Choose the back-half of every short link
Type the alias you want instead of accepting seven random characters, and find out it is free while you type it. The back-half stays editable after the link is live.
On every plan, including Free · No credit card required
Was clik.is/a7Kd92x — the seven-character back-half ClikSo generated
Quick answer
What is a custom short URL?
A custom short URL is a short link whose back-half — the part after the slash — is chosen rather than generated, so clik.is/a7Kd92x becomes clik.is/summer-sale. ClikSo accepts 3 to 30 characters of letters, digits and hyphens, checks availability as you type, and lets you change the back-half again after the link is already live. On Starter and up it can also contain slashes, like clik.is/acme/launch.
- Characters allowed in a back-half you choose yourself
- 3–30Characters allowed in a back-half you choose yourself
- The back-half can still be changed after the link is live
- EditableThe back-half can still be changed after the link is live
- AI back-half suggestions, written from the destination page
- 3 at a timeAI back-half suggestions, written from the destination page
- Custom back-halves are on every plan, including Free
- Free planCustom back-halves are on every plan, including Free
- On every plan, including Free — a chosen back-half is not a paid add-on
- Rules are simple: 3–30 characters, letters, digits and hyphens
- On Starter and up, add / to group links: clik.is/acme/launch
- Availability is checked while you type, not after you save
- The back-half and the destination URL are both editable after the link is live
- AI can propose three back-halves read from the destination page’s own title
How to create a custom short link
The back-half is a text field, not a setting buried in a menu.
Paste the destination URL
ClikSo immediately fills the Short Link field with a generated back-half — seven characters drawn from a 62-character alphabet — so the link is usable before you have decided on anything.
Type the back-half you actually want
Replace the generated characters with something a person could repeat: spring-sale, webinar, demo-uk. On Starter and up you can add a slash to group links, like acme/launch. Availability is checked against every existing link while you type.
Or let AI write one from the destination page
The sparkle button next to the field asks Gemini 2.5 Flash to read the destination page’s own title and description and propose three back-halves. Each one is checked for availability first, and a suffix is added if the obvious choice is already in use.
Change it later if it stops fitting
The back-half is editable after the link is live. Saving a new one rewrites the routing entry at the edge: the new URL starts resolving and the old one stops. The destination URL is editable the same way, so a link you have already shared is never frozen.
You find out before you save, not after
The same field, three answers.
- clik.is/summer
This short URL already exists — checked while you type, not when you save
- clik.is/summer
- summer-sale
- summer-2026
- summer-drop
Three AI suggestions, read from the destination page and checked first
- clik.is/summer-sale
Available — and still editable after the link is live
Group links with a slash
On Starter and up, a back-half can contain / — like folders in the link itself. One prefix per client, campaign or show, and the link says where it belongs. The Free plan keeps to back-halves without a slash.
- clik.is/acme/launch
- clik.is/acme/spring-sale
- clik.is/podcast/ep-12
- go.yourbrand.com/team/launch
Works on your own custom domain too
When the back-half earns its keep
Mostly: anywhere a human being reads the URL before clicking it.
Links people have to hear, not click
A podcast read, a radio spot, a conference stage. “slash demo” is something a listener can retype from memory an hour later; a seven-character random string is not.
Print, packaging and signage
Anything that will be typed by hand off a physical surface. A readable alias also makes the QR code beside it less mysterious when somebody checks the URL before scanning.
Sales and outbound email
Per-prospect aliases like /acme-proposal read as deliberate rather than automated, and they tell you at a glance which link is which when you come back to the list a month later.
Support macros and documentation
A stable alias such as /vpn-setup can be pasted into a help article, a macro and a chatbot answer, then re-pointed once when the underlying doc moves.
Fixing a link that is already out there
A typo in a back-half, or a name that changed after launch. Because the alias is editable, you correct it in place instead of issuing a second link and hoping people use it.
Shared workspaces with a naming convention
Teams that prefix by channel or client — /nl-march, /acme-q3, or nested on Starter and up, /acme/q3 — end up with a link list that can be scanned rather than searched, because the URL carries the meaning.
When you cannot think of an alias, the page can suggest one
ClikSo sends the destination page's own Open Graph title and description to Gemini 2.5 Flash and asks for three candidate back-halves. One that collides with an existing link gets a suffix rather than silently failing at save time. It is a shortcut for naming, not a bulk tool.
- Free
- 10 generations a day
- Starter
- 30 generations a day
- Pro
- 200 generations a day
- Business
- Unlimited generations
A burst limit of 15 requests a minute per workspace applies on every plan.
