URL shortener with REST API and command line interface. Includes official progressive web application and docker images.
Shlink is an open-source url shorteners project, with 5.2k GitHub stars and a health score of 82/100. It committed 274 times in the last twelve months across 12 of those months, and its status is actively maintained. Licence: MIT. It has real momentum, so treat it as a live competitor rather than a stale repository.
| Status | Actively maintained — Committed within the last 45 days. |
|---|---|
| Last commit | 2026-08-06 |
| Days since last commit | 11 |
| Commits, last 3 months | 40 |
| Commits, last 12 months | 274 |
| Months with activity | 12 of 12 |
| Last release | 2026-06-22 |
| Archived | No |
| Licence | MIT |
| Category | URL Shorteners |
Health score combines commit recency, twelve-month commit volume, months with activity, release recency and archive state. Metadata refreshed August 2026.
Permissive (MIT, Apache, BSD): you can fork it, close the source and sell it. Lowest legal friction for a commercial product.
This matters most when you plan to sell a hosted version. A permissive licence means anyone — including a competitor with more capital — can do the same, so your defensibility has to come from distribution, support or data, not from the code.
Shlink is shipping code consistently, so a buyer comparing your product will find a maintained free option. Price and position against the total cost of self-hosting it, not against the paid incumbent's list price.
The clearest opening in the dataset. Low open-source competition usually means either a genuinely underserved need or a market too small to attract volunteers — validate demand before assuming the former.
Actively maintained. Shlink recorded 274 commits over the last twelve months, with activity in 12 of those months and 40 commits in the last quarter. Last commit: 2026-08-06. Last release: 2026-06-22. Committed within the last 45 days.
Shlink is published under MIT. Permissive (MIT, Apache, BSD): you can fork it, close the source and sell it. Lowest legal friction for a commercial product.
9 open-source implementations, 4 of them actively maintained, led by YOURLS at 12k stars. Saturation score 28/100 — Open. Thin or poorly maintained open-source coverage.
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