Short-Links on vanityURLs

Accents, IDN, and short-link slugs

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Accents belong in people names, page copy, titles, and destination websites. They do not belong in vanityURLs short-link slugs.

That sounds stricter than the modern web really is. Browsers can show internationalized domain names. URLs can carry UTF-8 characters. Search engines can crawl paths with accents. People share links in many languages every day.

The problem is not whether the internet can represent accents. It can. The problem is whether a short-link slug remains easy to type, review, compare, log, and defend when the same visible word can have more than one technical representation.

Do not delete a link to change its meaning

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A short link usually outlives the moment that created it.

Someone pastes it into a runbook. Someone prints it on a slide. Someone bookmarks it. Six months later, a destination changes and the tempting fix is to delete the row.

Do not start there. In vanityURLs, lifecycle states make the operational decision explicit in custom/v8s-links.txt: redirect, expire, disable, hold for maintenance, or disappear as a true not-found.

Redirect States

Use permanent when the destination is stable. vanityURLs returns HTTP 301, the permanent redirect status defined by RFC 9110.

vanityURLs compared with hosted and self-hosted shorteners

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

vanityURLs is for operators who want a branded short-link domain, operated from Git on Cloudflare Workers, without a shared hosted account, without a click database by default, and with configuration reviewed as code. It does not try to replace every hosted dashboard. It tries to make a small auditable redirector easy to own.

Comparison Table

Dimension	vanityURLs	Bitly	Dub	Short.io	YOURLS	Shlink
Custom domain	Operator-owned Cloudflare domain	Hosted plan feature	Hosted plan feature	Hosted plan feature	Self-hosted domain	Self-hosted domain
Analytics model	Disabled by default; optional server-side Umami or Fathom	Hosted analytics	Hosted analytics	Hosted analytics	Built-in self-hosted stats	Built-in visits
Account required	No visitor account; operator uses Cloudflare and GitHub	Hosted account	Hosted account	Hosted account	Admin account on the install	Admin/API access on the install
Data residence	Depends on operator choices for Cloudflare, Git, and analytics	Controlled by provider	Controlled by provider	Controlled by provider	Your hosting/database choices	Your hosting/database choices
ToS surface	Instance terms generated from config	Provider terms plus your link usage	Provider terms plus your link usage	Provider terms plus your link usage	Your terms	Your terms
Deployment model	Cloudflare Worker plus Static Assets from Git	Hosted software service	Hosted software service, open-source core	Hosted software service	PHP app and database	PHP service and database
Cost at scale	Cloudflare usage plus optional analytics provider	Per plan	Per plan	Per plan	Hosting and maintenance	Hosting and maintenance
Code visibility	MIT open source code and instance config in Git	Closed hosted service	Open-source product with hosted service	Closed hosted service	Open source	Open source
Link scheduling	Configured in Git and evaluated by the Worker	Depends on plan/product	Depends on product	Depends on product	Depends on plugins/custom code	Depends on built-in features
Bulk operations	Text file and `lnk` CLI workflow	Dashboard/API/import	Dashboard/API/import	Dashboard/API/import	Admin/API/database workflows	CLI/API workflows

Bitly

Bitly wins when a team wants a mature hosted product, a dashboard-centered workflow, brand/campaign features, and a vendor responsible for product operations. It is the safer choice when non-technical users need to create and inspect links without touching Git or Cloudflare.

Make the short domain look owned

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A short-link domain is tiny, but people still read it as a signal.

It appears in emails, slides, social profiles, QR codes, documentation, incident updates, and chat messages. If the domain looks intentional, the link feels safer before anyone clicks it.

This is the useful part of branding vanityURLs: make the redirector obviously yours without turning the first deployment into a design project.

When scheduled links are useful

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Most short links should be boring: one slug, one destination, one clear owner. Scheduled links are for the few cases where the slug should stay stable but the destination needs to change during a predictable time window.

The starter instance includes a deliberately silly /contact example. During the configured 9-to-5 window, it can point to Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5”; outside that window, it falls back to Rick Astley and “Never Gonna Give You Up.” The point is not the music taste, heroic as it may be. The point is that one memorable short link can have a normal destination and a time-based exception.