URL shortener without signup

What anonymous shortening gives you

On TinyURL, paste a long address and receive a short one. You can set a custom alias and download a QR code. The link does not expire and there is no ad on it. On T.LY the quick-shorten box works the same way without an account, though its paid plans start at $5 a month and there is no free account tier.

What you lose without an account

• Editing. An anonymous link is fixed. If the destination moves, the short link breaks.
• Analytics. No click count, no countries, no devices.
• Ownership. There is no list of your links and no way to delete one.
• Branding. The link carries the service's domain, not yours.

When no signup is the right call

Three situations suit an anonymous link. You are sharing something once in a chat and will never need the link again. You are on someone else's machine and do not want to log in to anything. Or the destination is permanent and public, such as a published paper, and nobody needs to count the clicks. In each case TinyURL does the job and leaves no account behind.

The moment any of those stops being true, the lack of an account becomes the problem. A link in a printed flyer, a link in a bio, a link in an email to customers: each of those will eventually need editing or measuring, and an anonymous link allows neither.

The one-minute alternative

A free account on ReSlug requires an email and no card. It gives 500 active links that can be edited or deleted, a QR code per link, 30 days of click data and the option to add your own domain. Short.io's free account adds five domains and 1,000 links (lifetime). Cuttly's adds a bio page. All three are covered on the start page.

If you still prefer no account, TinyURL is the right choice. It has been running since 2002 and does not show ads.