Open-source link management and conversion tracking, honestly reviewed. No marketing fluff, just what you get when you run it yourself.

TL;DR

What it is: Open-source (AGPLv3 core) link attribution platform — short links, conversion tracking, and affiliate programs in one product [3][README].
Who it’s for: Marketing teams and founders who want branded short links with actual revenue attribution, not just click counts. Also companies that want to escape Bitly’s stagnant feature set and opaque pricing [5].
Cost savings: Bitly Growth runs $29/mo for 500 links/mo and 4 months of analytics retention. Dub Pro is $25/mo for 1,000 links/mo and 12 months of retention — better on both counts before you even touch self-hosting [5].
Key strength: Conversion tracking that connects clicks to leads, sales, and lifetime value. This is what separates Dub from every other link shortener — it’s an attribution engine that happens to also shorten links [3].
Key weakness: Self-hosting Dub is not a Docker-compose-and-done experience. It requires accounts at Tinybird, Upstash, PlanetScale, and Vercel as separate paid dependencies — there is no fully self-contained offline deployment [1].
License reality: The core is AGPLv3, not MIT. Enterprise features live in a commercial /ee directory. The AGPLv3 requires you to open-source any modifications if you run it as a network service [README].

What is Dub

Dub started as an internal side project by Steven Tey, a former Vercel engineer who wanted to understand how developer advocacy work — tutorials, articles, talks — translated into actual Vercel revenue. There was no clean way to connect marketing links to signups and payments, so he built one [3].

The project launched publicly as an open-source URL shortener. Over time Tey added link tracking, then conversion events, then affiliate/partner programs. He left Vercel in late 2023 to build the company full-time. The company has since raised $2 million from OSS Capital, Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch, Balaji Srinivasan, the founders of Framer, and several other investors with design and developer-tool backgrounds [3].

Today Dub describes itself as “the modern link attribution platform” — short links are the entry point, but the product’s actual ambition is to be the layer that proves what your marketing does. The GitHub README puts the user list plainly: Twilio, Buffer, Framer, Perplexity, Vercel, Laravel. The platform processes 100M+ clicks and 2M+ links monthly [README].

The immediate context for why this matters is the Honey scandal that broke in late 2024. The browser extension was caught silently swapping affiliate attribution on product links so that Honey, not the creator who drove the sale, collected the commission. Tey’s response was explicit: Dub’s architecture removes coupon codes from the equation entirely — the attribution is embedded in the link itself, cryptographically tied to the creator, and cannot be overridden by a browser extension [3]. That framing — transparent, creator-owned attribution — is what the TechCrunch write-up leads with, and it’s the most interesting thing Dub is building [3].

Why People Choose It

The comparison that comes up most often is Bitly, and Dub picks that fight itself with a dedicated comparison page [5]. The case is clean: for $4 less per month on Pro, you get twice as many links, three times more analytics retention, and ten times more custom domains. Dub’s interface is routinely described as cleaner and faster. One Vice President at Scicomm Media quoted on the Dub site: “I’ve used platforms like Bitly for years, and Dub is hands down the best.” The Chatwoot CEO put it more bluntly: “Bitly was far more complicated than necessary.” [5]

The second use case is conversion attribution for teams who’ve outgrown Google Analytics UTM parameters. The standard approach — UTM tags plus a BI dashboard — tells you clicks by source but loses the thread once someone closes the tab and returns a week later to actually buy. Dub’s Conversions product tracks the full journey: first click, lead capture, and purchase, including customer retention and LTV [3]. Twilio uses the hosted version for exactly this — campaign and event attribution at scale [3].

The third use case is affiliate programs. Huberman Lab uses Dub’s affiliate infrastructure for creator sponsorship tracking [3]. The product includes a full partner management dashboard: commission structures, payout tracking, 1099-NEC generation, partner portals. This is functionality that typically requires a dedicated affiliate platform like Impact or PartnerStack, costing hundreds of dollars a month.

The open-source angle surfaces in specific contexts. The Malaysian government is building a national link shortener and tracker on the open-source codebase [3]. That’s a government procurement use case where “we can audit and fork the source code” is a real requirement, not a checkbox.

