Click tracking software compared

In this article, we compare click tracking software.

What is click tracking software?

Click tracking software is software used to track clicks on link, normally used by affiliate marketers to determine the performance of their marketing.

Types of Click Tracking Software

Generally, there are three types of click tracking that need to be done:

On site click tracking

On-site click tracking software would include things like:

• Google Analytics - useful for getting a general picture of traffic. Using GA’s events, you can build up a picture of the actions users take on your website.
• HotJar, CrazyEgg, ClickTale - these user experience monitoring tools produce heatmaps and session recordings of users actual activities on your website. This can be particularly informative, particularly when trying to understand where users look and where they bounce. These tools are vital for the on-boarding steps of SaaS products as well.
• Mailchimp and similar mail providers automatically include tracking links in emails you send, recording clicks, and can optionally integrate with Google Analytics.

Offsite, social media & affiliate click tracking

Marketing usually involves doing significant outreach, whether that’s through paid advertising, social media, content marketing or offline.

In this case, on-site solutions like Google Analytics and HotJar are of no use, as you can’t install the tracking tags on your pages.

In this case, you need a solution for tracking clicks wherever you share your links.

Free & freemium click tracking Options:

• Linkly - well, you’re here, aren’t you? :) Linkly helps you get more from the links you share. Linkly is a professional link shortener. Linkly has a free plan to track up to 2000 clicks per month, and you can attach your own domain, so all your links branded.

• Bitly - The original free link shortener, Bitly takes a link and gives you a tracking link in its place. Bitly is very limited, however:

  1. You can’t use your own domain, which significantly reduces the CTR of links.
  2. You can’t change the destination of a link after you’ve shared it, which is particularly important for time-sensitive promotions.
  3. Bitly Enterprise is a big step up in terms of cost (thousands of dollars).

• Rebrandly - A very legitimate alternative to Bitly, with a different focus to Linkly. Rebrandly focuses on allowing you to use your own domain for tracking links, and has a number of features Linkly has, including the ability to add retargeting tags, custom social media previews, and the ability to add your own domain. Rebrandly is lacking in its redirect functionality however, and almost every advanced feature requires a paid plan.

Paid click tracking options:

There are other options that focus on a particular niche:

• ClickMeter - ClickMeter has been around more than a decade. ClickMeter is focused on paid advertising and redirection. It offers all the usual features, although it is very dated and no longer being updated. The team have moved over to Rebrandly (mentioned above).
• ClickMagick - A ‘low-fi’ and simple click tracker, it allows you create tracking links. Its main focus is affiliate marketers. It has a couple of cool features (MagickPop & MagickBars, call-to-action features that make it look a bit like Sniply). It lacks the depth of other packages.
• Voluum - A costly solution targeted at people promoting affiliate offers via paid advertising.
• Improvely - A tool designed to track the results of paid advertising, and reduce click fraud.
• Linktrackr - Pretty good tool used for multi-purpose tracking and redirecting. This is perhaps the best Linkly alternative out there.

Click tracking software comparison table

We keep a list of the main click trackers here.