Custom back-halves across link shorteners
Everyone lets you choose a back-half. The differences are how many you get without paying, and what you can still change once the link is out.
| Capability | ClikSo | Bitly | Dub.co | TinyURL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Custom back-halves on the free plan | Every link (50/mo) | 3 a month | Every link (25/mo) | Every link |
| Edit the back-half after the link is live | API only | Paid plans | ||
| Change the destination after the link is shared | Paid plans | Paid plans | ||
| Use a custom back-half on your own domain, free | ||||
| Slashes in the back-half (clik.is/acme/launch) | Starter and up | Not confirmed |
Competitor details taken from each provider's own published pricing and documentation, last verified 16 September 2026. Bitly can change a back-half, but the old one cannot be reused on the same domain and an attached QR code has to be regenerated. Dub.co exposes slug editing through its API rather than its dashboard. The slashes row was checked on 16 October 2026.
Good to know
- Back-halves are 3 to 30 characters of letters, digits and hyphens. Spaces, underscores, dots, accents and emoji are rejected.
- Slashes — nested links like clik.is/acme/launch — are on Starter and up. A nested back-half has at most five parts and 30 characters in total, slashes included, with no slash at the start or end and never two in a row. Nested links you already have keep working if you move to Free.
- On clik.is, a few names that look like our own pages — pricing, login, support and similar — are reserved, and so is a nested link that starts with one. Your own custom domain has no reserved names.
- Changing a back-half changes the URL. The old one stops resolving the moment you save, so anything already printed, posted or indexed with it will stop working — the point of editing is to fix a link before it is out there, not after.
- AI suggestions are metered per day: 10 on Free, 30 on Starter, 200 on Pro and unlimited on Business, with a burst limit of 15 a minute per workspace.
- AI suggestions are written from the destination page’s own title and description, so the page needs to be publicly reachable for the suggestions to be about anything.
Custom back-halves by plan
Choosing and editing the back-half is on every plan. Nested slugs start on Starter, and the AI allowance grows with each plan. Pair it with a custom domain to control the other half of the URL.
Frequently asked questions
A custom short URL is a short link whose ending you choose instead of accepting a generated one — clik.is/spring-sale rather than clik.is/a7Kd92x. The part after the domain is called the back-half, the slug or the alias. In ClikSo it can be 3 to 30 characters of letters, digits and hyphens — and on Starter and up it can contain slashes too.
The back-half is everything after the domain in a short link. It is the part that identifies which link you mean, and the part a person reads or retypes. Choosing it yourself is what turns an opaque string into something that says what the link is for.
Yes. ClikSo lets you change the back-half of a link that is already live — the new URL starts resolving and the old one stops working. Bitly allows this too, though it will not let you reuse the old back-half on the same domain and any attached QR code has to be regenerated. TinyURL only allows editing on its paid plans, and Dub.co exposes it through its API rather than its dashboard.
Letters, digits and hyphens, between 3 and 30 characters. On Starter, Pro and Business you can also use a slash (/) to make a nested link. Spaces, underscores, dots, accented characters and emoji are not accepted. Capital letters are allowed, though a lowercase alias is easier to dictate over the phone.
Yes, on Starter, Pro, Business and Enterprise. A slash groups links like folders in the link itself: clik.is/acme/launch, clik.is/acme/spring-sale. The whole back-half is still 3 to 30 characters, slashes included, with at most five parts (four slashes), no slash at the start or end and no two slashes in a row. It works on clik.is and on your own custom domain. On the Free plan the back-half cannot contain a slash.
They keep working. If a workspace moves from a paid plan to Free, every nested link it already has goes on redirecting, and you can still edit them. What Free cannot do is create a new nested link, or change a back-half into one.
Paste your destination URL into ClikSo, then type the back-half you want in the Short Link field next to the domain dropdown. Availability is checked as you type. Save, and the link is live immediately.
No — they are the two halves of the same URL. The domain is the part before the first slash, such as links.yourbrand.com, and the back-half is everything after it. ClikSo lets you set both: custom domains are a separate feature, and every plan includes at least one.
ClikSo sends the destination page’s title and description to Gemini 2.5 Flash and gets three candidate back-halves back. Each candidate is checked against existing links before it is shown, and a suffix is added when the obvious word is already taken. Free plans get 10 generations a day, Starter 30, Pro 200 and Business unlimited.
Yes, but only three a month. Bitly’s free plan allows 3 custom back-halves per month, on a plan capped at 5 new links a month; its Core tier raises that to 100 a month and is billed annually. ClikSo does not meter custom back-halves at all — every one of the 50 links a month on the Free plan can have one.
For a plain back-half, none beyond Free: custom back-halves, availability checking and editing an existing back-half are on every plan, including Free. Nested back-halves — a slash in the link, like clik.is/acme/launch — start on Starter. The daily allowance of AI suggestions also grows with your plan.
Related features
Or see everything in the full feature list.
Custom domains
Put your own brand on every short link. One custom domain is included free, with SSL issued automatically.
On every plan, including FreeLink tags
Label links across folders, then filter your entire analytics dashboard down to one tag.
On every plan, including FreeREST API
Create and manage links, folders and tags, and read click stats, from your own code. Bearer-token auth, a published endpoint allowlist.
On every plan, including FreeLast reviewed 16 September 2026 against the live product. Competitor details come from each provider's own published pricing. See the full feature list or ClikSo vs Bitly.
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