Bitly dominated link shortening for years, but its pricing has become a pain point, and its feature set feels scattered—especially if you're also trying to manage outreach and CRM in the same place. Rebrandly positioned itself as the premium alternative, but it still leaves gaps when you want tracking, email sequences, and contact management under one roof. If you're hunting for a better bitly alternative that does more than just shorten links, this comparison will show you where Clkly and Rebrandly diverge—and which one actually solves your workflow.
# Why you need a better Bitly alternative
Bitly's core product—branded short links with click tracking—is solid. But the platform has some real limitations. Its free tier is neutered, the analytics dashboard feels dated, and if you want to layer in email outreach or CRM features, you're paying for three separate tools. That's where Rebrandly came in: it offered better styling, custom domains, and a slightly more modern interface. Yet Rebrandly still focuses narrowly on links—it's a link shortener, not a suite.
The problem is that modern B2B sales and marketing workflows demand more. You need branded short links that track clicks, yes, but you also need to send cold emails, manage pipelines, and see the full journey of every prospect. That's why so many teams are moving beyond Bitly and Rebrandly toward platforms built for outreach-first workflows.
# Link tracking: which platform delivers deeper insights?
Both Rebrandly and Clkly support custom branded domains—so you can shorten links under your own domain instead of a generic vanity URL. That's table stakes now.
Rebrandly's approach is granular. You get per-link analytics (clicks, device, browser, geographic data), the ability to tag links by campaign, and a clean UI. Rebrandly's strength is its simplicity; if you just need tracking on links, it does that job without bloat.
Clkly's link tracking goes deeper because it's woven into a larger system. You get country-level analytics with city, device, browser, and referrer data—just like Rebrandly. But here's the difference: every click is tied to a contact record in your CRM. If you send a tracked link in an email sequence, and someone clicks it, that click lands in their contact history alongside email opens, bounces, and unsubscribes. You're not looking at an isolated link; you're looking at a person's engagement over time.
Clkly also offers styled QR codes (colour, embedded logo, transparent backgrounds, SVG/PNG exports) that Rebrandly simply doesn't match. If you're running campaigns that use QR codes—event invites, print collateral, social posts—Clkly gives you way more control over how they look.
Rebrandly wins on link-centric filtering. Its UI is built around links first; you can slice and dice link performance without any context. If that's your main use case, Rebrandly is faster.
Clkly's advantage is context. Link clicks mean nothing without knowing who clicked them and what they do next.
# Outreach capabilities: email sequences and automation compared
Here's where the platforms diverge most.
Rebrandly has no native email capabilities. None. You can use Rebrandly links inside emails you send via Gmail or Outlook, but Rebrandly itself doesn't manage sequences, tracking, or warmup. That's fine if you're just a link-shortener company. It's a real problem if you're trying to run a cold outreach campaign.
Clkly includes email sequences with branching logic, delays, and conditionals. You can send sequences via Gmail/Outlook OAuth or Resend, and every open, click, bounce, and unsubscribe is tracked in real time. Want to use a sequence that branches based on whether someone opened your first email? Clkly does that. Need to warm up a new mailbox gradually before blasting your full list? Clkly has inbox warmup built in.
This is a knockout difference. If you're comparing Clkly to Rebrandly as a link tracking software for outreach, Rebrandly forces you to use a third-party email tool—Instantly, Lemlist, Apollo, Salesloft, or Outreach. That means multiple logins, multiple dashboards, and more data scattered across platforms.
Clkly keeps it all in one place.
# CRM and contact management: Clkly's integrated advantage
Rebrandly has no CRM at all. It's a link shortener. If you want to track contacts, manage deals, or build pipelines, you need HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, or another dedicated CRM.
Clkly includes a built-in CRM with contacts, companies, deals, custom fields, and lifecycle stages. You can import contacts from CSV, deduplicate them, and see an audit trail of every change. The pipeline view lets you drag deals between stages. And—this is critical—every link click and email send is automatically tied back to the contact record.
Imagine you're running a cold outreach campaign. You send a tracked link in an email sequence to 500 prospects. Three weeks later, you want to know: who opened my email? Who clicked the link? Who's still engaged? In Rebrandly, you'd have to cross-reference link analytics with your email platform's records—manually. In Clkly, you open the contact record and see the full timeline: email sent, email opened, link clicked, link clicked again.
That context is everything in sales.
That said, Rebrandly integrates (one-way, one-time imports only) with HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Salesforce. So if you're already locked into one of those platforms, you can import your Rebrandly links. Clkly also supports importers for HubSpot and Pipedrive, plus CSV and Bitly. But neither platform offers bidirectional, live syncs—data flows one direction, once.
# Pricing and value: what you actually get for your money
Rebrandly's pricing starts free (limited to 500 links/month, one custom domain) and scales to £35–£70/month for more domains and higher link volume. For teams that need nothing but link shortening, it's efficient pricing. But you're paying only for links.
Clkly's pricing is transparent and flexible. The Free plan includes link tracking, basic workflows, and limited email sends. The Pro plan (£99–£299/month depending on send volume) covers unlimited links, email sequences with warmup, full CRM, and workflows. You're not paying extra for outreach or CRM; it's all bundled.
On paper, Clkly is more expensive. In practice, you're replacing three tools:
- Bitly or Rebrandly (link tracking)
- Instantly, Lemlist, or Apollo (email sequences)
- A lightweight CRM
If you were paying £35/month for Rebrandly + £50/month for Instantly + £25/month for a basic CRM, Clkly at £150/month is actually cheaper and better integrated.
Rebrandly's strength is being cheap if you genuinely only need links. Clkly's strength is being affordable if you need a stack.
# How to switch: migrating from Rebrandly to Clkly
If you've been using Rebrandly, the migration is straightforward.
Clkly has a Bitly/Rebrandly importer—import your existing shortened links with one click. Your links, domains, and click history come across. You don't have to rebuild from scratch.
Next, set up your custom domain in Clkly (same process as Rebrandly). Then migrate your contact data. If you have a CSV of prospects, import it; if you're using HubSpot or Pipedrive, use the importer. Clkly will deduplicate automatically.
Finally, build your first email sequence. Add a delay between steps, set up conditional branches if you want, and send via OAuth or Resend. Schedule sends, insert your signature, and watch opens and clicks land in the contact timeline.
The whole process takes a couple of hours. Rebrandly has no onboarding friction for links, but that's because it does only one thing. Clkly has more surface to learn, but once you see your first contact record with its full timeline—emails, opens, clicks, link visits—you'll understand why the extra setup is worth it.
# Pick Rebrandly if…
- You only need a link shortener with no email or CRM aspirations.
- You're budget-conscious and willing to pay for three separate tools.
- Your team is tiny (1–2 people) and link tracking alone is enough.
- You want the absolute simplest UI and fastest onboarding.
# Pick Clkly if…
- You're running cold outreach and need sequences, tracking, and CRM in one dashboard.
- You want every link click and email open tied to a contact record.
- You need workflows that trigger off email opens, link clicks, or list joins.
- You're comparing tools and realise you'd rather pay one platform than juggle three.