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Why we built getowl: the link infrastructure gap nobody talks about

Short links were a solved problem in 2010. Smart routing, real-time analytics, and team collaboration on links? That's what growth teams actually need in 2026.

getowl Team·Founders
April 30, 2026

In 2010, short links were a solved problem. Bitly, TinyURL, and others made it easy to shorten a URL. Done.

But in 2026, growth teams need much more from their link infrastructure:

  • Smart routing — One link that sends visitors to different destinations based on country, device, or A/B test variant
  • Real-time analytics — Not just clicks, but click-to-conversion attribution
  • Team collaboration — Workspaces, folders, audit logs, and role-based access
  • Custom domains — Branded links that build trust and reinforce your brand
  • API access — Programmatic link creation for campaigns at scale

No existing tool did all of this well. Bitly focused on enterprise sales and link-in-bio. Short.io was powerful but complex. Dub.co was elegant but early.

What We Built

getowl is the link platform we wished existed:

  1. Links with intelligence — Geo routing, device routing, weighted A/B splits, and time-based rules
  2. Analytics that matter — PostHog and GA4 integration, not just click counts
  3. Team-first design — Workspaces, folders, audit logs, and member roles
  4. Developer-friendly — Full API, custom domains with auto-SSL, and webhook support
  5. Fair pricing — $19/mo for Pro with unlimited links, not $300/mo for basic features

Our Principles

  • Links are infrastructure, not a feature — They deserve the same engineering attention as your database or CDN
  • Analytics should attribute, not just count — Clicks without conversion data are vanity metrics
  • Pricing should scale with value, not usage — Unlimited links on every paid plan
  • Self-serve by default — Custom domains in 2 minutes, not 2 weeks of support tickets
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