Bitly
URL shortening and link management service for creating concise, trackable links with analytics
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Discover top open-source software, updated regularly with real-world adoption signals.
Self-hosted URL shortener with branding and API control
Polr is a self-hostable link shortening platform built with PHP and Lumen. Brand your URLs, control your data, and integrate via robust API.
Polr is a self-hosted URL shortening web application designed for organizations and individuals who want full ownership of their link infrastructure. Built on PHP and the Lumen framework with MySQL, Polr combines a modern, themable interface with powerful API capabilities to let you create branded short links without relying on third-party services.
Ideal for marketing teams, developers, and businesses seeking data sovereignty and custom branding for their shortened URLs. Whether you're tracking campaign performance, building integrations, or simply want control over your link analytics, Polr provides the foundation.
Polr is straightforward to deploy: clone the repository, point your web server's document root to public/, configure a MySQL database, and complete the web-based setup wizard. The platform supports browser extensions (Safari) and client libraries (Python), making it easy to shorten links from multiple environments. With semantic versioning and an active community, Polr balances stability with ongoing development.
When teams consider Polr, these hosted platforms usually appear on the same shortlist.
Looking for a hosted option? These are the services engineering teams benchmark against before choosing open source.
Branded Marketing Campaigns
Marketing teams deploy custom short domains to track click-through rates and maintain brand consistency across social media and email campaigns.
Internal Link Management
Enterprises host Polr internally to create memorable short links for documentation, wikis, and employee resources while keeping analytics private.
API-Driven Integrations
Developers integrate Polr's REST API into CMS platforms, chatbots, and automation workflows to generate short links programmatically.
Event and Conference Tracking
Event organizers create branded short links for registration, schedules, and sponsor pages, gaining insight into attendee engagement without third-party data sharing.
Polr requires a web server with PHP, the Lumen framework, and a MySQL database. Point your document root to the `public/` directory and complete the web-based setup at `/setup`.
No, there are breaking changes between 1.x and 2.x that prevent automatic upgrades. Upgrading within 2.x versions is supported via `git pull`, `composer install`, and `php artisan migrate`.
Yes, Polr has a Safari browser extension and a Python client library (mypolr) for cross-platform link shortening.
Yes, visit demo.polr.me and log in with username `demo-admin` and password `demo-admin` to explore the interface and features.
Polr is released under the GPL-2.0 license.
Project at a glance
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