One of the most important features in URL shorteners for enterprises is link tracking. A URL tracker lets you track how well your short links are performing in terms of impressions, the number of clicks, click-through rate (CTR), and more. Many also include demographic analytics so you can determine which groups your links are best appealing to. These features are vital for enterprises that use short links to market products or services and need to know how well their marketing campaigns are performing.
As such, it is integral for such businesses to use a URL creator that includes a high-end URL tracker. Let’s go over the URL shorteners that provide the best link tracking features. We will also specify which features they include and why those features are important for businesses that use link shortening and tracking.
Best URL Trackers
The Bitly shortener’s analytics package provides almost everything you would want for a URL tracker. The app collects over 20 data points with every click, from geographic data down to the local city level to referral channels to device type. You can track links individually or group them into campaigns with Bitly’s campaign builder. You can also track organic shares, which are links that other Bitly shortener users create that redirect to your content.
Unfortunately, Bitly link tracking only lasts 30 days on the free and basic plans, and up to 2 years on custom plans. Even on custom plans, detailed performance metrics are only tracked through 90 days. Still, within this timeframe, Bitly will track every click; unlike most URL shorteners, it does not have a limit on the number of clicks tracked. Overall, Bitly is an excellent service for tracking links in the short-term along a variety of metrics, but it is not designed for long-term URL tracking.
ClickMeter’s URL tracker is focused on tracking link clicks and banner clicks. It gathers data from over 15 different metrics when tracking, from geographic data (country, region, and city) to language. You can also set your own custom parameters for tracking. You can track conversions as well to determine which links or banners produce leads, sales, or downloads. ClickMeter combines all of this data into weekly reports that detail your top cities, sources, keywords, and other parameters.
ClickMeter stores data between 1-3 years depending on the plan you purchase. This is generally better than Bitly’s data storage plan; however, ClickMeter URL tracking is limited to a certain number of clicks each month. After you’ve reached this limit, you will have to pay extra. In all, ClickMeter is a competitive URL tracker alternative to Bitly with similar features but different pros and cons.
Droplr’s new Premium Analytics feature lets you track an unlimited number of links under a few different parameters. The feature lets you view the number of links created and the number of views per link and in total. You can also choose to view the total number of links on your entire team (if you are an admin) or just one member’s. You can set the time parameters to yesterday, the last 7 days, last 30 days, last month, this year, and all time.
Droplr’s URL tracker does not yet have demographic or geographic tracking. Still, Droplr’s Premium Analytics provide an inexpensive way to track links and determine which team members’ links are performing the best, as well as how your links have performed over time. Furthermore, Droplr can track links associated with files, screenshots, and videos. Droplr is also the only URL shortener to track every link forever.
Like Droplr, Tinycc provides an inexpensive alternative to Bitly and ClickMeter. Unlike Droplr, Tinycc doesn’t track an unlimited number of clicks, but it does track more than most shorteners. Pricing plans range from tracking 1,000 clicks/links/day to a custom number of clicks/links/day for enterprise plans. Tinycc also includes geolocation reporting up to the city level and an integration with Google Analytics. Their free URL shortener, tiny.cc, also provides basic free link tracking.
Tinycc tracks the basic stats (like number of clicks) for the lifetime of a URL, but detailed analytics expire after 90 days. Altogether, Tinycc is a decent alternative URL tracker to the likes of Bitly tracking and ClickMeter, with cheaper plans but fewer features.
Which URL tracker is right for me?
The answer to the above question will depend on what you’re looking for in a URL tracker. Bitly, ClickMeter, Droplr, and Tinycc all provide excellent services with different features. Bitly and ClickMeter are best for demographic tracking. Tinycc provides a cheap alternative for geographic tracking. Droplr is best for tracking a large number of links over a long period of time.
If you want to check out more link shorteners and URL trackers, you can look over our lists for the 5 Best URL Shorteners or the Best Free URL Shorteners. To learn more about URL shorteners and what they can do, check out our article What is a URL Shortener.