Free URL Redirector

I share here some resources for Link Redirector solutions and make a short demo/ setup tutorial for Boomerang.

Problem description

You want persistent understandable links but be able to change the target they point to, at some times.

Example a "Meet me link" you insert to your visit card or email signature. But you might change the meeting service in the future from Teams to Zoom or change the infrastructure behind (other Microsoft Teams Tenant) or want to use a new fresh link but don't change your meet me link.

There are services that offer similar solutions.

I share here some of them or resources related to URL shorteners and redirects.

My preferred solution is based on GitHub pages

URL Shortener services

https://zapier.com/blog/best-url-shorteners

Short.io https://app.short.io/

TinyCC https://tiny.cc/ Free no link editing but custom link. Paid: https://tinycc.com/

https://tinyurl.com/ Link Editing requires to pay

Rebrandly

Free Solution Based on GitHub Pages

This approach is totally free and you have full control. You only need a GitHub account and to create a GitHub repository.

The only drawback is that the link does not look so short, but something like: https://$githubusername$.github.io/l/$shortlink$

There are different solutions that make use of GitHub Pages feature.

My preferred one is "Boomerang" see below.

Boomerang

https://github.com/anitejb/boomerang

Demo Setup

Create Repo from Template

When copying the repo based on the template:

set the visibility to Public (else you can not activate the Pages feature)
copy ALL branches (so you can use the gh-pages branch later for the Pages configuration)