Migrate from Bitly to Elido

Moving from Bitly takes about 10 minutes of setup plus background time for the import to run. Slugs are preserved wherever possible; you'll get a log of any that couldn't be claimed.

Before you start#

• You need a Bitly account with at least one group of links. Personal free accounts work; Bitly Enterprise accounts work too.
• Have an Elido workspace ready. The import creates links under whichever workspace you choose — make sure you're on a plan that covers the number of links you're importing.

Step 1 — Generate a Bitly API token#

1. Log into Bitly.
2. Go to Settings → API → Generic Access Token.
3. Enter your Bitly password and click Generate token.
4. Copy the token. It's a 40-character hex string.

Bitly's Generic Access Token has read access to everything in your account. It doesn't expire, so treat it like a password. You can revoke it from the same settings page after the import finishes.

Step 2 — Open the migration wizard in Elido#

1. Go to Dashboard → Integrations → Bitly Migration, or click the Start migration button on the integrations page.
2. Paste your Bitly token in the field shown. Click Connect.
3. Elido fetches your Bitly groups (usually just "Default Group" for personal accounts, or multiple groups for team accounts). Select which groups to import.

Step 3 — Map domains#

If you have Bitly custom domains (e.g. go.acme.com), map each one to an Elido domain:

• An existing custom domain you've already added to Elido, or
• One of Elido's shared domains (s.elido.me for paid plans, b.elido.me for Business).

Links without a custom domain use bit.ly by default in Bitly. Those will import to s.elido.me unless you choose otherwise.

Step 4 — Run the import#

Click Start import. The background worker:

1. Paginates through /v4/groups/{group_guid}/bitlinks (Bitly's API, 50 links per page).
2. Creates each link in Elido, preserving the slug.
3. If a slug is already taken in your Elido workspace, appends -1, -2, etc. and logs it.
4. Writes import results to the Import log tab, visible in real time.

Large accounts (10,000+ links) take 10–30 minutes. You'll get an email when it's done.

What gets imported#

• Destination URL.
• Slug (preserved if available).
• Tags (mapped to Elido tags by name).
• Creation date (shown in Elido's link list).
• Title (if Bitly stored one).

What doesn't migrate#

• Click history — Bitly does not export per-click event data via their API. Your Elido analytics start from zero at cutover. Any clicks after the import are tracked in Elido.
• Custom link pages — Bitly's paid "link-in-bio" or custom interstitials. Elido has its own bio pages; recreate them manually.
• Custom dashboards and reports — Bitly's saved reports don't map to Elido. Re-build any recurring reports using Elido's export feature.
• QR codes — Re-generate from Elido's link detail page (one click per link, or bulk via API).

Troubleshooting#

"Invalid token" on connect — The token was entered with extra spaces, or it's from the wrong Bitly account. Verify by calling https://api-ssl.bitly.com/v4/user with Authorization: Bearer TOKEN — you should see your Bitly user profile.

Slugs coming in with -1 suffix — That slug already exists in your Elido workspace. Check the import log for the original and the renamed version. If you want the clean slug, delete the conflicting Elido link first and re-run the import for just that group.

Import stuck at 0% for more than 5 minutes — Check Bitly's API status page and Elido's status page. Bitly rate-limits to 100 requests/minute per token; the importer respects that, so very large accounts may queue.

Email not received — Check spam. The sender is notifications@elido.app. Add it to your allowlist before starting the import.