YOURLS Alternatives: Self-Hosted and Hosted Options

The best YOURLS alternatives depend on why you're leaving. If you want to keep self-hosting, Shlink is the strongest open-source replacement on PHP, and Kutt is the pick for Node.js teams. If what you want is to stop running a shortener, a hosted service does that; Elido is ours, with primary data in the EU, but it isn't open source and can't be self-hosted. Polr, often listed next to YOURLS, hasn't had a release since January 2021, so skip it.

YOURLS itself is healthy, which is worth saying first. Release 1.10.6 shipped on 30 August 2026, and the repository had commits in November 2026, including fixes for PHP 8.5 and 8.6 deprecations. People leave it for what it doesn't do, not because it's dying. I'm on the Elido team, so read the hosted section with that in mind; competitor facts come from each project's repository and docs, accessed 2026-11-11.

Why Teams Look for a YOURLS Alternative

YOURLS is a set of PHP scripts with a plugin system, and its requirements are modest: PHP 8.1 or newer, MySQL 5.5+ or MariaDB 10.0+, and Apache 2.4 with mod_rewrite. That simplicity is the reason it has 12,305 GitHub stars. It's also where the friction comes from as a team grows.

Logins are username and password pairs in the config file. Core YOURLS has no per-user link ownership, no workspaces and no roles, so five people share one view of every link. Plenty of features arrive through plugins, and each plugin is its own maintenance and security question. HTTPS for your short domain is your web server's job. And analytics mean the click log plus whatever plugins add.

None of that is a defect. It's the shape of a single-admin tool. If it still fits you, there's no reason to move; our Elido vs YOURLS post covers where it stays the right call. For the broader market, the cornerstone on URL shorteners for marketers maps the hosted options.

YOURLS Alternatives Compared

This table compares YOURLS with the options worth a look in late 2026. Releases and stars are from the GitHub API on 2026-11-11.

The pattern: two healthy MIT projects if you stay self-hosted, one heavyweight open-core option, and the hosted route.

Polr is in the table only so you can cross it off.

Self-Hosted Alternatives to YOURLS

These keep your links on your own servers, which is often the whole reason a team chose YOURLS in the first place.

Shlink

Shlink is the closest upgrade for a PHP shop. It's MIT-licensed, actively released (v5.1.8 on 21 October 2026) and built API-first, with a REST API, a CLI and a separate web client you host or open in the browser. It records each visit with referrer and user agent, geolocates it if you add a free MaxMind key, and can route a link by language, device, IP range, query parameter or country. The killer detail for YOURLS users: Shlink's importer has a YOURLS source that pulls links and, optionally, visits through the YOURLS API, using a small companion plugin. Expect to run a real database; SQLite is for tests only. Full detail in Elido vs Shlink.

Kutt

Kutt is MIT-licensed Node.js with a proper web dashboard, sign-ups, OIDC login and themes. It defaults to SQLite, and Redis is optional. Per-link stats cover browser, OS, country and referrer. There's no YOURLS importer, so you'd move links with a short script against Kutt's API. Certificates for custom domains are yours to issue. If your team runs Node rather than PHP, it's the friendliest option here. See Elido vs Kutt.

Dub, self-hosted

Dub is the most feature-rich of the open-source projects, and the hardest to self-host. Its self-hosting guide lists accounts with GitHub, Tinybird, Upstash, PlanetScale, Vercel, and Cloudflare or AWS as prerequisites. You run the app; several hosted services hold the data. The code is AGPLv3 apart from a commercially licensed enterprise folder. Honest take: if the goal is "no third parties", Dub doesn't get you there.

Its hosted plans are another matter, and a fair hosted alternative.

Polr

Polr shows up on most YOURLS-alternative lists and shouldn't. Its last release is from January 2021 and the default branch hasn't moved since September 2023. Elido vs Polr has the details for anyone still running it.

The Hosted Route: Stop Running a Shortener

Some teams look for a YOURLS alternative and realise the problem is the server, not the software. Nobody wants to patch PHP or chase certificate renewals. Swapping YOURLS for Shlink keeps that job; a hosted service removes it.

That's the case for Elido, with its limits stated. There's no server: you add your short domain, Elido checks DNS and issues the certificate. You get workspaces with seats and roles, per-link and workspace analytics, smart links that route by country, device, browser, OS, language or time, a QR designer, and a REST API on every plan (only the Go SDK is published so far; TypeScript, Python and Ruby are not on their registries yet). Link targets are scanned for malware on every plan too. The screenshot shows the workspace analytics in our demo account.

Demo workspace with synthetic example data, not customer results.

The limits are just as concrete. Elido isn't open source and can't run on your servers, so data sovereignty in the "our own rack" sense is off the table; your data sits with us in the EU, and the EU data residency guide lists what that does and doesn't cover. There's no YOURLS plugin ecosystem. And moving a branded domain needs a paid plan: Free is 50 links and 500 clicks a month with no branded domain, while Pro starts at 3.50 EUR a month (billing catalogue, 2026-11-11). If you've decided the server is the problem, compare the plans.

How to Migrate Off YOURLS

The steps are the same whichever alternative you choose, and the order is what keeps printed links alive.

1. Dump the database. Click history won't move to most tools, so this is your archive.
2. Export the links. Without a plugin, query the yourls_url table (default prefix) for keyword, url and title, and save the result as CSV.
3. Import with the same keywords as slugs: Shlink's YOURLS importer or CSV, a script against Kutt's API, or Elido's CSV import on Pro or Business.
4. Test twenty or so slugs on the new service, including any with uppercase letters or punctuation.
5. Point the short domain at the new service, and leave YOURLS running read-only for a few weeks.

The classic mistake happens at step 5: DNS changes before the new side has a certificate, and every link shows a browser warning until one issues. Let the certificate issue first. The link rot guide has more on keeping old URLs alive.

Which YOURLS Alternative to Choose

Stay on YOURLS if one admin, one domain and basic stats still cover you. Move to Shlink if you want to keep PHP and self-hosting but need an API, better visit data or redirect rules. Choose Kutt if your team runs Node. Skip Polr. Consider Dub only if you're comfortable relying on its hosted dependencies.

And if the honest answer is "we don't want to run a shortener any more", a hosted EU service like Elido is built for that. The self-hosted URL shorteners comparison has the longer version of the self-hosting trade-off.

Related on the Blog

• Self-hosted URL shorteners compared
• Elido vs YOURLS
• Elido vs Shlink
• Elido vs Kutt
• Elido vs Polr