I built a SaaS in 3 days! An API-First Link Shortener

[jessica50]

Another one? I know!

You have so many out there but when I look for a URL shortener that I can use to shorten 5000+ links using an API, I couldn't find any that were reasonably priced.

As a software engineer myself, I couldn't understand why Bitly, Short.io and others charge $100+ per month and still don't give you their full suite of features.

URL shorteners is like the "Hello World" of SaaS and surely it can be that expensive to host.

Within 3 days, I was able to build a URL shortener with all the features that the others have and host it on Azure for less than $100 per month.

Features

• Analytics
• Unlimited Links
• Unlimited Clicks
• UTM Parameters
• Custom Social Cards
• Geo Targeting
• Link Expiration
• Link Cloaking
• REST API
• Webhooks
• Unlimited Tags

Check it out here and let me know what you think: https://l.linkbird.io/_/ee8sp5

 

[jim_]

@jessica50 How did you manage to be so fast? Did you use any starter kit or did it from the scratch?

 

[jessica50]

@jim_ No starter kit. Just kept things simple. Node.js for backend, React/NextJS with Bootstrap for frontend.

 

[mimi_oftwo]

@jessica50 What do you mean by a starter kit? I am not a coder but still interested in it. Thanks

 

[samuelc]

@mimi_oftwo Just means instead of building the software from scratch some people use a starter kit (pre built template) then build on top of it. Helps reduce the time it takes to develop some thing

 

[caitlin1990]

@samuelc Nice site! What’s your hosting platform and care to share approx. hosting costs?

 

[clewis]

@jessica50 This seems cool! I’d be a user but because it’s so new, it’d be nice to wait for you to gain some traction first. It would suck if you shut down 5 months from now!

Curious as to how you plan to monetize?

 

[jessica50]

@clewis Fair point, I have other products that I monetized and planning to keep this one free. I'll probably add some additional features like custom domains which could be paid.

 

[hisagishuuhei]

@jessica50 I strongly encourage you to quickly add paid features; it would reassure people about your product in general, even for the free tier. People thoughts would go from "If it's free, then I'm the product (or they will ask me money later on, or they will die)" to "if there's a paid level, then people who pay for premium features are running the service".

 

[masterbuilder1769]

@jessica50 I like this, but if I had to do this for thousands of URLs, I'd self host my DNS

 

[godschild71960]

@jessica50 It would be great if when you clicked create on the landing page it just created a short link for example.com if the user doesn’t input anything.

 

[jessica50]

@godschild71960 Good point, I'll add it over the weekend.

 

[shae]

@jessica50 Happy cake day

 

[childofgod6]

@jessica50 Even if it’s the hello world of SaaS, you did it better than others !

55$ a month for hosting seems a lot for that kind of project (at the beginning) ? Why not go with a cheaper PaaS ? Is it only for this project or do you host multiple tools on those 55$ ?

 

[jessica50]

@childofgod6 I host one other project under the $55

 

[fleurdelys]

@jessica50 Really? Does Ikea really use it?

 

[jonis]

@jessica50 That's it. I have to build a link lengthener now

 

[jessica50]

@jonis Hahahaha, absolutely, why not

 

[wisemoon]

@jessica50 Your URLs seem to miss an opportunity to be even shorter. For example this is the output: https://l.linkbird.io/_/7935u4

Why not remove the naked underscore and do : https://l.linkbird.io/7935u4

 

[stephert]

@wisemoon and probably remove the subdomain to turn it to

https://linkbird.io/7935u4