The Dub alternative
built for routing, not just attribution.
Dub measures what happens after the click; rii.link decides what happens at it. This is the hardest comparison on our roster and the fairest one we can write — every claim below is dated and checkable, including the six we concede.
Different jobs. Both columns are true.
No winner declared — these are different tools wearing the same short-link costume. Match your job to a column and stop reading; the rest of the page is the evidence.
EIGHT DECISIVE BULLETS, NO WINNER DECLARED — PICK THE JOB, NOT THE BRAND
Three differences that survive scrutiny.
Routing is composable here
On Premium, rules stack — device, country, language, time of day — with explicit priority order and a required fallback. Dub’s targeting is real but runs in one fixed order (device → geo → A/B), with no language or time condition anywhere in its docs.
rule types: 4, stackable · their order: fixedA link that answers machines
On Premium, a link can answer with a JSON, HTML or XML body you define instead of a redirect, so an app or agent gets data straight from the URL. Every Dub link resolves as an HTTP redirect.
response types: redirect or body · extra API calls: 0The meter starts at zero
A real free tier — 100 active links, unmetered clicks, two custom domains — and €19/mo when you outgrow it. Dub’s live pricing starts at Business, $90 a month; no free or pro tier is on the page.
entry price: €0 vs $90/mo · checked aug 2026The 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 DUB 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: Dub does branded domains too — by the hundred on its upper tiers. 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
Entry costs ninety dollars a month there.
Dub’s live pricing page lists Business, Advanced and Enterprise — no free tier, no pro tier. And the counter you’re buying pools clicks, leads and sales into one number. Neither is a flaw; both are things to know before you forecast a year.
A real free tier — 100 active links, unmetered clicks, two custom domains — then €19/mo with unlimited links. The only meter is links that exist; traffic is never a pooled events number you have to predict.
Their exit is clean. Ours is honest.
Export from Dub
Dub’s REST API and CSV export get your links and click data out cleanly — credit where due, they publish real SDKs and a real API reference. Your data was never stuck.
their tooling · clean exit [2]Recreate at rii
Create the links that matter through the REST API or MCP — a short script walks the export — keeping each slug where it’s free on your domain. Enterprise migrations come with an onboarding engineer.
api / mcp · importer Q4 2026Re-point your surfaces
Bios, ads, docs, QR artwork — swap them as you touch them. Your Dub links keep working on Dub’s terms while traffic drains; run both until the winner is obvious.
no flag day · run both in parallelConversion-funnel and LTV history doesn’t map here — we don’t have an attribution product, so there’s nowhere to put it. That’s a shape difference, not a migration bug. The partner program can’t move at all (section 07). And today there’s no self-serve importer: links move through the REST API or MCP, and Enterprise migrations run with us. The CSV importer is on the roadmap for Q4 2026.
Where Dub is the stronger choice.
Printed in the heaviest ink on the page, and deliberately the longest list in this dossier. Dub is a genuinely good product — if any of these is your constraint, pick it with our blessing.
Open source, real traction
AGPLv3 core at 24.2k GitHub stars [4] — auditable, forkable, no vendor black box. rii.link is closed-source SaaS, full stop.
A genuine self-hosting path
A documented guide with real assembly — Tinybird, MySQL, Upstash, Vercel, R2, Resend; no Docker yet, and the partner program stays commercial [4]. Still a path we don’t offer at all.
Conversion & revenue tracking
Click → lead → sale funnels, customer LTV, first-party tracking [2]. Our links resolve and route; they don’t follow a customer to checkout.
A shipped partner platform
Commission structures, embedded referral dashboards, 1-click global payouts with tax compliance [2]. If you run an affiliate program, pick Dub, plainly.
MCP server, broader surface
mcp.dub.sh manages links, partners and commissions by agent [2]. Ours is live too — links, routing rules and analytics — but has no partner program to manage.
Deeper integration bench
Segment, Tinybird, Rudderstack, Intercom, plus SDKs in five languages [2]. Our surface is a REST API, an MCP server and a click stream — thinner today, said plainly.
SIX CONCESSIONS, ZERO ASTERISKS — THE BIGGEST SECTION OF THIS PAGE, ON PURPOSE
The questions people actually ask mid-switch.
No — honestly. rii.link has no partner or commission product and doesn’t claim a roadmap for one. Keep the program on Dub; you can still route the underlying links through rii.link if routing behavior matters more than the program itself.
Your data is yours — Dub’s API and CSV export get it out cleanly. We don’t import conversion-funnel history because we don’t have a funnel product to put it in. That’s a difference in what the tools are, not a migration bug.
Yes — one DNS record re-points it, and a staged cutover means you can run both platforms on separate domains until you’re sure. Recreated links keep their slugs wherever they’re free on your domain.
No. rii.link is SaaS only. If self-hosting is the requirement, Dub remains the right call — that’s concession 2 in section 07, and we mean it.
Nothing — they keep working on Dub unchanged. rii.link is additive: a new domain or a parallel workspace, not a cutover that breaks anything. Run both against real traffic and keep the winner.
No. REST plus an MCP server, yes; outbound webhooks are on our roadmap (Q1 2027); five-language SDKs, no — theirs is the deeper developer bench today. The difference on our side is what the link itself can do: on Premium, answer with a JSON, HTML or XML body, where every Dub link resolves as a redirect.
Reread section 01; the two columns are different jobs. If the funnel, the partner program, self-hosting or an MCP server that manages partners is your constraint, pick Dub 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.
Run both. Keep the winner.
Dub exports cleanly — their tooling, their credit. Recreate the links here, point one domain at us, and give both links a month of real traffic. If the funnel is your job, stay; if the link has decisions to make, the free tier is waiting.
How to migrate 50,000 links without losing a click → /learn/migrating-50k-linksAll Dub figures reflect public pricing and documentation at the time of writing (August 12, 2026) and can change without notice. Dub is a trademark of Dub Technologies, Inc.; rii.link is not affiliated with or endorsed by Dub. Found something out of date? Tell us — corrections ship within a week, dated.