Quick answer: A typical small-team stack is Bitly for short links on your own domain, Linktree for the bio page and Plausible for cookie-free website analytics. At list prices billed monthly (checked October 2026) that is about $35 + $15 + $9 = $59 a month. useClick Starter covers the same three jobs in one account for $12 a month, and the clicks, bio taps and site visits land in one report. Keep separate tools if you rely on a feature only one of them has, or if you need their higher tiers.
Key takeaways
- The three jobs are different: short links count clicks, bio pages collect taps, website analytics counts what visitors do after they arrive.
- Three tools means three reports that never connect: you see the click in one and the visit in another.
- Prices change and plans differ in limits. Compare the plan you would actually need, billed the way you would pay.
- The best reason to consolidate is not the price, it is seeing the whole path from link to signup in one place.
The three jobs
A URL shortener turns a long URL into a short one, ideally on your own domain (go.acme.com/spring), and counts every click, including clicks from apps and email clients that no analytics script sees. Bitly is the best-known.
A link-in-bio page is the one link on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube that leads to all your other links. Linktree made the category.
Website analytics counts visitors, sources and pages on your own site. Plausible is a popular cookie-free option that does not need a consent banner in most setups.
Most teams add these one at a time, as the need appears. Two years later they pay for three tools, maintain three logins and still cannot answer "which bio link brought the signup?".
What the stack costs
Monthly list prices, for the cheapest plan that does the job you would use it for. These are taken from the public pricing pages in October 2026; check them before you decide, because they change.
| Job | Tool and plan | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Short links on your own domain | Bitly Growth | $35 |
| Bio page without the vendor's logo, with analytics | Linktree Pro | $15 |
| Cookie-free website analytics, 10k page views | Plausible Starter | $9 |
| The stack | $59 | |
| All three jobs | useClick Starter | $12 |
Annual billing lowers most of these. The comparison stays roughly the same.
What useClick Starter includes, from its plan: 300 short links and 25,000 tracked clicks a month, custom domains, campaigns and UTM tags, two bio pages without the useClick badge, website analytics on five sites with 100,000 page views a month, cookie-free tracking, CSV export and 12 months of data. Higher plans add A/B testing, goals and funnels, more sites and team members.
Feature by feature
| Bitly + Linktree + Plausible | useClick | |
|---|---|---|
| Short links on your own domain | Bitly (paid) | Every plan |
| QR codes | Bitly | Every plan |
| UTM tags and campaigns | Bitly | Starter and above |
| Bio page | Linktree | Every plan (1 on Free, 2 on Starter) |
| Bio page analytics | Linktree | Every plan: views, visitors, button taps |
| Website analytics without cookies | Plausible | Starter and above (14-day trial on Free) |
| Goals and funnels | Plausible | Growth and above |
| Click connected to the visit and the conversion | Not across tools | Yes, through the short link |
| AI assistants (MCP) | Varies | Every plan |
| Logins and invoices | Three | One |
The row that matters most is click connected to the visit and the conversion. When a visitor clicks a Bitly link and lands on a site tracked by Plausible, Plausible sees a visit with a referrer, and Bitly sees a click. Nothing ties the two together. In useClick the short link passes a short-lived token to the landing page, so the visit and any goal it completes are attributed to the link, without cookies. Click to conversion attribution explains how.
What you give up
A fair comparison has a second column.
- Depth in one category. Each specialist goes deeper in its own lane. Linktree has a large template and integration catalogue and a big creator community. Bitly has years of enterprise features and integrations. Plausible has a focused, mature analytics product and an open-source self-hosted edition.
- Brand familiarity. Your audience may recognise
linktr.eeorbit.ly. A short link on your own domain is usually more trusted than either, but it is a change. - Migration work. Moving links, rebuilding a bio page and swapping a tracking script takes an afternoon or two. Old Bitly links keep working while the Bitly account exists. How to move from Bitly to useClick and the WordPress version cover the steps.
Who should consolidate
Creators and small brands who use a bio page every day and want to know which post and which button sends buyers. One account, one report, and the bio page links straight to your Stripe or Ko-fi checkout without a share of the sale.
Marketers and founders who run campaigns across email, social and ads and need to see clicks, visits and signups on one timeline.
Agencies who manage all three for many clients and want one login per client instead of three.
Who should keep separate tools
- You depend on a feature that exists in only one of the specialists, such as a particular integration.
- You are on enterprise tiers with contracts, SSO requirements or volumes above useClick's Business plan.
- You only need one of the three jobs. If you only need website analytics, a dedicated analytics tool is a fine choice; useClick vs Plausible compares the two directly.
How to test it without risk
- Create a free useClick account and add your domain for short links.
- Build a bio page and put it next to your current one for a week, linked from one platform.
- Add the website tracker to your site on the 14-day trial and compare its numbers with your current analytics.
- Decide with your own data, not a pricing table.
Frequently asked questions
Is there one tool for short links, link in bio and website analytics?
Yes. useClick combines a URL shortener, link-in-bio pages and cookie-free website analytics in one account, with the clicks, bio taps and visits in one report.
How much does Bitly, Linktree and Plausible cost together?
At monthly list prices checked in October 2026, about $59 a month: Bitly Growth $35, Linktree Pro $15 and Plausible Starter $9. Annual plans cost less per month. Check the current pricing pages before deciding.
Is useClick a Linktree alternative?
Yes. useClick includes link-in-bio pages with templates, creator blocks and analytics on every plan, and links them to your short links and website analytics. The best Linktree alternatives compares the options.
Can I use my own domain for short links on the cheapest plan?
On useClick, custom domains are available on every plan, including Free. On Bitly, custom domains start on a paid plan.
Do I still need Google Analytics?
Not for most small sites. Cookie-free analytics covers visitors, sources, pages and conversions without a consent banner in most cases. Teams that need advertising audiences or deep ecommerce reports often keep Google Analytics as well.
What happens to my old links if I switch?
Bitly links keep redirecting while your Bitly account exists. Links on your own domain can move to useClick with the same back-halves.
The decision in one paragraph
If you pay for a shortener, a bio page and website analytics separately, add up the bills and then ask the question none of them can answer alone: which link brought the visitor who signed up? One account that does all three costs less and answers that question. Keep a specialist only where you depend on something it does that nothing else does.
