Mehul Gohil

Ankur Modi

<p><strong>CleanLinks</strong> is your all-in-one solution for creating branded, customizable short links directly within WordPress. Whether you’re managing affiliate campaigns, simplifying external URLs, or just looking for a professional way to share links, CleanLinks makes it easy.</p>
<p>Designed to be lightweight yet powerful, CleanLinks lets you create 301 and 302 redirects, track clicks, categorize links, and export all your links to CSV – with a single click.</p>
<h4>Key Features</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Branded Short Links</strong> – Cloak long URLs under your own domain.</li>
<li><strong>CSV Export Tool</strong> – Export all your links in CSV format with one click for backup or reporting.</li>
<li><strong>Click Tracking</strong> – Optional built-in analytics to track link clicks.</li>
<li><strong>Organize Your Links</strong> – Group links with tags for easy management.</li>
<li><strong>SEO-Friendly</strong> – Compatible with SEO and caching plugins.</li>
<li><strong>Developer Friendly</strong> – Built using WordPress standards with hooks/filters.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Minimum Requirements</h4>
<ul>
<li>WordPress 5.5 or higher</li>
<li>PHP 8.0 or higher</li>
<li>MySQL 5.5 or higher</li>
</ul>
<h4>Automatic Installation</h4>
<ol>
<li>Go to your WordPress dashboard.</li>
<li>Navigate to Plugins <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> Add New.</li>
<li>Search for “CleanLinks”.</li>
<li>Click “Install Now” and activate.</li>
</ol>
<h4>Manual Installation</h4>
<ol>
<li>Download the CleanLinks plugin.</li>
<li>Upload it to your <code>/wp-content/plugins/</code> directory via FTP or File Manager.</li>
<li>Activate CleanLinks from the “Plugins” screen in your WordPress dashboard.</li>
<li>Navigate to <strong>CleanLinks</strong> menu to start managing your branded links.</li>
</ol>


CleanLinks

Create branded short links, manage redirects, cloak affiliate URLs, and export links via CSV – all from your WordPress dashboard.

Royal Plugins

<p><strong>The most powerful free affiliate link management and URL shortener plugin for WordPress.</strong></p>
<p>Royal Links is a complete link cloaking, click tracking, and link management solution that gives you every tool you need to shorten, cloak, track, and optimize your affiliate links and marketing URLs — without paying a cent. No “lite” version, no feature gates, no upsells. Everything competitors charge $200/yr for is included free.</p>
<p>Whether you manage affiliate links, run marketing campaigns, track click performance, or just want clean branded short URLs on your own domain, Royal Links has you covered.</p>
<h4>Link Management</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Branded Short URLs</strong> — Create clean links using your own domain</li>
<li><strong>Multiple Redirect Types</strong> — 301, 302, and 307 redirects</li>
<li><strong>Link Categories & Tags</strong> — Organize everything with taxonomies</li>
<li><strong>Nofollow / Sponsored / UGC Attributes</strong> — Stay compliant with search engine guidelines</li>
<li><strong>Password-Protected Links</strong> — Gate access to sensitive destinations</li>
<li><strong>Link Scheduling</strong> — Set start and end dates for any link</li>
<li><strong>Affiliate Disclosure Notices</strong> — Automatically display FTC-compliant disclosures</li>
</ul>
<h4>Click Tracking & Analytics</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Detailed Click Analytics</strong> — Browser, device, OS, referrer, and country data</li>
<li><strong>Dashboard Widget</strong> — At-a-glance stats with period-over-period comparison</li>
<li><strong>QR Scan Tracking</strong> — See how many clicks come from your QR codes</li>
<li><strong>UTM Parameter Builder</strong> — Build campaign-tagged URLs without leaving WordPress</li>
</ul>
<h4>Advanced Redirects</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Geo-Targeting</strong> — Redirect visitors to different URLs based on their country</li>
<li><strong>Device-Based Redirects</strong> — Send desktop, mobile, and tablet users to different destinations</li>
<li><strong>Time-Based Redirects</strong> — Automatically swap destinations on a schedule</li>
<li><strong>A/B Split Testing</strong> — Test multiple destinations and track which converts best</li>
</ul>
<h4>Content & Display</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>QR Code Generator</strong> — Generate downloadable QR codes for any link</li>
<li><strong>Product Display Boxes</strong> — Eye-catching product cards with images and CTAs</li>
<li><strong>Automatic Keyword Linking</strong> — Define keywords and Royal Links auto-links them across your content</li>
<li><strong>Gutenberg Block & Classic Editor</strong> — Insert links from either editor</li>
</ul>
<h4>Site Health</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Broken Link Checker</strong> — Automatic monitoring flags dead destinations</li>
<li><strong>Link Health Dashboard</strong> — See all link issues at a glance</li>
</ul>
<h4>Migration Wizard</h4>
<p>Switching from another plugin? Royal Links imports your links, categories, and click data in one click:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Pretty Links</strong> — Full import including groups and clicks</li>
<li><strong>ThirstyAffiliates</strong> — Full import including categories and click data</li>
<li><strong>BetterLinks</strong> — Full import including analytics</li>
</ul>
<h4>Why Royal Links?</h4>
<p>Most link management plugins offer basic features for free and lock the good stuff behind a paid upgrade. Royal Links takes a different approach — every feature is included from day one. Geo-targeting, A/B testing, QR codes, auto-linking, product displays, device redirects, and link scheduling are all built in with no restrictions.</p>
<h4>Powered by Royal Plugins</h4>
<p>Royal Links is built by the team behind <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/royal-mcp/" rel="ugc">Royal MCP</a> and <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/sitevault-backup-restore-migration/" rel="ugc">SiteVault</a> — free WordPress plugins trusted by thousands of sites. We believe powerful tools should be accessible to everyone.</p>
<h3>External Services</h3>
<p>This plugin connects to the following external service under specific conditions:</p>
<h4>ip-api.com</h4>
<p>Royal Links uses the <a href="http://ip-api.com" rel="nofollow ugc">ip-api.com</a> geolocation API to determine a visitor’s country for the geo-targeting feature. This service is <strong>only contacted when a site administrator has configured country-based redirect rules on a specific link</strong>. If no geo-targeting rules are configured, no data is sent to this service.</p>
<p>When geo-targeting is active on a link and a visitor clicks that link, the visitor’s IP address is sent to ip-api.com to determine their country. The country result is then used to decide which destination URL the visitor should be redirected to.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Service URL:</strong> <a href="http://ip-api.com" rel="nofollow ugc">http://ip-api.com</a></li>
<li><strong>Terms of Service / Privacy Policy:</strong> <a href="https://ip-api.com/docs/legal" rel="nofollow ugc">https://ip-api.com/docs/legal</a></li>
<li><strong>Data sent:</strong> Visitor IP address (only when geo-targeting rules exist on the clicked link)</li>
<li><strong>Data received:</strong> Country code for the visitor’s IP address</li>
<li><strong>Data retention:</strong> Royal Links does not store the IP-to-country lookup. The country is used only for the redirect decision. IP addresses are only stored in the click log if the “Store IP Addresses” setting is enabled (disabled by default).</li>
<li><strong>When it is used:</strong> Only when a visitor clicks a link that has geo-targeting redirect rules configured by the site admin</li>
<li><strong>When it is NOT used:</strong> If no links have geo-targeting rules, this service is never contacted</li>
</ul>


Royal Links

Free affiliate link management, URL shortener, and link cloaking plugin with geo-targeting, A/B testing, QR codes, and auto-linking. No premium tier.

CleanLinks vs Royal Links