Questions & answers
Is link cloaking allowed by affiliate programs?
Most programs allow redirects through your own domain as long as the final tracking link is intact and you disclose the relationship. Amazon Associates has stricter rules on obscuring links; check the program terms.
What is a link rotator?
A short link that sends each click to a different destination in turn or by weight. Used to split traffic across offers or test landing pages. Linkly, ReSlug Pro, Short.io and Dub Pro offer it.
Which affiliate link tool filters bot clicks?
ReSlug on every plan, Linkly from Starter, Cuttly as a chart from Single. Bitly, Dub, Short.io and Rebrandly do not document it.
Is Switchy worth it for affiliates?
Only if retargeting pixels drive your revenue. It offers unlimited links and pixels but no free plan and $47 a month for 10,000 clicks.
Sources for this entry
- Linkly pricing linklyhq.com/pricing
- ReSlug pricing reslug.com/pricing
- Short.io pricing short.io/pricing
- Switchy pricing www.switchy.io/pricing
- Dub pricing dub.co/pricing/links
- Rebrandly pricing www.rebrandly.com/pricing
- Cuttly pricing cutt.ly/pro-pricing
Checked 8 November 2026. Vendor pages change; the date is the claim.
Cite this entry
Best Link Shortener. "Best link shortener for affiliate marketing". Reviewed 8 November 2026. https://bestlinkshortener.com/for-affiliate-marketing/