A 2022 Reddit thread comparing Dub and Kutt (another self-hostable link shortener with an MIT license) flagged that Dub at the time was AGPL-licensed and had a hard dependency on Vercel Edge Functions — meaning you couldn’t fully escape Vercel’s infrastructure [2]. That criticism has aged partially: Dub now documents a self-hosting path that doesn’t mandate Vercel for the core app, but you still need several Vercel-tier external services [1].

Features

Core link management:

Branded short links with custom domains — free on all plans [5]
Bulk link creation via API or CSV
Link expiration, password protection, device targeting, geo targeting
A/B testing between destination URLs
Deep links for mobile app routing [homepage]
QR code generation with branding controls [homepage]
UTM builder with team-wide templates [5]
Folder organization and tagging [homepage]
Link cloaking and custom social previews with AI-assisted title/description suggestions [3][homepage]

Conversion tracking (the differentiator):

Client-side SDK for tracking signups, purchases, and custom events
Stripe and Shopify integrations for automatic sale attribution [3]
Full customer journey: first click → lead → sale → retention
LTV and customer acquisition cost calculations per source [3]
Real-time event stream — click, lead, sale in a live feed [homepage]
AI-powered custom reports and auto-tagging [3]

Partner / affiliate programs:

Embeddable partner portal for affiliate signups [homepage]
Commission structures (percentage, flat, recurring, lifetime)
Automated payout tracking and 1099-NEC generation [homepage]
Partner-facing analytics dashboard
The company announced $10M in partner payouts processed as of early 2026 [homepage]

API and developer tools:

REST API for programmatic link creation and management
Developer SDKs (TypeScript/Node first, with others)
Webhooks for link events
The API is called out in Taptu reviews as genuinely usable for wiring into Next.js apps without pain [4]

Enterprise (commercial /ee tier):

SSO/SAML via BoxyHQ [README]
Advanced RBAC and team management
Audit logs
SCIM provisioning

Pricing: SaaS vs Self-Hosted Math

Dub Cloud (their SaaS):

Free: basic short links, limited analytics, 1 custom domain, community support [homepage]
Pro: $25/mo — 1,000 links/mo, 12 months analytics retention, 10 custom domains, 3 users [5]
Business: higher limits, contact for pricing
Enterprise: custom, includes /ee features (SSO, RBAC, audit logs)

Bitly for comparison [5]:

Growth: $29/mo — 500 links/mo, 4 months retention, 1 custom domain, 1 user
The Dub Pro plan beats Bitly Growth on every measurable dimension at a lower price point

Self-hosted:

Software license: $0 (AGPLv3 for core) [README]
But you need accounts at: Tinybird (analytics backend), Upstash (Redis), PlanetScale (MySQL-compatible DB), and either Vercel or your own Node.js host [1]
Tinybird has a free tier (1M events/mo) and paid plans starting around $50/mo at scale
Upstash has a generous free tier and pay-per-request pricing
PlanetScale’s free tier was eliminated in 2024; the Hobby plan starts around $39/mo
Vercel deployment: free for hobby, $20/mo for Pro if you need team features

Honest self-hosted math: The self-hosted path is designed for organizations with engineering resources, not a solo founder running a $6 VPS. A realistic production self-hosted setup — Tinybird starter, Upstash pay-as-you-go, PlanetScale Hobby, Vercel Pro — runs closer to $60–100/mo depending on traffic volume. That’s comparable to the Dub SaaS Pro plan, without the managed reliability. For a company that needs the open-source license for compliance, audit, or customization reasons, the trade-off makes sense. For a founder simply trying to escape a Bitly bill, Dub Cloud’s $25/mo plan is the more practical choice [1].

Deployment Reality Check

The self-hosting guide [1] is eight steps long, and steps 2 through 6 are external service configuration: Tinybird (Clickhouse for analytics), Upstash (Redis for link caching and redirects), PlanetScale (relational database), SMTP provider, and storage. Each requires an account, API keys, and their own setup flow.

This is meaningfully different from tools like Activepieces or n8n, which ship a working docker-compose with Postgres and Redis bundled. Dub’s architecture assumes cloud services because that’s what it was built on — the tech stack is Next.js on Vercel, Tinybird for time-series events, Upstash for edge-fast Redis, PlanetScale for the database [README]. Self-hosting means replicating that stack yourself.

