Linkly vs TrackRev: Click Tracking and Retargeting, or Revenue?

If you are trying to work out which channel produces retained MRR, an audience signal will not get you there — filling a retargeting pool is not the same as tying a click to revenue.

Linkly can attach a Facebook or Google retargeting pixel to any link and start tracking clicks from a free tier, with paid plans from roughly ~$10/month. That retargeting trick is genuinely useful, and this article will say so plainly.

But there is a distinction worth drawing sharply: firing a retargeting pixel adds a clicker to an ad audience — it does not tell you that the click became a paying customer.

Linkly is built around clicks and audiences; TrackRev is built around revenue. The question this article answers is where that difference actually changes a decision, and when each tool is the honest right pick.

Disclosure: this comparison is published by TrackRev, and TrackRev is one of the two tools compared.

Linkly and TrackRev overlap on the link layer — branded links, click analytics, A/B split, QR codes, UTMs — then diverge on what happens after the click. Linkly's differentiator is retargeting: pixel any redirect so clickers flow into your remarketing audiences.

TrackRev's differentiator is attribution: a first-party pixel that carries each click through to a Stripe, Paddle, Polar, or Lemon Squeezy charge, plus a built-in affiliate programme. Retargeting and revenue attribution are different jobs, and which you need decides the tool.

Why this matters for your revenue

Retargeting and revenue attribution measure different things, and confusing them costs money.

A retargeting pixel tells you a click happened and lets you show that person an ad later; it does not tell you whether that click, or that channel, produced revenue.

The median revenue per click across TrackRev workspaces is $3.80 and the median click-to-paid rate is 4.2% (TrackRev platform data, Q2 2026), and those numbers vary enough by source that two links with equal clicks — and equally full retargeting audiences — can be worth very different amounts.

Optimise on click and audience size and you fund the channel that looks busiest, not the one that pays.

There is also a durability point. Retargeting pixels are third-party by nature, so Safari ITP and iOS privacy changes erode the audiences they build, especially among Apple's high-intent buyers.

First-party, revenue-linked attribution on your own domain holds up where third-party retargeting degrades. The trade-offs are covered in server-side versus client-side tracking and first-party link tracking after iOS privacy changes.

Neither point is a knock on Linkly's retargeting — it is a reminder that an audience signal is not a revenue number.

What Linkly is genuinely good at

Linkly does a specific set of things well, and for the right team they are exactly the right things.

• Retargeting pixels on any link — attach Facebook, Google, and other pixels to a redirect so clickers join your ad audiences.
• Click tracking and split testing — clean click analytics with A/B and rotator destinations.
• QR codes and deep links — the standard link toolkit, well executed.
• Low entry price — a free tier and inexpensive paid plans scaled by click volume.

Retargeting pixels on any link

Linkly's headline feature is attaching retargeting pixels to redirect links, so anyone who clicks is added to your Facebook or Google remarketing audience even when the destination is a page you do not control.

For performance teams that live in paid social and search, that is a real, distinctive capability and a legitimate reason to use Linkly.

TrackRev is not a retargeting-audience builder; it is an attribution tool, so if audience-building on every click is your priority, Linkly does something TrackRev does not.

Click tracking and split testing

Linkly's click analytics, A/B split destinations, and rotator links are solid and simple to set up. If your workflow is testing which destination converts a click best and reporting click volumes, Linkly handles it without fuss.

TrackRev also supports branded links, targeting, and click analytics, but Linkly's split-testing UX is lightweight and approachable for exactly this job.

A low entry price and simple setup

Linkly's free tier and click-volume-based paid plans make it inexpensive to start, and setup is quick. For a small team that wants tracked, retargetable links without a platform commitment, the economics are friendly.

TrackRev's free tier (1,000 tracked events a month, including conversion tracking) is priced around a different goal — proving revenue attribution before you pay — but Linkly's low entry point is a fair advantage for pure click-and-retarget use.

Where click-and-retarget stops

Linkly does the click-and-retarget job well. The limits appear when you need to know what the clicks were worth — and two are structural.

Retargeting is an audience signal, not revenue attribution

A full retargeting audience tells you a lot of people clicked; it does not tell you which clicks converted or how much revenue each channel produced.

Linkly can grow your remarketing pool and count clicks, but it cannot rank your newsletter against your affiliate links by revenue per click, because it never sees the payment.

That is the single comparison most likely to change a budget decision, and it sits outside a retargeting-and-click tool by design.

No connection to your payment processor

Linkly has no Stripe, Paddle, Polar, or Lemon Squeezy integration and no first-party conversion pixel carrying a session through to a charge. It is a click-layer tool with an audience-building bonus, not an attribution tool.

