About Zurl
Zurl is building simple tools for working with links on the web. The main one is a URL shortener; alongside it are a QR code generator, a URL expander, a URL checker and a UTM builder.
What it is for
Long URLs are awkward to share, impossible to print usefully and hard to measure. A short link solves all three, and the tooling around it — QR codes, click analytics, campaign tagging — solves the problems that come next.
The aim is that the common case takes three seconds and requires nothing: paste a URL, get a link, copy it. Everything else stays out of the way until you look for it.
Principles
The free tier is genuinely free. Links do not expire, clicks are not capped, and there are no advertising interstitials between a visitor and your destination. Paid tiers, when they exist, will add capabilities rather than take things away.
Collect as little as possible. A URL shortener sits between a person and the page they wanted, which makes detailed tracking easy. Zurl deliberately does not do it: no visitor IP addresses are stored, no raw user-agent strings, no cookies on people who click your links. The privacy page sets out exactly what is recorded.
Be honest about limitations. Zurl does not scan destinations for malware or phishing, and does not claim to. Where a safeguard exists it is described accurately; where one does not, that is stated plainly.
Redirects should be fast and correct. A redirect is one indexed database lookup, and the click is recorded after the visitor has already been sent on their way. Temporary redirects are used rather than permanent ones, so disabling, expiring or repointing a link actually takes effect.
What Zurl does not do
- It does not scan destination pages for malware or phishing. Abuse is handled through reports and moderation, not automated scanning.
- It does not sell data. There is nothing about visitors worth selling.
- It does not track people across links or across sites.
- It does not support custom domains or team accounts yet.
Getting in touch
For questions, bug reports or feature requests, see the contact page. To report a link being misused, use the abuse report form.