Blazingly fast self-hosted URL shortener

Short links, self-hosted.

Chhoto (ছোট, pronunciation) URL is a lightweight URL shortener written in Rust. It is built for simple self-hosted deployment and provides the core tools needed to create and manage short links on your own infrastructure.

It's written in async Rust, using Actix Web as the backend. The frontend is written in html, css, and vanilla javascript. Links are stored in an SQLite database. It's distributed in a tiny container image (<4.5 MB for the scratch image and <8.5 MB for the alpine image, both compressed), and uses <10 MB of RAM under regular load.

It’s free and open source, released under the MIT license, maintained by SinTan1729.

No tracking. No bullshit. Blazingly fast.

Latest version: Latest release version Latest release version
Live Demo: demo.chhoto.link Password: chhoto-url-demo-pass

Features

A quick overview

Custom short links

Create short URLs with generated slugs or custom aliases.

Link expiry

Set short links to expire automatically after a chosen duration.

Hit counting

Track how many times a short link has been used.

Edit links

Update existing links and manage their metadata.

Notes and filtering

Attach notes to links and filter them in the web UI.

QR codes and API support

Generate QR codes and integrate with the service programmatically.

Screenshots

Snappy WebUI

Chhoto URL desktop interface
Chhoto URL mobile interface

Quick Start

Getting started

1. Deploy the service

Run Chhoto URL with Docker, Podman, or another OCI-compatible container workflow.

2. Configure the application

Set the required environment variables for the site URL, credentials, and storage configuration.

3. Start creating short links

Use the web interface to create, edit, and manage short URLs on your own instance.

About me

Hi, I'm Sayantan Santra (সায়ন্তন সাঁতরা)

I’m a Mathematics researcher and do some programming as a hobby. I mostly code in Rust, Go, Python, and Bash. For my research, I work in Algebraic and Computational Number Theory. You can find more information about me on my website.