Flared vs Dub
Flared vs Dub: the same open core, half the price.
Flared leads Dub on 10 of 13 points. Flared Plus costs $15 a month for 100,000 recorded clicks and 10 people, where Dub Pro costs $30 a month for 50,000 and 3. Both have open-source code, and Flared self-hosts with one button on Cloudflare鈥檚 free plan.
The scorecard
Flared leads on 10 of 13 points.
| Flared | Dub | Edge | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid plan, month to month | $15 a month (Plus) | $30 a month (Pro) | Flared |
| Paid plan, per year | $100 a year | 10% off the monthly price | Flared |
| Recorded clicks a month | 5,000 on Free, 100,000 on Plus | 1,000 on Free, 50,000 on Pro | Flared |
| People in a workspace | 2 on Free, 10 on Plus | 1 on Free, 3 on Pro | Flared |
| App links for iPhone and Android | Every plan, a destination for each | Device targeting from Pro, $30 a month | Flared |
| Terminal and CI | The flared CLI 1.0.0, released October 2026, with JSON output | dub-cli 0.0.13, last published October 2024 | Flared |
| Self-hosting | One Deploy on Cloudflare button; runs on Workers Free | Vercel, MySQL, Upstash Redis and QStash, Tinybird, S3 storage, and a GitHub app | Flared |
| License of the code you run | All of the core under AGPLv3 | AGPLv3, with commercial-license directories | Flared |
| Pay once | Plus Lifetime, $200 | No lifetime plan listed | Flared |
| Change a destination | Any time, on every plan | Any time, on every plan | Both |
| Click history | 30 days on Free, 365 days on Plus | 30 days on Free, 1 year on Pro | Both |
| AI assistants (MCP) | Every plan, OAuth sign-in | OAuth sign-in, or an API key | Both |
| Custom domains | 5 on Free, 10 on Plus | 3 on Free, 10 on Pro | Flared |
Dub facts as of October 15, 2026, from Dub鈥檚 pricing page, its help center, its self-hosting guide, its MCP documentation, its license, and the npm registry. Flared facts from Flared pricing.
Self-hosting without the stack
Both products publish their code under AGPLv3, so you can read it and run it yourself. What it takes to run differs.
- Flared runs in your own Cloudflare account: one Worker, D1 databases, and a Queue. Deploy on Cloudflare sets them up, and Workers Free is enough for about 3,300 recorded clicks a day.
- Dub鈥檚 self-hosting guide needs accounts with Vercel, a MySQL host such as PlanetScale, Upstash for Redis and QStash, Tinybird for analytics, and S3 or R2 for storage. It does not support Docker.
- Dub keeps some directories under a commercial license that needs an Enterprise subscription in production. Flared鈥檚 whole core is AGPLv3.
- Flared releases are tagged. An upgrade workflow in your repository opens a pull request for each new release, so you decide when to update.
- YOURLS, Shlink, Kutt, and Sink are in the full table of six open-source URL shorteners.
Built for developers and their assistants
- The flared CLI creates, edits, and measures links, prints JSON
with
--json, and returns stable exit codes for scripts. See short links in GitHub Actions. - Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor connect to the MCP server with an OAuth sign-in, on every plan, including Free.
- Every plan includes the UTM builder, iPhone and Android app links, QR codes, and a custom domain.
- Analytics keep no raw IP addresses and use no visitor cookies, unless the workspace forwards clicks to an analytics tool. Export your links and analytics as JSON at any time.
Dub鈥檚 extras are for marketing teams
Dub calls itself a link attribution platform. Conversion tracking, A/B tests, webhooks, and partner programs start on Business at $90 a month, and geo targeting, link expiry, and passwords start on Pro. Flared Free includes 5 custom domains, where Dub Free includes 3. Flared Plus has passwords and start and end times and link cards on links, and automations that change a link on a date you choose. If you need branded links, analytics, campaigns, app links, and webhooks, Flared Plus covers them for $100 a year.
Move your links from Dub
Links on your own subdomain keep their addresses when you move the domain to Flared. Links
on Dub鈥檚 own short domains stay with Dub; Import can copy them to flared.link with a new address.
- Export your links from Dub as a CSV file.
- Add the subdomain in Flared, such as
go.example.com, and point its CNAME record tocustomers.flared.link. Flared issues the HTTPS certificate. - When the domain shows as active, choose Import on the Links page and upload the file. Links on your domain keep their slugs.
Scripts can send the same links to POST /v1/links/import in the REST API.