A shortener that injects an ad page between the reader and the destination defeats the entire purpose. You share a link to make it easier to reach a page, and instead the reader is hit with a screenful of ads first.
This is the hidden tax of "free" in link shorteners. Enough services plaster your redirects with ads to fund the free tier — and the reader pays for it with their attention.
Who redirects clean
Redirects straight to the destination (no ad interstitial):
- TinyURL — unlimited, no login, clean redirect.
- is.gd — unlimited, no account, clean.
- ShortURL.at — unlimited, no account, clean.
- Bitly — clean, but 5 free links a month.
- Cuttly / Short.io / Rebrandly — clean on free, but capped and account-required.
- KooLink — free, unlimited, and the redirect is clean — no ad page.
Shows an ad on free redirects (dealbreaker for pro use):
- Surl.li — free-tier redirects include an intermediate ad page. You can remove it, but only on a paid plan from about $9/month.
Why the ad interstitial matters
It is not just annoying. It is a trust problem and a conversion problem.
- Trust. A reader who hits an ad screen before your content may close the tab, assuming the link was spam.
- Conversion. Every extra hop is a place for the reader to bounce. A clean redirect gets them to your page in one step.
- Brand. Your link, their ad, your reader's annoyance. It reflects on you.
What KooLink does differently
KooLink has no paid plan to push you toward, so it has no incentive to monetize your redirect with ads.
- Free forever, unlimited — no cap that makes you pay.
- No ad page — the redirect goes straight to the destination.
- No signup to shorten — paste, get a link.
- Bot-filtered views — honest numbers when you want to know if a link is working.
- Agent-ready — a hosted MCP server.
https://mcp.kool.ink
The bottom line
If you want a genuinely free shortener that redirects clean, most of the big names do that — as long as you can live with a link cap or an account. If you want no cap, no account, no ads, and a tool your AI agent can call, KooLink is the fit.