What you actually need:

A server or Vercel account to run the Next.js app
Tinybird workspace with the Dub datasources and pipes deployed via their CLI
Upstash Redis database for link redirect caching
PlanetScale or compatible MySQL database (PlanetScale Hobby at ~$39/mo, or self-hosted MySQL with a compatibility layer)
SMTP provider for transactional email
Custom domain and a short link domain

What can go sideways:

The Tinybird deploy step requires their Python CLI and running tb deploy to publish pipes. If you’ve never used Tinybird, budget 30–60 minutes just for this step [1].
PlanetScale’s 2024 free tier elimination means the “free self-host” story has a quiet $39/mo assumption embedded in it.
Redirect performance from EU regions has been reported as variable — one Taptu reviewer noted 1–2 second delays on mobile LTE from European locations [4]. On Dub Cloud, redirects run on Vercel’s edge network. Self-hosted, your redirect speed depends entirely on your infrastructure geography.
Analytics can lag 10–20 minutes in some configurations, per the same source [4].
Two short outages where redirects failed were reported over a few months of use [4]. This is worth noting for anyone routing paid ad traffic through Dub links.

Realistic estimate for an engineer with cloud experience: 2–4 hours for a working self-hosted instance. For a non-technical founder: this deployment is not accessible without help. The managed cloud plan at $25/mo is the correct answer for most people who want Dub’s features without the infrastructure burden.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Conversion attribution is genuinely differentiated. Most link shorteners tell you clicks. Dub connects clicks to signups and sales, then shows you CAC, LTV, and retention by traffic source [3]. This is not a common feature set in this price range.
Affiliate/partner programs built in. A full affiliate management platform — commission structures, payouts, 1099 generation — that would otherwise cost hundreds per month from dedicated tools [homepage].
Beats Bitly on price and features. At $25/mo vs $29/mo, Dub Pro gives twice the links, three times the analytics retention, and ten times the custom domains [5]. The migration is documented and reportedly fast [5].
Strong design and UI. Multiple reviewers, including Taptu users, call the interface clean and fast to learn [4]. The Perplexity co-founder noted in a quoted testimonial that it handles tens of millions of clicks monthly without friction [homepage].
Active development with real customers. 23,187 GitHub stars, funded company, enterprise customers including Twilio, and government adoption [README][3]. This is not an abandoned weekend project.
API is actually usable. Taptu reviewers describe wiring it into Next.js apps without pain [4]. A usable developer API matters if you’re creating links programmatically.
100M+ clicks/month at production scale. The platform has proven infrastructure performance at genuine enterprise scale [README].

Cons

Self-hosting is not plug-and-play. Requiring Tinybird, Upstash, and PlanetScale as separate paid dependencies means “self-hosted” comes with a $60–100/mo infrastructure cost and real setup complexity [1].
AGPLv3, not MIT. The AGPLv3 requires you to open-source your modifications if you run Dub as a network service. This matters for agencies or SaaS companies who want to embed or resell it. MIT it is not [README][2].
Enterprise features are commercial-only. SSO, advanced RBAC, and audit logs live in the /ee directory under a commercial license — same pattern as many “open core” companies [README].
Performance from non-US regions is inconsistent. EU users report variable redirect speeds (1–2 second delays) and periodic outages [4]. For paid ad campaigns where redirect latency affects conversion rates, this is a real operational risk.
Analytics lag. Reported delays of 10–20 minutes on event data in some configurations [4].
Mobile app is rough. Described as “half-baked” in user reviews — stuttering, analytics refresh failures, random logouts [4].
Link management at scale is clunky. Past a few hundred links, search and filtering feel slow [4]. For large teams running thousands of campaigns, this is a workflow friction point.
The “open source” pitch is nuanced. The README is explicit: 99% AGPLv3, 1% commercial enterprise edition [README]. The more you need enterprise features, the less the open-source narrative applies.

Who Should Use This / Who Shouldn’t

Use Dub if:

You’re running marketing campaigns and want to connect link clicks to actual revenue, not just traffic counts.
You’re building or scaling an affiliate program and don’t want to pay $200–500/mo for a dedicated affiliate platform.
You’re migrating from Bitly and want more links, longer analytics retention, and custom domains at a lower price point.
Your organization needs the AGPLv3 source code available for compliance or audit reasons (government, regulated industries).
You have engineering resources to manage a multi-service cloud deployment and want control over the infrastructure.

