the comparison
TinyURL is the classic no-fuss shortener: paste a long URL, get a short one, no account needed, and it never expires. It’s great at that one job. But it’s built to shorten a link, not to earn from it. It never applies your affiliate tag or builds a store-choice page at any price, its free links can’t be edited once you make them, and the free plan gives you no analytics at all. shownote* is built to monetize: store choice, your affiliate tag on every click, and click analytics free from your very first link, with the ability to repoint any link so your whole back catalog follows one edit. If a link’s job is to earn commission, shortening it isn’t enough.
TinyURL has been around since 2002 and does the simplest thing better than almost anyone: you can shorten a URL in seconds, with a custom alias, without even making an account, and the link never expires. It also generates QR codes on the free plan. If all you need is a tidy, permanent short link with zero setup, TinyURL is hard to beat.
| shownote* | TinyURL | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Creators who earn from links | Anyone who needs a quick, free short link |
| Applies your affiliate tag | ✓Yes, on every click, every plan | No, at any tier |
| Store-choice page | ✓Yes | No |
| Edit a link’s destination after posting | ✓Yes, any link, unlimited, free | No on Free (frozen for good); paid plans only |
| Click analytics | ✓Yes, free on every link | None on Free; paid plans only |
| Free tier | Free forever, up to 10 active links, all earning | Free, 30 links/mo, no analytics, no editing |
| International Amazon routing with your tag | ✓Yes, on Prime Time | No, at any tier |
| In-app deep linking (opens the Amazon app) | ✓Yes, iOS & Android, with your tag, free | No |
| Insights that tell you what to fix | ✓Yes, each leak with a one-click fix | No |
| Storefront of all your links | Yes, searchable & shoppable, free | No |
| Paid plan price | Flat $19/mo, unlimited links | Pro $13/mo, 250 links/mo, then $1 per 10 more |
| QR codes | Not today | Yes |
Pricing and features compared as of June 2026 — we keep this current; verify a competitor’s latest on their own site.
shownote
shownote* exists to make a creator’s links earn. Paste a product URL and you get a branded choice page with your affiliate tag on every click, built around how creators actually earn: give buyers a choice of every store you earn from, Amazon plus the direct or specialty retailers your audience prefers, with your tag on each, and repoint the link once when a product moves. The link’s whole purpose is commission, so everything is pointed at that.
TinyURL
TinyURL makes a long URL short and permanent, and it does it with almost no friction: no account, a custom alias, a QR code, done. That’s a real and genuinely useful job, and TinyURL has done it well for over twenty years. It just isn’t monetization: a TinyURL link makes your URL tidy, not money.
Bottom line: TinyURL makes a link short; shownote* makes it earn. If your link’s job is affiliate commission, that difference is the whole story.
shownote
Every shownote* link carries your affiliate tag and can open a branded choice page listing each store you earn from, so the buyer picks where to shop and you earn wherever they land. On a phone, an Amazon link opens the Amazon app with your tag intact, and Prime Time routes overseas buyers to their own regional Amazon. You keep 100% of the commission; shownote* never takes a cut.
TinyURL
TinyURL shortens and redirects a link to a single destination you set. It doesn’t apply an affiliate tag, build a multi-store choice page, or route an Amazon click to a buyer’s home marketplace with your tag, at any tier, because monetization isn’t what it’s for. You’d point a TinyURL link at one raw retailer URL and earn only what that single link earns.
Bottom line: No TinyURL plan, free or paid, puts your affiliate tag on a click or offers buyers a store choice. That’s shownote*’s core job, included on the free tier.
shownote
Every shownote* link resolves live at click time behind a stable public URL, and you can repoint it as often as you need, on any plan, the free tier included. When a Kickstarter ships, a product moves, or you join a new affiliate program, you edit the link once and every video that ever used it follows, with no scrubbing of old descriptions. Prime Time extends that to your whole back catalog.
TinyURL
A TinyURL link made on the free plan can’t be edited once it’s created: it points where you first set it, for good. To change where a link redirects you have to be on a paid plan. For a creator, that’s the exact opposite of what a back catalog needs, because the day a product moves, every free TinyURL in an old description is a dead end you can only fix by editing the video itself.
Bottom line: Repointing a link is the heart of “fix it once.” shownote* gives it to every link for free; a free TinyURL is frozen the moment you make it.
shownote
Every shownote* link tracks clicks by store, country, device, and platform, free, so you can see what your audience actually does. Insights goes a step further: over a rolling 30 days it flags clicks slipping to a store or region with no affiliate tag and links each gap to its one-click fix. It reports real clicks, buyers on their way to a store, never a dollar figure it can’t prove.
TinyURL
TinyURL gives free users no analytics at all: you can’t even see how many people clicked. Click tracking and statistics live on the Pro plan. Even there, it’s campaign-style reporting that shows what happened, not the specific affiliate gap a creator should close next.
Bottom line: shownote* shows you your clicks free and tells you what to fix; a free TinyURL shows you nothing, and its paid analytics still leave the “so what should I change” up to you.
shownote
On Air is free forever, no card, up to 10 active links, each with your affiliate tag, store choice, analytics, and your own branded you.shwn.to subdomain that doubles as a searchable, shoppable storefront. Prime Time is a flat $19/mo (or $190/yr) for unlimited links, and going viral never raises your bill.
TinyURL
TinyURL’s Free plan covers 30 short links a month with a custom alias, but it withholds the parts a creator needs: no analytics, and no editing a link after you post it. Its paid plans start with Pro at $13/mo billed annually ($156/yr), which adds analytics and editable links and includes 250 links a month, then $1 for each additional 10. Clicks on Pro are unlimited, so a video that takes off doesn’t cost more there; click metering only shows up on the $69/mo Bulk plan (50,000 clicks, then $0.60 per extra 1,000). None of the tiers add an affiliate tag or a store-choice page.
Bottom line: shownote*’s free tier already does the job that matters, your tag, store choice, analytics, editable links, and Prime Time is a flat $19/mo for unlimited links. TinyURL’s Pro is a couple dollars less, but it meters how many links you make and, at any price, never puts an affiliate tag on a click.
There’s nothing to export: a TinyURL points at one URL, a shownote* link points at a choice page that earns. To switch, paste your product URLs and shownote* scrapes each into a branded choice page in under a minute, with your affiliate tag applied; on Prime Time, Migration Concierge rebuilds your back catalog with you. Keep TinyURL for plain, throwaway short links if you like, and reach for shownote* on the links that are supposed to earn.
Start free, no card. Make a link that works in every store you earn from — and keeps working forever.
Make your first linkAlso comparing? shownote vs Linktree