The Short.io alternative
built for compound conditions.
Short.io’s targeting is real — this page won’t pretend otherwise. It’s also three independent on/off switches. rii.link is a rule engine: ordered, combinable, with a guaranteed fallback. Every claim below is dated and checkable — including where the cheaper product wins.
Real targeting, meet a rule engine.
No winner declared. Short.io does more than most shorteners and costs less than almost all of them. Match your links’ complexity to a column; the rest of the page is the evidence.
EIGHT DECISIVE BULLETS, NO WINNER DECLARED — MATCH YOUR CONSTRAINTS AND GO
Three differences that survive scrutiny.
Rule chains, not toggles
Short.io’s mobile targeting, geo targeting, A/B testing and expiration are four separate panels, each overriding the link on its own — with no documented way to combine them, no priority when two could match, and no fallback rule. Here it’s one ordered chain per link.
panels: 4, independent · chain: 1, orderedOne condition can mean four at once
A single rii.link rule combines device + country + language + a time window, with a required default that always resolves. Language and time-window conditions don’t exist at any Short.io tier.
conditions per rule: 4 · their ceiling: 1A link that answers machines
Content negotiation returns JSON, HTML or XML from the same short link — a redirect for browsers, structured data for apps and agents. Every Short.io link is a plain HTTP redirect.
response formats: 4 vs 1 (redirect)The table. Every row says why it matters.
Checkmarks go where they’re earned — both columns. Bracketed numbers are sources; the full list is in the appendix.
ALL SHORT.IO CELLS REFLECT PUBLIC PRICING & DOCS AT THE TIME OF WRITING — SOURCES [1]–[5], APPENDIX
Same page. Same preview. One different pixel.
Two unfurls of the same URL, as a chat app renders them. The title, image and description come from the page’s own OG tags — identical twice. The only thing that changes is the domain, and it’s the line people check before they tap.
Two link previews with identical images, titles and descriptions; the first shows the default short domain rii.link/x8f2, the second shows a branded domain go.acme.com/launch — the domain is the only visible difference.
To be fair: Short.io is more generous with domains than we are — five on the free tier against our one. This section isn’t a scoreboard row. It’s the argument for using one anywhere: the domain is the only credential a link carries.
Bring your domain → /custom-domainsSAME OG TAGS, RENDERED TWICE — THE CHANGED LINE IS MARKED LIKE A DIFF, BECAUSE IT IS ONE
Short.io has targeting. It doesn’t have a rule engine.
The worked example: a German company runs a two-week iOS launch push, October 1–15. Everyone else — Android, desktop, anyone after the window — should land on the homepage. Configure that on both products.
Rule 1: device is iOS, country is DE, October 1–15 → campaign page. Fallback: everyone else, always → homepage. Same link, one config, no ambiguity about who wins — evaluated top to bottom, first match takes it.
Each toggle is one rule here. Translate, don’t redesign.
Export from Short.io
CSV or API export of your links and click data. Do it early — their bulk S3 export is Enterprise-gated, but the standard export covers what a migration needs.
their tooling · ~minutes [1]Import at rii
Bring the CSV. Slugs are recreated on your domain where they’re free; collisions get flagged for your review — never silently renamed. Each targeting panel usually maps to a one-condition rule.
links: imported · panels: translatedRe-point your surfaces
One DNS record per domain, then swap bios, ads and QR artwork as you touch them. Run both until the compound campaigns work the way the toggles never could.
no flag day · run both in parallelClick history stays exportable on their side as your own archive — analytics here start at cutover, no backfill. Targeting panels don’t auto-import: a single-toggle link becomes a single-rule link (translation, not redesign), but you do it deliberately. And their free tier’s five domains don’t map to our one — if you run many free domains, count that cost honestly before you move.
Where Short.io is the stronger choice.
Printed in the heaviest ink on the page, on purpose. Cheaper and older are real arguments — if these are your constraints, Short.io is the right call.
Price for single-condition needs
Device toggles on the free plan, country targeting at $5/mo [1]. If every link only ever flips one switch, that undercuts our €19 entry for routing — plainly.
Five free custom domains
Their free tier includes 5 custom domains and 1,000 links [1] — more raw generosity than our free tier’s two domains and hundred links.
A decade of production scale
Operating since the mid-2010s, bootstrapped, and stating 100M+ redirects daily [2]. Longevity like that is worth something real in a category built on trust.
Android deep-link fields
Their mobile targeting exposes package, action and component fields for deep-linking into a specific app screen [3] — more granular than a generic device rule, for that one job.
FOUR CONCESSIONS, ZERO ASTERISKS — CHEAPER AND OLDER ARE REAL ARGUMENTS
The questions people actually ask mid-switch.
No. The domain only points one place at a time: import and verify your links here first, then re-point the DNS record. Nothing breaks mid-switch, and you can point it straight back.
Not as an automatic import — the models differ (that’s section 05). But each Short.io panel maps to about one rule condition here, so recreating them is translation, not redesign. A single-toggle link becomes a single-rule link.
Export it from Short.io first — CSV or API — and keep it as your archive. Analytics here start counting from cutover; we don’t backfill and won’t pretend otherwise.
Honestly: theirs is bigger on the free shelf — five domains and a thousand links against our two domains and a hundred. Ours includes the rule engine from €19/mo, with traffic unmetered on every plan. If free capacity is the constraint, section 07 already made their case.
No. Export your links and the full routing config — nginx, Caddy, CSV or JSON — and leave any time. An exit that includes the rules is the honest test of lock-in.
If every link flips one switch — iOS vs Android, one country override — yes, and it’s cheaper. The wall is compound conditions: device AND country AND a campaign window on the same link. That’s the exact scenario in section 05; if you’ve never hit it, you may not need us yet.
Reread section 01. If price, free-tier capacity or single-switch simplicity is your constraint, pick Short.io with our blessing. For links that need to decide: rii.link.
This dossier has siblings.
Same format, same sources discipline, same concessions section — different competitor.
Outgrow the toggles, keep the links.
Point the domain, import the links, translate each panel into a rule — most are one condition. Run both until the compound campaigns are boring. The free tier takes the first hundred links.
How a real 50,000-link migration went → /learn/migrating-50k-linksAll Short.io figures reflect public pricing and documentation at the time of writing (August 12, 2026) and can change without notice. Short.io is a trademark of its owner; rii.link is not affiliated with or endorsed by Short.io. Found something out of date? Tell us — corrections ship within a week, dated.