Skip it (stay on Dub Cloud, not self-hosted) if:

You want the features but not the infrastructure work — the $25/mo Pro plan is honest value and handles the reliability problem for you.

Skip it entirely if:

You just need a simple link shortener with basic click counts — free tools like YOURLS or Kutt handle this with zero cloud dependencies [2].
You need an MIT license for commercial embedding or resale — look at YOURLS or build on top of a more permissively licensed base.
You’re running paid ads where a 1–2 second redirect delay could materially affect conversion rates and you can’t absorb occasional outages [4].
You’re a non-technical founder without someone to handle the deployment and maintenance — the self-hosted path is not a solo Friday-afternoon project.

Skip it (consider an alternative) if:

You need pure workflow automation that happens to create links — that’s n8n or Activepieces territory.
Your affiliate program runs at enterprise scale with complex tiered commissions and dedicated account management — Impact or PartnerStack are purpose-built for that and have deeper compliance tooling.

Alternatives Worth Considering

Bitly — the incumbent. Longer brand recognition, but slower feature development, weaker analytics, and a more expensive pricing structure for equivalent capabilities [5]. Worth sticking with only if your team has deep Bitly muscle memory and the cost difference doesn’t matter.
Rebrandly — comparable branded link management with a solid reputation for redirect reliability. Less attribution depth than Dub, but stronger enterprise link governance. Taptu reviewers suggest running parallel tests between Dub and Rebrandly for paid traffic campaigns [4].
Short.io — another branded link shortener with analytics. Simpler product, lower ceiling. A step down in features but potentially a step up in reliability for teams that don’t need conversion tracking.
YOURLS (Your Own URL Shortener) — the original self-hosted link shortener, MIT licensed, runs on any PHP server with MySQL. No conversion tracking, no affiliate features, no polished UI — but it has zero cloud dependencies and has been in production since 2009 [2]. If “just short links, fully self-contained, free” is the requirement, YOURLS still delivers.
Kutt — another MIT-licensed shortener with built-in analytics, Node.js/Postgres/Redis stack, and a REST API. Older and less actively maintained than Dub, but far simpler to self-host [2]. The Reddit evaluation that compared Kutt and Dub noted Kutt’s MIT license as a real advantage for anyone nervous about AGPL [2].
PostHog — not a link shortener, but covers the conversion tracking and attribution use case from the analytics side if you already have a link solution. Open source, self-hostable, genuinely capable.

Bottom Line

Dub is the right tool if you need attribution, not just clicks. The short link is the entry point, but the actual product is a revenue tracking layer for marketing — connecting campaigns to customers to lifetime value, with an affiliate program system layered on top. That’s a meaningfully different proposition from Bitly, which is fundamentally a link management tool that never moved beyond click counts.

The honest caveats: self-hosting Dub is not a simple operation and carries real infrastructure cost. The AGPLv3 license limits commercial embedding options compared to MIT-licensed alternatives. And redirect performance from non-US regions has documented inconsistencies that matter if you’re routing paid campaign traffic through it. For most founders and marketing teams, Dub Cloud’s $25/mo Pro plan is the pragmatic answer — it gives you the full product, handles the infrastructure, and undercuts Bitly on both price and capability. Self-hosting makes sense for compliance-driven organizations with engineering resources, not for founders trying to dodge a monthly bill.

Sources

Dub — How to self-host Dub in 8 easy steps (official documentation). https://dub.co/docs/self-hosting
r/selfhosted — Self-hosted bitly alternative, link shortener - Kutt (Reddit thread comparing Dub and Kutt). https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/14oj92z/selfhosted_bitly_alternative_link_shortener_kutt/
Kyle Wiggers, TechCrunch — “Dub.co is an open source URL shortener and link attribution engine packed into one” (Jan 16, 2025). https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/16/dub-co-is-an-open-source-url-shortener-and-link-attribution-engine-packed-into-one/
Taptu Forum — “Need honest Dub app review and user experiences” (user reviews thread, Feb 2026). https://taptu.com/t/need-honest-dub-app-review-and-user-experiences/2366
Dub — Dub vs. Bitly comparison page (official). https://dub.co/compare/bitly

Primary sources:

GitHub repository and README: https://github.com/dubinc/dub (23,187 stars, AGPLv3 core, commercial enterprise edition)
Official website: https://dub.co
Self-hosting guide: https://dub.co/docs/self-hosting/guide