Flared vs Short.io
Flared vs Short.io: two people on the Free plan.
Flared leads Short.io on 7 of 17 points. Flared Plus costs $15 a month for 10 people and 10 custom domains; Short.io allows 1 user up to Pro and adds people from Team at $48 a month. Flared Free holds 1,000 active links for 2 people, and your AI assistant signs in with OAuth and edits links.
The scorecard
Flared leads on 7 of 17 points.
| Flared | Short.io | Edge | |
|---|---|---|---|
| People in a workspace | 2 on Free, 10 on Plus at $15 a month | 1 on Free, Hobby, and Pro; more from Team at $48 a month | Flared |
| Links on Free | 1,000 active at a time | 1,000 for the life of the account, API links included | Flared |
| AI assistants (MCP) | Every plan, OAuth sign-in; creates, edits, and disables links | A pasted API key; cannot edit or delete links | Flared |
| Open source and self-hosting | AGPLv3 core, runs in your Cloudflare account | Not available; SDKs and API clients only | Flared |
| Pay once | Plus Lifetime, $200 | No lifetime plan listed | Flared |
| Export | Links and clicks as JSON at any time, on every plan | Links as CSV after you ask support; raw clicks on Enterprise | Flared |
| Refunds | Seven-day first-payment guarantee, Lifetime included | Case by case | Flared |
| Custom domains on Free | 5 | 5 | Both |
| Change a destination | Any time, on every plan | Any time, on every plan | Both |
| UTM builder | Every plan | Every plan; templates from Pro | Both |
| App links for iPhone and Android | Every plan, a destination for each | Every plan; app deep links from Team | Both |
| Terminal and CI | The flared CLI 1.0.0, released October 2026, with JSON output | @short.io/cli 1.0.0, released February 2026 | Both |
| Past the click allowance | Links keep redirecting | Links keep redirecting; new clicks are hidden until you upgrade | Both |
| Tracked clicks on Free | 5,000 a month | 50,000 a month | Short.io |
| Click history | 30 days on Free, 365 days on Plus | 26 months of totals and 1 year of single clicks, on every plan | Short.io |
| Lowest paid plan | $15 a month for 10,000 links and 10 people | $5 a month for 2,500 links and 1 user (Hobby) | Short.io |
| API rate | 60 requests a minute per token | 50 requests a second for links, 60 a minute for statistics | Short.io |
Short.io facts from Short.io鈥檚 pricing page, its MCP guide, export guide, and statistics storage policy, its GitHub organisation, the @short.io/cli package, and its terms, as of October 16, 2026. Flared facts from Flared pricing.
People and AI assistants
Short.io Free, Hobby, and Pro each allow one user, so a second person needs Team at $48 a month. Flared Free includes 2 people, and Plus includes 10 for $15 a month. Members create links and see analytics; the owner manages domains and billing.
Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor connect to the Flared MCP server with an OAuth sign-in, so you never paste an API key into a config file. The assistant creates links, changes destinations, and reads clicks. Short.io鈥檚 MCP server takes a pasted API key and cannot edit or delete a link.
Export, open source, and Lifetime
- Export every link and its clicks as one JSON file at any time, from Settings, the CLI, or the REST API. Short.io exports links as CSV after you ask its support team, and raw clicks on Enterprise.
- The core is open source, and you can run it in your own Cloudflare account on Workers Free. Short.io publishes SDKs and API clients, not its service.
- Pay once with Plus Lifetime: $200 for the first 50 seats, then $350. Short.io lists no lifetime plan.
Short.io鈥檚 larger allowances
Short.io Free records 50,000 clicks a month and keeps 26 months of click totals, where Flared Free records 5,000 and keeps 30 days. Its Hobby plan costs $5 a month for 2,500 links and one user, and Pro at $18 a month has unlimited links and tracked clicks for one user. Its API allows 50 requests a second. Flared Plus covers 100,000 clicks a month, 365 days of history, and 10 people for $100 a year.
Move your links from Short.io
Ask Short.io support to turn on the CSV export, and export your links. Add the subdomain in
Flared with a CNAME record to customers.flared.link, then choose Import on the
Links page and upload the file. Links on your own subdomain keep their slugs once the domain
is active. Links on Short.io鈥檚 shared domain can be copied to flared.link with a
new address.