The Best Pretty Links Alternative: Switch to Linkjet for Free

A quick heads-up so you know where we stand: this article comes from us, the team behind Linkjet – in other words, the maker of the alternative. Even so, we are going to try to stay fair and not talk Pretty Links down, but honestly lay out which plugin is the better choice in which situation. If you are looking for a Pretty Links alternative, you will find the arguments you need here – including the cases where you should simply stick with Pretty Links.

Why are so many people looking for a Pretty Links alternative?

Pretty Links is widely regarded as one of the most popular WordPress plugins for creating, cloaking, and tracking affiliate and campaign links. It is common among affiliate marketers – and for good reason. Even so, many users eventually reach a point where they start looking for something else. The most common reasons:

• Pro paywall for certain features: There is usually a free version and a paid Pro tier. Some features – typically things like automatic keyword linking or advanced statistics – sit behind that paywall. If all you need is core short-link functionality, that quickly feels like paying for more than you use.
• A desire for data minimalism: Especially if you operate in the EU, you want to know where click data ends up and whether external services get called in the process. A GDPR-friendly, local solution with no outside calls has become more important to a lot of site owners.
• Automation and AI: If you manage a lot of links or want to automate your workflows, you need a clean, documented interface. Without API access, most of that work stays manual.

If any of this sounds familiar, it is worth taking a look at a lean, free alternative.

What Pretty Links does well

Let's be fair and start with what speaks for Pretty Links – the plugin is not popular for no reason. It reliably handles the core job: creating clean, memorable short links on your own domain, hiding destination URLs behind a tidy redirect (cloaking), and tracking clicks. There is a large community around the plugin, plenty of tutorials, and years of real-world experience behind it. For classic affiliate marketing, it is a well-proven tool, and the Pro version typically adds convenience features for power users that go beyond the basic package. If your setup is running fine and you are happy with what it offers, there is no reason to switch just on principle.

Linkjet as an alternative: what's different

Linkjet is a lean redirection and affiliate plugin that solves the same core problem – but with a clear stance: free, privacy-minded, and open. The most important difference up front: Linkjet is 100% free and released under GPLv2. There is no paywall and no Pro version hiding features behind it. Whatever is in the plugin is in it for everyone.

What Linkjet actually brings to the table:

• All the important redirect types: 301, 302, 307, 308, and 410 – choose exactly whether a redirect is permanent, temporary, or marks a page as "removed".
• Clean short links and cloaking: tidy links in the /go/… format on your own domain, including cloaking with rel="nofollow" or sponsored.
• GDPR-friendly statistics: Click statistics are IP-anonymized, include a bot filter, and work without any external GeoIP service. There are no external calls – your data stays on your own server.
• Local QR codes: a QR code for every short link, generated locally, with no third-party service involved.
• 404 monitor: shows you which dead URLs are being requested – so you can spot candidates for new redirects.
• Full REST API with OpenAPI: ideal for automation and AI-assisted workflows. You can create and maintain links through a script or an assistant.

Where Pretty Links is strong

So you can make an honest decision, here are the points where Pretty Links plays to its strengths:

• A very large, active community with plenty of guides and shared experience.
• Long-established and proven across countless setups – an established standard in the affiliate space.
• The Pro version typically offers power users convenience features like automatic linking that go beyond pure short-link management.
• If your existing setup is running smoothly, you have zero migration effort by staying put.

Where Linkjet scores

And here is where, in our view, Linkjet has the edge:

• Everything free: no paywall, no Pro license – statistics and every redirect type are included at no cost.
• Privacy by design: IP-anonymized statistics, a bot filter, no external GeoIP, no external calls.
• An open interface: a full REST API with an OpenAPI description for automation and AI.
• Built-in 404 monitor: track down dead links without a separate plugin.
• Lean and focused: its own database tables, no bloated backend.

Switching in one click: the import wizard

The biggest thing holding people back from switching plugins is usually the fear of losing existing links and the click numbers they have painstakingly collected. That is exactly why Linkjet has an import wizard for existing Pretty Links – including click statistics. You do not have to rebuild your links by hand, and you do not start from zero either – you bring your history with you.

The process is deliberately simple: install and activate Linkjet, open the import wizard, pull in your existing Pretty Links along with their statistics – done. Your short links keep working, and your past click numbers stay intact. That lets you switch at your own pace without losing your historical reporting.

Which solution fits whom?

An honest conclusion belongs here too, even though we are not a neutral party. You should stay on Pretty Links if your setup is running smoothly, you actively rely on Pro features like automatic keyword linking, and you have no real interest in switching. Never change a running system applies here too.

Switching to Linkjet is worthwhile if you do not want to pay just for basic functionality, you value GDPR compliance and local data processing, you want to automate your links through an API or AI, or you simply prefer a lean, focused plugin. Since the import wizard brings over existing links along with their statistics, the switch is low-risk – and free either way.

If you are still weighing up which redirect plugin best fits your site, take a look at everything Linkjet covers on its own product page – redirect types, cloaking, statistics, and the API are all explained there in detail. And if you want to get the basics of redirects right before committing to any plugin, that same page is the right place to start.

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