Software Alternatives & Startups

TinyURL VS Unsplash

Compare TinyURL VS Unsplash and see what are their differences

TinyURL

The first notable URL shortener, online since 2002. Branded short links on your own domain, with click analytics that count human and bot traffic separately, QR codes, editable destinations, bulk creation and a REST API.

Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Freemium $11 / Monthly (Pro - 125 links/mo)
Unsplash

Unsplash is a website with high-quality free HD images. It has a catalog of more than three hundred thousand striking images that are neatly organized with tags. Read more about Unsplash.

Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Open source
Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Which is more popular?

Based on our record, Unsplash seems to be a lot more popular than TinyURL. While we know about 502 links to Unsplash, we've tracked only 6 mentions of TinyURL.

social mentions
6 vs 502
URL Shortener popularity
100% vs 0%

Base details

Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.

TinyURL
Unsplash
Website tinyurl.com unsplash.com
Pricing
Freemium $11 / Monthly (Pro - 125 links/mo) Official pricing
Open source
Company Startup from the United States · 20 - 49 employees · 2002 Startup from Canada
Listed in

About TinyURL and Unsplash

In their own words, as submitted to SaaSHub.

TinyURL
Unsplash

TinyURL is a URL shortening and link management platform, and was the first notable URL shortener when it launched in January 2002. It now serves over 4.4 million registered users and has created billions of links. Free accounts cover 30 links a month, with links that never expire. Paid plans...

Read more about TinyURL

No description of Unsplash yet.

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

TinyURL 8 features
Unsplash 5 features
  • Ease of Use
    TinyURL offers a very simple interface that allows users to create shortened URLs quickly without needing to register or log in.
  • Custom Aliases
    Users have the option to create custom aliases for their shortened links, making them more memorable and meaningful.
  • Link Analytics
    Every link reports clicks over time, referrer, geography, device type, operating system and browser, with human and bot clicks counted separately and two years of history retained.
  • Links That Never Expire
    Links created on the free plan do not expire, so shortened URLs stay valid in print, packaging and archived content.
  • Branded Domains
    Shorten links on your own custom domain or subdomain rather than a shared one. One branded domain on the free plan, three on paid plans.
  • Editable Destinations
    A link destination can be changed after the link has been shared, so a URL already printed or posted can be repointed without being reissued.
  • QR Code Generation
    Generate QR codes for shortened links, for packaging, print and other offline placements.
  • REST API and Bulk Creation
    Documented REST API (OpenAPI 3.0, bearer-token auth) for link creation, updates and analytics retrieval, plus bulk batch endpoints for high-volume workflows.
  • High-Quality Images
    Unsplash offers a wide variety of high-resolution images that are often produced by professional photographers.
  • Free to Use
    All images on Unsplash can be used for free, including for commercial purposes, without the need for attribution.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    The platform is designed with a simple and intuitive interface, making it easy to search for and download images.
  • Curated Collections
    Unsplash offers curated collections of images, helping users to find related images quickly and easily.
  • Large Community
    A large community of photographers contributes to Unsplash, ensuring a steady stream of new and diverse content.

Possible disadvantages

  • Limited Exclusivity
    Since images are free and widely available, the same photos can be used by multiple users, reducing the uniqueness of visual content.
  • Licensing Restrictions
    While images are free to use, there are some limitations, such as not being able to use images in a way that competes with Unsplash.
  • Not Comprehensive
    While the collection is extensive, it may not cover highly specific or niche topics as comprehensively as some paid stock photo sites.
  • Attribution Encouraged
    Although not required, Unsplash encourages users to credit photographers, which might be an additional task for some users.
  • Limited Vectors and Illustrations
    The platform focuses predominantly on photographs, offering fewer options for vectors and illustrations compared to other stock image sites.

Analysis

An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.

TinyURL
Unsplash

Overall verdict

  • TinyURL is considered a good and reliable service for those who need to create short URLs for personal or professional purposes. It is especially valuable for its simplicity and no-cost offering, appealing to users who need straightforward URL shortening without additional features.

Why this product is good

  • TinyURL is a popular URL shortening service that allows users to convert long, cumbersome URLs into shorter, more manageable links. This is particularly useful for sharing links on social media, in emails, or in printed materials where space is limited. TinyURL is easy to use, doesn't require an account, and offers free shortening services. The ability to create custom aliases also adds a layer of personalization and memorability to the links.

Recommended for

    TinyURL is recommended for individuals, small businesses, and organizations that need a quick and simple way to shorten URLs for social media posts, email campaigns, print materials, or casual link sharing without requiring advanced tracking or analytics features.

Overall verdict

  • Unsplash is highly recommended for individuals or businesses looking for free, high-quality images without worrying about licensing issues. It's especially beneficial for those who need visual content for websites, blogs, social media, and marketing materials.

Why this product is good

  • Unsplash is considered good due to its vast collection of high-quality, royalty-free images contributed by talented photographers from around the world. The platform is user-friendly, making it easy for users to search for and download images for commercial and personal use at no cost. Additionally, Unsplash has a vibrant community that encourages collaboration and creativity.

Recommended for

  • Web designers
  • Bloggers
  • Content creators
  • Marketing professionals
  • Social media managers
  • Graphic designers
  • Students and educators

Videos

Walkthroughs and reviews on video.

