Dub

PostHog tells you what people did once they arrived. Dub tells you how they got there — and, if you want, pays whoever sent them.

Steven Tey built it as a side project out of a specific frustration: Bitly and friends are closed, dated, and gate anything interesting behind an enterprise quote. The alternative he shipped is AGPLv3, API-first, and now runs 100M+ clicks a month across 2M+ links — which is also the reason it belongs in this category rather than a list of marketing SaaS. A short link is infrastructure the moment your product emails, invites, referral codes, or QR codes depend on it.

Why a developer would care link

Every link is an API object. Creating one is a function call, not a form:

  npm i -g dub-cli@latest
dub login
dub shorten https://example.com/very/long/path launch
dub links --search launch
  

  import { Dub } from "dub";
const dub = new Dub();                       // reads DUB_API_KEY

const link = await dub.links.create({ url: "https://example.com/signup" });
const clicks = await dub.analytics.retrieve({ linkId: link.id, groupBy: "timeseries" });
  

Server-side SDKs cover TypeScript, Go, Python, Ruby, and PHP, with client-side @dub/analytics plus iOS and React Native SDKs. So “generate a tracked link per user” becomes a line in your signup handler instead of a spreadsheet someone maintains.

Attribution goes all the way to revenue. Dub tracks click → lead → sale, not just clicks. Wire the client SDK and a server-side event and you can answer “which campaign produced paying customers”, which is the question link shorteners normally can’t touch.

Deep links are handled. One link that opens your iOS or Android app if installed and the web page if not — including deferred deep linking through install — without you maintaining universal-link plumbing.

It doubles as your affiliate program. Dub Partners issues partner links, tracks commissions, and runs payouts. For a solo product that’s a growth channel you’d otherwise buy a second SaaS for.

There’s an MCP server. Remote, OAuth’d, nothing to install:

  https://mcp.dub.sh/mcp/dub-partners
  

Add it as a custom connector in Claude, or point Claude Code at it, and “create tracked links for these five campaigns and show me last week’s conversions” is one sentence. A dub-links server exists separately for link management.

What it costs link

There is a free plan, no credit card: 1,000 tracked events a month, up to 3 custom domains, unlimited destination edits, and the full analytics breakdown (geo, device, browser, referrer). The API works on it at 60 requests/minute — enough to build against.

Business is $90/mo and Advanced $300/mo; partner payout ceilings run $2.5K → $15K → unlimited per month. A one-off 14-day trial unlocks paid features with its own caps (100 links/mo, 5,000 analytics events, 50 partners, $500/mo payouts).

The jump to notice is Dub Partners starting at Business ($90/mo). Short links, analytics, and conversion tracking are reachable from free; the affiliate program is the part you pay real money for.

Self-hosting link

AGPLv3, and self-hosting is documented rather than merely permitted — but read the prerequisites before you commit. It wants a Tinybird account for analytics, Upstash for Redis, PlanetScale for MySQL, Vercel to run Next.js, and Cloudflare or AWS for storage. That’s five accounts to avoid one bill, and the AGPL obligates source access if you let others interact with your instance.

Self-host when data residency or per-link volume makes the hosted price absurd. Otherwise the hosted version is the lazy answer, and the open source is mainly your insurance against the Bitly problem repeating.

Where it fits link

Next link

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