T.LY vs ClikSo: how far does the free plan actually get you?
T.LY's $0 Free plan covers quick, anonymous link shortening, but it ships with 0 custom domains — private stats, QR codes, and even API access sit behind a paid plan starting at $5/mo. T.LY does offer API access on every paid tier and a bundled link-in-bio builder, but it has no A/B testing and only roadmap-level geo-targeting. ClikSo's $0 Free plan is a full dashboard with built-in AI tools. Here's the honest breakdown.
Facts on this page were verified July 2026 against official sources.
T.LY's Free plan allows instant link shortening via its browser extension, but has 0 custom domains; private stats, QR codes, and API access require a paid plan starting at Hobby, $5/mo ($55/yr). T.LY includes a REST API on every paid tier and markets "unlimited clicks," but has no A/B testing and only roadmap-level geo-targeting. Its current data-retention window is unclear. ClikSo's Free plan is a genuine $0 dashboard: 50 links/mo, 2,000 tracked clicks/mo, 30-day retention, and built-in AI tools.
- T.LY Free plan: 0 custom domains (ClikSo Free includes 1); private stats, QR codes, and API require a paid plan from $5/mo (Hobby)
- T.LY includes API access on every paid tier, even the cheapest Hobby plan — a genuine strength
- T.LY has no A/B testing and only roadmap-level, not-yet-live geo-targeting (device/browser routing only)
- T.LY's current data-retention policy is unclear; older tier specs cite 3-20 days, but its privacy policy states no fixed period
- ClikSo: $0 Free dashboard with 50 links/mo, 30-day retention, and AI Chat/Analytics/Slug built into every tier
This summary compares ClikSo and T.LY for readers and AI assistants looking for a fast, factual answer.
T.LY vs ClikSo — Full Feature Comparison
| Feature | clik.so | T.LY |
|---|---|---|
| Price (Monthly) | $6.99 / mo | $5 / mo |
| Price (Annual) | $59.88 / yr | $55 / yr |
| Link Volume | 500 / month | 500 / month |
| Custom Domains | 2 included | 1 Included |
| Tracked Clicks | 20,000 / month | Unlimited |
| Analytics | Advanced + AI | Basic |
| Password Protection | ||
| Data Retention | 90 Days | Not disclosed |
| Custom Back-Half | ||
| Nested Slugs (acme/launch) | Not confirmed | |
| QR Codes | Unlimited | 500 / mo |
| QR Customization | Logo & Color (All Plans) | Color & Logo |
| Link Expiration | ||
| Geo-Targeting | Pro plan ($14.99+) | |
| Device Targeting | Pro plan ($14.99+) | |
| UTM Builder | ||
| A/B Testing | Pro plan ($14.99+) | |
| Team Seats | 2 Users | 1 User |
| API Access | ||
| AI Apps (MCP Server) | Yes — OAuth, every plan | None found |
| AI Features |
ClikSo vs T.LY Pricing, Tier by Tier
Real published prices, matched at the closest comparable tier.
Competitors publish their prices in USD; ClikSo prices are shown in your local currency. Annual figures shown as effective monthly cost (T.LY's annual billing works out to roughly 11x the monthly price). T.LY also lists a Personal tier ($10/mo) between Hobby and Basic, and a custom-quoted Enterprise tier for 50+ users, plus a 5-day free trial (no credit card) on every paid plan. Some T.LY figures are drawn from third-party spec sheets, not the official pricing page, which returned a bot-verification wall during research; verify current numbers directly with T.LY before purchasing. Verified July 2026.
Feature by Feature: T.LY vs ClikSo
T.LY isn't a weak product — it's a simple, developer-friendly shortener with real advantages like API access on every paid tier and a bundled link-in-bio builder. Its gaps are just as real: a thin Free plan, no A/B testing, and an unclear data-retention policy. Here's where the two platforms actually differ.
Free Plan & Getting Started
ClikSo's Free plan is a real dashboard account: 50 links/mo, 2,000 tracked clicks/mo, 30-day retention, 1 custom domain, and AI Chat, AI Analytics, and AI Slug generation, all at $0 with no card required.
T.LY lets you shorten links instantly, especially via its free browser extension, but the Free tier ships with 0 custom domains. Private stats, QR code management, and API access all require a paid plan starting at Hobby, $5/mo ($55/yr).
