When comparing bitly vs slink.be, the Slant community recommends bitly for most people. In the question“What are the best URL shorteners?” bitly is ranked 4th while slink.be is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose bitly is:
Bitly is one of the oldest and largest link shorteners, meaning you can trust that it won't go away anytime soon.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Reliable
Bitly is one of the oldest and largest link shorteners, meaning you can trust that it won't go away anytime soon.
Pro Customizable domains
You can set up bitly to use a custom domain, so you don't have to develop or maintain your own.
Pro Widely trusted
When people see a bit.ly link, they don't usually think, "ooh sketchy link".
Pro Flexible and easy to use API
The bitly API provides jsonp callbacks, XML, CORS, and data metrics. The API is simple, and easy to use with good documentation. It is clearly thought out and is up to date with support for new API technologies.
Pro Shortest and multiple short domains
Bitly provides bit.ly bitly.com and j.mp
If character count matters, you cannot get a domain shorter than j.mp
Pro Protection from malicious sites
Anti spam measure and tools mean people that follow your bitly links can be confident that they won't lead to a dangerous site. Bitly links cannot be changed, meaning a trusted link will stay safe.
Pro View where link goes
It's nice to see where the link goes before clicking on it so you can avoid sketchy links.
Pro Nice design
The design is pretty nice and the uptime is very good.
Pro Deletable links
By adding a master pin to your link, you can delete it later on.
Pro Basic analytics
You can see how many total clicks a link has gotten, how many total visitors it's had, and when the link was viewed last.
Pro Password protected short URLs
You can just put in the link you want to shorten and a pin so others can access it with the pin.
Pro Change where your link redirects
It's nice that you're now able to change where your short link redirects to.
Cons
Con Limited clicks for free users
10k Clicks a month, if you want to add an branded domain then you only have 500 clicks a month for that. You want more? $950 per month for their business plan.
Con 500$ on enterprise
Con Cannot edit the destination URL as a free user
This is one of the main purposes of using a URL shortener.
Con There is no way to delete the shortened link
Con Errors often
It will often claim that it couldn't shorten a url.
Con Terrible user experience
Con No custom URLs
If you want to use your own URL, you can't as they don't offer that option yet.
Con Basic analytics
The analytics are good, but only let you know how many total pageviews a link has gotten and how many unique visitors it's had.
