Link Shortener (own-domain ready)
100% PrivateURL & Link ToolsGenerate redirect rules for your own domain, so you can run short links on hosting you control.
Runs entirely in your browser. Your input is not uploaded to Ovatly or anywhere else.
This is not a hosted link shortener, and it does not create a working short link by itself. Ovatly does not run a shortening service and does not store your links. What this tool generates is redirect configuration (for Apache .htaccess, Nginx, or Cloudflare and Netlify _redirects) that you place on your own domain and hosting. Once that file is live on your site, your short paths redirect to their destinations.
- 1Optionally type your domain to preview how the short links will look (the preview is the only thing the domain is used for).
- 2Add one row per short link: the short path (like /guide), the full destination, and 301 for permanent or 302 for temporary.
- 3Choose the configuration format that matches your hosting.
- 4Copy or download the generated block, place it on your site as the file header instructs, and test a short path in your browser.
Row: short path /guide, destination https://example.com/long-guide, status 301. The generated _redirects file contains the rule line: /guide https://example.com/long-guide 301 Save that file in the root of a Cloudflare Pages or Netlify site, and visiting your domain's /guide path sends visitors to the long guide.
- Nothing here is hosted by Ovatly: no database, no account, no click tracking, and no short link works until the generated file is live on your own hosting.
- Use 301 for links you intend to keep forever (search engines transfer ranking signals) and 302 for seasonal or experimental links you will change or remove.
- The short path lives on your domain, so the destination can be any full URL, including another site entirely, or a path on the same site.
- If your host already has a _redirects or .htaccess file, add the new lines to it rather than replacing the file.
A hosted shortener needs servers, a database, abuse handling and a promise to keep every link alive for years. Rather than pretend, this tool gives you the same result on infrastructure you already own and control.
About this tool
This tool is honest about what it is: not a shortening service, but a redirect rule generator for your own domain. Services like bit.ly host the redirect for you; this tool instead writes the configuration file (Cloudflare or Netlify _redirects, Apache .htaccess, or Nginx rewrite rules) that makes short paths on a domain you own jump to their long destinations. You keep full control, and nothing depends on a third-party service staying alive.
Related tools
Part of Ovatly's free tools in URL & Link Tools.