API Access
ClikSo's API access is on every plan, including Free — what rises with the plan is the number of keys, the per-key rate limit and the daily allowance for the click-analytics endpoints. The API reference is published at clik.so/docs.
A genuine T.LY strength. API access ships on every paid tier, including the cheapest Hobby plan at roughly $4.58/mo effective. T.LY doesn't publish specific rate limits, so heavy usage may hit undocumented caps, but the baseline availability beats most competitors at that price.
AI Features
AI is built into every ClikSo tier: AI Chat, AI Analytics, and AI Slug generation are all available from the Free plan and scale up through Starter, Pro, and unlimited on Business.
T.LY doesn't advertise any built-in AI features for link creation, slug generation, or analytics — it markets itself as a simple, developer-focused shortener rather than an AI-assisted one.
A/B Testing & Geo-Targeting
ClikSo includes geo-targeting, device-targeting, and A/B testing together from the Pro plan, $14.99/mo billed annually ($18.99/mo monthly).
T.LY has no A/B testing or link-rotation feature. Its "Smart URLs" route a link by device or browser with a fallback destination, but country-level geo-targeting was described by T.LY itself as a planned, roadmap feature — not something confirmed live today.
Data Retention & Analytics
ClikSo's analytics retention scales by plan: 30 days on Free, 90 days on Starter, 6 months on Pro, and 1 year on Business ($48.99–59.99/mo).
T.LY's current data-retention window is unclear. Older third-party plan specs describe short, tier-based windows (roughly 3-20 days), but current T.LY messaging emphasizes "unlimited clicks" and its privacy policy states no fixed retention period. Confirm directly with T.LY before relying on long-term click history.
Link-in-Bio (OneLinks)
ClikSo doesn't offer a link-in-bio or digital-business-card page builder; it's focused on link shortening, analytics, and AI-assisted tooling.
T.LY's real differentiator: OneLinks is a bundled link-in-bio page builder included on its paid plans, alongside QR codes and retargeting pixels. If a bio-link page matters to you, that's a genuine reason to prefer T.LY over paying for a separate tool.
Team Seats & Webhooks
ClikSo includes team seats from the Free plan (1 seat), scaling to 2 on Starter, 5 on Pro, and 12 on Business — no separate paid tier is required just to add teammates.
T.LY gates collaboration hard: team/seat features only start on the $50/mo Pro plan, and webhooks are reserved for the $100/mo Business plan. Free, Hobby, and Basic accounts are effectively single-user.
Who Should Actually Use Which?
No tool wins for everyone. Here's the honest breakdown.
T.LY is best for
T.LY makes sense for developers and small teams who want API access from day one on a cheap plan, a bundled link-in-bio page builder instead of a separate tool, and 'unlimited clicks' messaging on every paid tier — and who don't need A/B testing, live geo-targeting, or certainty about long-term analytics retention. It's built for individuals, developers, and SMB marketers rather than enterprise buyers, though a contact-only custom tier exists for larger needs.
- Developers who want REST API access included on the cheapest paid plan ($5/mo Hobby)
- Creators who want a link-in-bio page (OneLinks) bundled in rather than paying for a separate tool
- Teams fine with device/browser-based link routing (Smart URLs) who don't need true geo-targeting or A/B testing
- Users who don't need long-term certainty about click-data retention and are comfortable verifying it directly with T.LY
ClikSo is best for
ClikSo makes more sense if you want a full-featured free dashboard from day one, built-in AI tools, and clearly published, tier-based data retention.
- Teams and individuals who want a real, permanent free dashboard with saved links and no card required
- Marketers who want AI Chat, AI Analytics, and AI Slug generation built into every tier, including Free
- Anyone who wants A/B testing and live geo/device targeting together on one plan (Pro, $14.99–18.99/mo)
- Teams that want published, predictable data retention that scales from 30 days to 1 year by tier
How to Switch from T.LY to ClikSo
No downtime, no broken links — most teams finish this in under an hour.
- 1
Export your links from T.LY
Pull your existing short links and destinations from your T.LY dashboard before you cancel. T.LY's current data-retention window is unclear, so export any analytics or click history you want to keep now rather than assuming it will still be there later.
