About PocoLink
We started PocoLink because we were frustrated. Here's the honest story of what we built, why, and how it actually works.
The Problem We Faced
We were building a small social media campaign and wanted to track which links were getting clicks. Simple enough, right? Then we saw the pricing pages.
Most URL shorteners lock basic analytics — things like seeing which country a click came from, or knowing if a user was on mobile or desktop — behind a $29/month plan. For a small team or solo creator, that's a hard sell just to know if your Instagram post actually drove any traffic.
We also noticed something else: promoting an app meant juggling separate links for the App Store and Google Play, and sending everyone else to a website. Tools that could route visitors by device or country from a single link existed — but the good ones all cost money.
So we built PocoLink to solve both problems at once — and kept it free.
How Smart Routing Works
When someone clicks a PocoLink, our server looks up the short code, records the click, and decides where to send the visitor before issuing a standard HTTPS redirect. It reads the request's user-agent to work out the device type, operating system, and browser, and takes an approximate country and city from location headers added by our hosting provider — we never read or store the visitor's IP address.
If you've added routing rules to a link, they are checked at that moment. For example, one link can send iOS visitors to your App Store page, Android visitors to Google Play, and desktop visitors to your website. If no rule matches, the visitor goes to the destination you set.
Rule types you can use on any link:
One thing PocoLink does not do is force a link to open in a native app. That is decided by the destination and the app the link is tapped in — for example, links opened inside an in-app browser generally stay there. Redirect speed depends on the visitor's network and the destination.
What We Collect and Why
When a click happens, we log: approximate geographic region (country and city, derived from IP — the raw IP itself is not stored), the device type and OS, the browser, the referrer domain if one was passed, and the timestamp. That's it.
We do not store the full IP address. We do not build user profiles on link clickers. We do not sell any data. We surface this aggregate information to the link creator so they can understand how their content is performing.
How we stay free
We display non-intrusive ads on informational pages (like this one and our blog) through Google AdSense once our account is approved. The core app itself — link creation, your dashboard, all analytics, and every redirect — is and will remain ad-free. This is our sustainable model, not a "free tier before the upsell."
What We're Working On
Recent additions include advanced routing (by device, country, date range, or A/B split), link expiry dates, password-protected links, and link-in-bio pages. Together with click analytics, QR codes, and the developer API, that covers the core of what we set out to build.
Next on the list is team workspaces. Right now, PocoLink is single-user per account. We're building shared link libraries so small teams can manage links collaboratively without sharing login credentials.
We publish our progress openly. If you want to follow along or suggest a feature, the best place is our contact form.
Try It Yourself
Sign in with your Google account and create your first short link in under a minute — it's free, with no paid tier.
Create a Free Link →Quick Facts
2024
Server-side, no interstitial page
Region, device, browser, timestamp — no raw IPs
Free. No paid tiers.