The detail
How TrackRev link tracking actually works.
The questions SaaS teams ask before swapping out Bitly — answered without the marketing fluff.
What is link tracking and how does TrackRev do it?
TrackRev link tracking routes every outbound marketing URL through a branded short link you own, so you can count clicks, attach UTM parameters, and tie those clicks to the acquisition channel that actually pays your MRR. TrackRev turns any destination URL into a branded short link on a domain you control (go.brand.com/launch instead of bit.ly/3xZqf2). Each click hits a server-side /r/{slug} redirect that logs the event in your TrackRev workspace before sending the visitor to the destination. You get the click count, the geo and device, the referrer, and — on any paid plan — the Stripe, Paddle, Polar, or Lemon Squeezy charge that visitor eventually made. The free tier covers 1,000 events per month; every paid plan (from $39/mo) unlocks unlimited events plus the full attribution and affiliate stack.
How does first-party server-side click tracking work?
When someone clicks a TrackRev link, the request hits a server-side redirect endpoint at /r/{slug} on your own custom domain. The server writes the click row — slug, timestamp, IP-derived geo, user-agent-derived device, referrer — into your workspace and then issues a 302 to the destination URL, all in under 50ms at the Vercel edge. Because the click is recorded server-side before the browser loads anything, ad-blockers, tracker-blocking extensions, and prefetch-killing browsers never get a chance to suppress it. A first-party cookie called vid is dropped on the apex domain so the same visitor can be tied to a signup, a checkout, or a paid invoice later — without any third-party script on the destination page.
Can I use my own custom domain for short links?
Yes — and most TrackRev customers do. You point a subdomain you own (go.brand.com or link.brand.com is the common pattern) at TrackRev via a single CNAME record. We provision a TLS certificate automatically through the Vercel edge — no certificate juggling, no renewal reminders, no cron job to break in eighteen months. Once the domain resolves, every link you create uses it by default. You can run multiple branded domains in the same workspace if you operate more than one product, and you can move an existing inventory of links from one domain to another without breaking inbound traffic. Custom domains are included on every paid plan (from $39/mo) — the free tier uses a shared trackrev.io short domain.
Does link tracking break after Safari ITP or iOS privacy changes?
No. The browser-side anti-tracking work Apple has shipped over the last five years — Safari ITP, iOS 17 Link Tracking Protection, the iOS 18 query-parameter stripping — all target third-party scripts, third-party cookies, and known tracker parameters in URLs. TrackRev logs the click server-side at the /r/{slug} redirect, before any of that runs in the browser. The first-party vid cookie is dropped on your apex domain, not on a third-party tracker domain, so it isn't partitioned or evicted by ITP. And because the destination URL you redirect to can be a clean, UTM-free path on your own site, there's nothing for iOS to strip. The same logic applies to Brave, Firefox Total Cookie Protection, and uBlock Origin — they can't block a request the browser never made.
What's the difference between TrackRev and Bitly for SaaS teams?
Bitly Growth is $35/month and gives you branded short links, click analytics, and QR codes. That's the whole product — the click count is where the data ends. TrackRev starts at $39/month and includes the same set of features (branded domain, click tracking, QR, UTM builder, geo + device per click) plus Stripe, Paddle, Polar, and Lemon Squeezy revenue attribution and a full affiliate program with commission tracking and payouts. So a SaaS team running Bitly Growth ($35) plus Rewardful Starter ($49) — $84/month total to get links and affiliates — replaces both with TrackRev at $39. Same click data, one definition of a sale, no monthly reconciliation between two systems that disagree about which campaign drove the revenue.
How do I add tracked links to email, paid ads, and social posts?
The same way you'd paste a regular URL — TrackRev links are just normal HTTPS short links on your branded domain, so they drop into Mailchimp, Customer.io, Klaviyo, Buffer, Hootsuite, Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, and any footer or signature without special handling. For multi-channel campaigns, TrackRev's bulk campaign mode generates one link per channel (Twitter, LinkedIn, Newsletter, Reddit, etc.) from a single destination URL in one click — each link comes pre-stamped with the right utm_source and utm_medium so your attribution report doesn't collapse into "direct." For print, packaging, and event signage, every link has a branded QR code generated alongside it. Per-device targeting routes mobile taps to the App Store while desktop clicks land on the web app — same link, two destinations.
