Kutt is a free, MIT-licensed, self-hosted URL shortener written in JavaScript for individuals, teams, and organisations that want branded short links on their own infrastructure rather than a rented hosted service.

What it is

Kutt is a modern URL shortener with support for custom domains. It lets an operator create and edit links, view statistics, and manage users, and it is designed from the ground up with self-hosting in mind rather than as a hosted product with an open-source core. It lives in the JavaScript and Node.js ecosystem, is distributed under the MIT licence, and is maintained by thedevs-network with roughly 11,100 stars and 1,500 forks on GitHub.

The concrete problem it solves is replacing a third-party hosted shortener — the kind that owns the short domain, meters your clicks, and can change its pricing or shut down — with an instance you control. Because custom domain support is built in, the short links a team hands out can sit on a domain the organisation already owns, and the click statistics they generate stay in that organisation's own database. The README explicitly presents self-hosting, zero configuration, and no build step as the design goals.

Key capabilities

• Custom domain support, so shortened links can be served from a domain the operator controls.
• Per-link options for custom URL slugs, passwords, descriptions, and expiration times.
• Private statistics for shortened URLs, visible to the operator rather than a third party.
• Admin page for managing users and links across the instance.
• OpenID Connect (OIDC) login, alongside the ability to disable registration and anonymous link creation entirely.
• Choice of database backend: SQLite by default, with Postgres and MySQL/MariaDB supported, plus optional Redis for the cache.
• RESTful API with documentation at docs.kutt.to, and a themes and customisation layer for the front end.

Who uses it and how

• Small teams and individuals who want their own short domain without running a full marketing platform, deployed as a single Node.js service.
• Organisations with authentication requirements that need OIDC login and registration disabled, so only known accounts can create links.
• Privacy-conscious operators who keep link analytics in their own SQLite, Postgres, or MariaDB instance instead of exporting click data to a vendor.
• Teams with existing tooling that integrate through the RESTful API rather than the web interface.
• Operators who prefer containers, using the official kutt/kutt image on Docker Hub or one of the provided compose configurations.

Getting started

The only prerequisite is Node.js version 20 or above: clone the repository, run npm install, then npm run migrate, then npm start for production or npm run dev for development, and create the admin account when first prompted. Alternatively, with Docker installed, run docker compose up from the root directory, or pick one of the supplied compose files such as docker-compose.postgres.yml or docker-compose.mariadb.yml.

How it compares

No list of paid products this project replaces is provided in the facts, and no comparable tools are named, so Kutt stands alone in this registry. It is best understood on its own terms: a permissively licensed, self-hostable shortener rather than a commercial service.

When to use it — and when not to

A self-hoster must operate the Node.js application, a database (SQLite by default, or Postgres/MySQL/MariaDB), optionally Redis, and set JWT_SECRET, which is required in production. Someone who wants zero operational work, or who needs a hosted shortener with a support contract, should not pick it. One real caution from the README: the kutt.it domain is no longer owned by the project and may be a phishing site, so all links and documentation should be reached through kutt.to instead.

docker compose up