TinyURL 0 videos + Add
Unsplash 3 videos + Add

No TinyURL videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Thoughts On Unsplash

More videos

  • - My issue with UNSPLASH
  • - Unsplash 5.0 Review | License Free Stock Images | Pearl Lemon Reviews

Category popularity

How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.

Score bands 0–20 21–40 41–50 51–60 61–100
TinyURL
Unsplash
100% 100%
0% 0%
0% 0%
100% 100%
100% 100%
0% 0%
0% 0%
100% 100%

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing TinyURL and Unsplash.

What makes your product unique?

TinyURL's answer

TinyURL has been running continuously since January 2002, which makes it the first notable URL shortening service and one of the oldest still operating. For a link shortener that longevity is the product, not trivia: a short link is only useful for as long as it still resolves, and links created here don't expire.

Three things set it apart day to day:

  • Human and bot clicks are reported separately. Most shorteners report raw click totals that quietly include crawlers and link-preview bots, so reported traffic reads higher than the real audience. Separating them means the numbers can be trusted for attribution.
  • Destinations stay editable after a link is published. A link already printed on packaging or posted to social can be repointed without reissuing it.
  • A permanent free tier, not a trial - 30 links a month, one branded domain, links that never expire.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

TinyURL's answer

Three practical reasons, depending on what you need:

  • You want attribution you can trust. Analytics cover clicks over time, referrer, geography, device, OS, browser and language, retained for two years, with bot traffic separated out.
  • You want your own brand on the link. Bring your own domain or subdomain on any plan, with up to three branded domains on paid tiers.
  • You want links that outlive the campaign. Twenty-four years of continuous operation, and a free tier that doesn't expire, matter when a link is printed on something you can't reprint.

Pricing starts free and goes to $9/month billed annually ($11 month-to-month) for 125 links a month with unlimited tracked clicks. Bulk plans handle 50,000 links a month for agencies and high-volume senders, and there's a REST API for automating the whole lifecycle.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

TinyURL's answer

  • Marketing teams running campaigns across several channels who need per-link attribution rather than a single lumped traffic figure
  • Social media managers and creators working inside character limits, who want a branded link rather than a generic one
  • Agencies managing links for multiple clients, each on its own branded domain
  • Developers automating link creation and analytics through the REST API
  • Enterprises needing SLA-backed uptime and compliance support
  • Educational Institutions
  • The healthcare industry

It also has a long tail of individual users who simply need a link shortened, which the free tier covers without an account upgrade.

What's the story behind your product?

TinyURL's answer

Kevin Gilbertson, a web developer, launched TinyURL in January 2002 so he could link directly to newsgroup postings, which at the time had long and unwieldy addresses. It was the first notable URL shortening service, and it arrived years before shortening became a category.

Twitter used TinyURL as its default shortener until May 2009, which put it in front of a mass audience during the period when character limits made short links essential.

Since then it's grown from a single-purpose utility into a link management platform: branded domains, click analytics with two years of retained history, editable destinations, QR codes, bulk creation and a REST API. It now serves over 4.4 million registered users and has created billions of links.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

TinyURL's answer

TinyURL is a cloud-hosted web application, accessible from any browser with no install. Its public interface is a REST API (v2.4.2) published as an OpenAPI 3.0 specification and authenticated with bearer tokens, covering link creation, editing, destination changes, analytics retrieval and bulk batch processing.

Who are some of the biggest customers of your product?

TinyURL's answer

Twitter used TinyURL as its default URL shortener until May 2009.

User comments

Share your experience with using TinyURL and Unsplash. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

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Reviews and articles

External articles and on-site reviews we used to compare the two products.

TinyURL no reviews yet
Unsplash no reviews yet

View more

  • 12 Best Sites Like Freepik For Downloading Photos
    www.devdude.com · Dec 2023

    Unsplash is one of the largest platforms out there for stock images. We say so because over 16 billion photo impressions per month are generated on the platform. Stock photos available on the website are from a wide...

  • The best Freepik alternatives 2023
    photutorial.com · Nov 2023

    Yes, Unsplash provides a significantly larger library of over 2 million free stock photos compared to Freepik’s free tier which is limited. Unsplash images can also be used completely free for both personal and...

  • Freepik Alternatives: 10 Sites Like Freepik for Free
    mockey.ai · Oct 2023

    There are more than 3 million high-quality pictures, all thanks to the kind photographers in the Unsplash community. They carefully choose each picture and only pick the finest ones, ensuring you can always discover...

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Social recommendations and mentions

Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.

TinyURL 6 mentions
Unsplash 502 mentions
  • 🔐 Design a TinyURL System (Like Bit.ly) — From Scratch
    Import string Class TinyURL: def __init__(self): self.url_to_code = {} self.code_to_url = {} self.counter = 1 self.alphabet = string.ascii_letters + string.digits def encode_base62(self, num): ... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • URL shorteners and why would you need one?
    Choose a shortener: Pick a link shortener that fits your needs---many offer options like custom branding, QR code creation, and analytics. Ziplink, Short.io, and Bitly are all capable of that. If you are looking for something really... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Building a Scalable URL Shortener with Node.js (Part 1/2)
    I'm sure you're familiar with URL shortener tools like TinyURL and Bitly, as they are widely used online. It simply takes a long URL and creates a shorter, unique alias that redirects to the original link. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago

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Alternatives to TinyURL and Unsplash

When comparing TinyURL and Unsplash, you can also consider the following products.