2026-05-19 · 5 min read

We launched. Here's what's actually inside.

Three years of yak-shaving condensed into one shipped product. A short tour of what we built and what we deliberately didn't.

Crayon-shadowed launch banner

BlinkLink is live. If you came here from Hacker News or a friend's group chat, welcome. The dashboard is one click away. If you came here from a search engine somehow, we promise this is more interesting than the average launch announcement, because we're going to tell you what we left out.

What launched

  • Short links with custom slugs, expiry dates, password gates, and per-country / per-device routing.
  • QR codes in five preset styles plus a full editor (dot shape, gradient, logo embed, error correction).
  • Real analytics: clicks by day/country/browser/device, separate counters for QR scans, click history modal per link.
  • Webhooks, retargeting pixels, UTM templates, and CSV / ZIP exports for power users.
  • Custom domains and a team workspace (up to 6 seats) on the Pro plan.
  • A public, real status page (the one in the footer, not a static screenshot).
  • A Dodo-Payments-backed Pro plan for the handful of features that cost us money to keep available.

What we deliberately cut

We considered, and then cut: a Chrome extension (the bookmarklet covers 90% of the same job for 5% of the code) and a mobile app (the responsive web is already faster than anything we'd ship in a wrapper).

We also said no to advertising integrations, affiliate-link rewriting, and any kind of "premium content unlock." If you've ever wondered why a free link shortener suddenly started rewriting your URLs to point at sketchy redirect chains. That's why. We won't.

What's next

Coming in the future: open-source releases of the redirect function and the design system, trackable non-URL QR codes, bulk CSV import, two-factor auth, and the rest of whatever you ask for loudly enough at hello@bnkl.me.

Thanks for being here on day one. Go shorten something.