Simply Shorten

Product Overview

Simply Shorten is a simple URL shortener designed with simplicity and lightness in mind. Unlike many other URL shorteners, Simply Shorten does not come with unnecessary features or a steep learning curve. Instead, it focuses on providing a straightforward solution for shortening URLs to randomly generated links. With options to specify custom shortened URLs, opening the link in your browser instantly redirects you to the correct long URL, eliminating the need for redirecting pages.

Main Features

• Simple URL Shortening: Shortens URLs of any length to a randomly generated link.
  • Optional: Specify the shortened URL instead of the generated one.
• Instant Redirects: Opening the shortened URL in your browser instantly redirects you to the correct long URL, eliminating redirecting pages.
• Lightweight and Snappy: The Docker image is only 6MB, and RAM usage stays under 5MB under normal use.
• Hit Counting: Counts the number of hits for each short link in a privacy-respecting way (only recording hit counts).
• Mobile-Friendly UI: Designed with mobile users in mind.
• Custom Website URL: Allows setting the URL of your website to conveniently generate short links locally.
• SQLite Database: Links are stored in an SQLite database.
• Docker Container: Available as a Docker container for easy deployment.
• Rust and Actix Backend, HTML, Vanilla JS, Pure CSS Frontend: The backend is written in Rust using Actix, while the frontend uses plain HTML, vanilla JavaScript, and Pure CSS for styling.
• Basic Authentication: Uses a provided password for basic authentication (not encrypted in transport). We recommend using Caddy to encrypt the connection by SSL.

What's Not Included

• No unnecessary features or bloat. Simply Shorten focuses on providing a simple solution for URL shortening.