It also does not run your own affiliate programme with a branded portal, commission rules, and payouts. TrackRev's revenue attribution and affiliate programme are built for exactly the part Linkly leaves out.

Linkly vs TrackRev: feature comparison

TrackRev matches Linkly on the core link toolkit and takes a different path after the click — revenue attribution rather than retargeting audiences. Parity on links first, then the shared-data bonus.

When Linkly is the right choice

Linkly is genuinely the better tool for some teams — the right fit, not a concession.

Ad-retargeting-led funnels

If your growth motion runs on paid social and search, and your priority is pixeling every click into remarketing audiences while tracking click volumes, Linkly is built for that and TrackRev is not.

Retargeting-audience construction on arbitrary redirect links is Linkly's distinctive strength; if that is the job, it is the right tool. TrackRev would leave that capability unused because it optimises for revenue attribution instead.

Billing outside the four processors

TrackRev's revenue attribution depends on connecting to Stripe, Paddle, Polar, or Lemon Squeezy.

If you bill through Recurly, Chargebee-direct, a custom system, or PayPal only, the revenue half of TrackRev does not apply, and Linkly's click-and-retarget model is a cleaner fit — track clicks, build audiences, and handle revenue reporting wherever your billing data already lives.

When TrackRev is the right choice

The mirror image — where TrackRev answers a question a retargeting-and-click tool cannot. It covers branded links, click analytics, QR codes, and deep links, so you keep the link toolkit.

SaaS teams ranking channels by revenue

If you allocate budget on the data, you need channels ranked by revenue, not clicks or audience size.

TrackRev ties every click to a billing event and lets you switch between first-touch, last-touch, and linear attribution models without re-tagging, with paid and organic sources ranked in the same units in the channel analytics view.

A retargeting tool cannot produce that ranking, because building an audience is not the same as measuring revenue.

Teams that want links and affiliates on one bill

If you run link tracking and an affiliate programme, TrackRev does both on one data model: each affiliate gets a branded short link on your own domain, commissions calculate from real billing events, refunds and chargebacks reverse automatically, and affiliate revenue reports alongside every other channel.

That removes a reconciliation Linkly would leave you to do across separate tools. The argument is in affiliate tracking and link tracking in one tool.

Apple-heavy audiences needing first-party tracking

If your buyers skew Apple, third-party retargeting pixels and cookie tracking lose ground to Safari ITP and iOS privacy changes. TrackRev's first-party pixel sets its cookie on your own domain, so revenue attribution survives where third-party tracking degrades.

For high-intent Apple segments, that durability is the difference between an accurate channel ranking and one that under-counts your best buyers — a gap retargeting-based measurement cannot close.

Pricing comparison

Linkly is inexpensive for click tracking with retargeting.

The honest framing is not that TrackRev is cheaper — it is that TrackRev's single subscription covers link tracking and the revenue attribution you would otherwise buy or build separately, with a free tier that includes conversion tracking.

Migrating from Linkly to TrackRev

Migration is a sub-two-hour job, and you can keep retargeting running elsewhere if you still want it.

Move your domain and top slugs

Export your link list from Linkly as CSV — slugs, destinations, and UTM parameters.

Point your branded domain (usually go.yourbrand.com) at TrackRev's redirect endpoint with one CNAME record and recreate your most-used slugs; the top 50 typically cover about 90% of inbound traffic.

Then connect Stripe (and Paddle, Polar, or Lemon Squeezy if relevant) so revenue attribution populates from the migration date forward. The setup detail is in how to attribute Stripe revenue to marketing channels.

Keep retargeting where it belongs

If retargeting audiences still matter to you, you do not have to give them up — place your retargeting pixels on your landing pages directly (where they belong for durable audience-building) rather than on the redirect.

TrackRev handles the revenue attribution; your ad platform handles the audience. That separation is cleaner than routing retargeting through a redirect, and it keeps each tool doing the job it is best at without one pretending to be the other.

When NOT to use TrackRev

If your priority is building retargeting audiences from every click and you do not need revenue attribution, Linkly does something TrackRev deliberately does not, and it is the better fit.

TrackRev is also not for teams billing outside Stripe, Paddle, Polar, and Lemon Squeezy, and it is not a high-volume performance-marketing click platform — that is ClickMagick or Voluum territory.

TrackRev is for SaaS and subscription teams that want links, revenue attribution, and affiliates on the same data.

The clearest reason to choose TrackRev is not any single feature — it is that link tracking and affiliate management cost less to run together than apart.

Running a click-tracking tool alongside a separate attribution or affiliate platform typically lands at $84 or more per month — for example Bitly Growth (~$35/mo) plus Rewardful Starter (~$49/mo) — for two tools with two definitions of a conversion.

TrackRev is $39/month for link tracking, revenue attribution, and a full affiliate programme on one data model, with one definition of a sale.