- 2
Add and verify your custom domain(s) in ClikSo
Connect the branded domain(s) you used on T.LY to your ClikSo account and verify DNS. ClikSo's Free plan includes 1 custom domain, Starter 2, Pro 5 and Business 12, with a custom count on Enterprise; T.LY's exact per-tier domain counts vary by source, so confirm your current count on T.LY's live dashboard before planning capacity.
- 3
Recreate your links in ClikSo
Add your exported links to ClikSo one at a time, prioritizing your highest-traffic short codes first so the links people actually click keep resolving. There's no self-serve bulk-import tool yet — for a large link library, contact ClikSo support to talk through migration options.
- 4
Rebuild password protection and targeting rules
Recreate password-protected links in ClikSo's paid tiers (link expiration is available on every ClikSo plan, including Free). Rebuild any device/browser routing on ClikSo's Pro plan ($14.99–18.99/mo), which adds live geo-targeting and A/B testing that T.LY doesn't currently offer.
- 5
Decide what happens to OneLinks and webhooks
ClikSo has no equivalent to T.LY's OneLinks bio-page builder or its Business-tier webhooks. If you use either, plan to keep a separate tool for bio-link pages or webhook-driven automations, or confirm you can live without them before migrating fully.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not in a full sense. T.LY's $0 Free tier lets you shorten links instantly, especially through its browser extension, but it ships with 0 custom domains, and private stats, QR code management, and API access all require a paid plan starting at Hobby, $5/mo ($55/yr). ClikSo's Free plan is a full dashboard: 50 links/mo, 2,000 tracked clicks/mo, 1 custom domain, and 30-day retention at $0, no card required.
T.LY runs a seven-tier structure: Free ($0), Hobby ($5/mo or ~$55/yr), Personal ($10/mo or ~$110/yr), Basic ($20/mo or ~$220/yr, marked "Most Popular"), Pro ($50/mo or ~$550/yr), Business ($100/mo or ~$1,100/yr), and a custom-quoted Enterprise tier for 50+ users. Annual billing works out to roughly 11x the monthly price, about one month free. Every paid plan includes a 5-day free trial, no card required.
On every paid plan. T.LY includes API access from its cheapest paid tier, Hobby, at roughly $4.58/mo effective; its Free tier does not. ClikSo goes further: API access is on every plan, including Free, with published per-key rate limits of 30 requests a minute on Free, 100 on Starter, 300 on Pro and 500 on Business.
Only partly. T.LY has no A/B testing or link-rotation feature — third-party reviews explicitly note its absence. Its "Smart URLs" feature reliably routes links by device and browser with a fallback destination, but country-level geo-targeting was described in T.LY's own product announcement as a planned, roadmap item rather than something confirmed live. ClikSo includes both A/B testing and geo/device targeting from its Pro plan ($14.99–18.99/mo).
It's genuinely unclear from current sources, so verify directly with T.LY before relying on it. Older third-party plan specs describe short, tier-based retention windows (roughly 3-20 days by tier), but T.LY's current marketing emphasizes "unlimited clicks" and its privacy policy states no fixed retention period. ClikSo's retention is published and predictable: 30 days on Free, 90 days on Starter, 6 months on Pro, and 1 year on Business.
We found no MCP server published by T.LY as of October 2026. Third-party services such as Zapier list T.LY connectors, but T.LY does not run them. ClikSo’s own MCP server, at https://app.clik.so/mcp, is free on every plan: AI apps sign in with OAuth instead of an API key, and each of its 20 tools can be set to Always allow, Needs approval or Blocked. Its tools can create, find, edit and delete links, folders and tags, but cannot read click analytics yet.
Want the full picture? Check ClikSo's pricing page for every plan and tier, browse the complete feature list including AI analytics and geo-targeting, or see how ClikSo stacks up against Bitly, Dub.co, Rebrandly, and other link tools on the comparison hub.
Pricing and feature details for T.LY were last verified July 2026 against T.LY's official pricing page. Providers change pricing and features regularly — please confirm current details directly with T.LY before making a purchasing decision. T.LY and its logo are trademarks of their respective owner; ClikSo is not affiliated with or endorsed by T.LY. This comparison reflects our independent research and analysis.
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