Blog··9 min read
Is Linktree Free? What the Free Plan Really Includes
Yes, Linktree is free, but the free plan has real limits. Here is exactly what you get, what you give up, and the free alternatives worth knowing.

Yes, Linktree is free. There is a genuine free plan, it does not expire, and it covers the basic job of a link-in-bio page: one URL that holds all your links. But "is Linktree free" is really two questions. Is there a free tier? And is that free tier enough for what you actually do? The first answer is a clean yes. The second depends on how much you sell, how closely you watch your analytics, and how much you care about your page carrying someone else's branding. Below is what the free plan includes as of July 2026, where it stops, and the free alternatives worth knowing before you commit.
What Linktree's free plan includes
The free plan is more capable than most creators assume. On the free tier you get:
- Unlimited links. Add as many buttons as you want. There is no cap that forces an upgrade just to list your socials, shop, and latest video.
- A public page at
linktr.ee/yourname. Your handle, your URL, live immediately. - Core appearance options. A set of preset themes, colors, and button styles. Enough to look tidy rather than broken.
- Basic analytics. Lifetime click and view totals, so you can see whether people are tapping through at all.
- A basic QR code. Point people to your page from anything physical.
- Common embeds. Standard links, plus the ability to embed a few common things like a YouTube video or a Spotify player.
For a lot of creators, that list is the whole job. If you need a tidy list of links under your Instagram or TikTok bio and nothing more, the free plan does it without asking for a card.
What you give up on the free plan
Free is real, but Linktree keeps its most useful features for paid tiers. Above the free plan sit three paid ones, in ascending price: Starter, Pro, and Premium. Linktree prices these in your local currency and raised paid-plan prices in November 2025, so check Linktree's pricing page for the current figure in your region. Annual billing is discounted. Here is what the free plan asks you to do without.
Linktree branding stays on your page. Free pages carry a "Powered by Linktree" badge at the bottom. It stays subtle, though it is still someone else's brand on the page you send fans to, and only Premium, the top tier, lets you remove it.
Analytics stay shallow. The free plan shows lifetime totals: how many clicks and views your page got. What it hides is the part that actually changes decisions, like which individual link drove those clicks, where visitors came from, what device they used, or how any of it trends over time. You can see that something is working without seeing what. Those breakdowns unlock on the paid tiers.
Customization is capped. You get preset themes on the free plan. Richer control over how the page looks, including custom backgrounds, animations, and finer styling, arrives on the paid tiers. If your brand is part of why people follow you, the free themes will start to feel generic.
And the fee that surprises people: a cut of your sales. Sell something directly through Linktree, whether a digital product, a course, or a tip, and the free plan takes a 12% commission on that revenue (per Linktree's own fee tables, current as of July 2026). It is not a monthly line item you can plan around; it is a slice of every sale. The paid Starter and Pro tiers drop that to 9%, and only Premium removes it entirely. If selling is part of your plan, "free" is doing a lot of work in that sentence.
None of this makes the free plan a bait-and-switch. It is simply a free plan: good at the basics, and quiet about the things that would make you pay.
When free Linktree is genuinely enough
It is worth saying plainly: for a large number of creators, free Linktree is fine, and switching would be effort for no gain. Stay on it if:
- You mainly need a simple list of links, like socials, a shop link, and a contact, and you are not trying to make the page itself do much.
- You don't sell directly through the page. If your buy button just points to your own store or Etsy, the 12% cut never touches you.
- You don't act on analytics. Plenty of creators never open the dashboard. If that is you, the shallow free analytics cost you nothing.
- You are fine with the branding and don't need the page to match your look.
If that describes you, you already have your answer. The question only gets interesting when your page needs to do more than hold links: when your content is the reason people follow you, when you are selling, or when you want to see clearly what is working.
Free alternatives worth knowing
If the free plan's limits are the exact things you care about, whether that is branding, real analytics, or a page that shows your work instead of just linking to it, a few tools give more away on their free tiers. Here is an honest read on the ones worth a look.
ByteSize (our free plan, described honestly)
We build ByteSize, so treat this as the pitch it is, but a straight one. The free Start plan is free forever and includes unlimited links, embedded content, and a public page at bytesize.me/yourhandle. Like Linktree's free plan, it carries a ByteSize badge. Analytics live on the paid tier, not the free one, so we will name that plainly: removing the badge, plus unlocking analytics (page visits, traffic sources, and locations), priority link placement, and deeper customization, is Creator Pro at $9/month, a single paid tier rather than a four-step ladder.
Two honest differences that matter:
- We don't take a cut of your sales. ByteSize links out to your store or merch rather than processing payments, so there is no commission on what you sell. The 12% question simply doesn't exist here.
- The page embeds your content instead of only listing it. Your YouTube uploads auto-sync onto the page, so new videos appear without you touching anything. TikTok and Instagram posts you add as embeds; Spotify and Apple Music show up as playable players. The result is a page that shows your work rather than a list of blue links pointing away from it.
We are also a much smaller, younger tool than Linktree, with a fraction of its brand recognition. If you want the safest, most-recognized name, that is not us yet. If you want a page that looks like yours and stays current on its own, that is the trade we are built for. See the full comparison with Linktree for the side-by-side.
Beacons
Beacons has a capable free tier aimed at creators, with a media-kit angle and monetization tools built in. If you want commerce features stitched into the page itself, it is worth a look, though, like most tools, its better analytics and branding removal sit behind a paid plan.
Bio.link
Bio.link is a lightweight, genuinely free link-in-bio option. It is simple and fast to set up. It does the plain-list job well and not much beyond it, which is either exactly right or too little depending on what you need.
Carrd
Carrd is not strictly a link-in-bio tool; it builds simple one-page sites, and its free tier is popular for exactly this use. If you want more design control and are comfortable building a small page yourself, it is flexible. If you want something that updates itself when you post, Carrd is not that, since its pages are static and manual.
For a wider shortlist, we keep a running free Linktree alternatives list and a best Linktree alternatives roundup. If you are actively comparing tools, the Linktree alternative checklist walks through the questions that actually separate them.
The honest bottom line
Is Linktree free? Yes, really free, and with no expiry date, for the basic job of holding your links. The catch is not a countdown timer. It is that the features you notice you want later, like real analytics, a page that matches your brand, and keeping all of your sales, are the ones you pay for. That is a fair deal, and for simple needs the free plan is the right call.
If your page is a core part of how you reach and sell to fans, price out what "free" actually costs you. A 12% sales cut and a page that can't tell you what's working add up faster than a flat monthly fee. When you are ready to compare, claim a ByteSize handle and see how the page looks with your content on it before you decide anything.
FAQ
Does Linktree cost money?
Not to start. The free plan is $0 and covers unlimited links, a public page, preset themes, and basic analytics. You pay only if you want paid features like branding removal, detailed analytics, more customization, or a lower sales fee. Above free sit three paid tiers, Starter, Pro, and Premium, priced in your local currency; check Linktree's pricing page for the current figure in your region.
What's the catch with free Linktree?
Three things. Your page carries "Powered by Linktree" branding you can't remove for free. Analytics only show lifetime totals, not which links drive clicks or where visitors come from. And if you sell directly through the page, the free plan takes a 12% commission on sales. None of it is hidden, exactly, but it is easy to miss until it matters.
Is Linktree free forever?
Yes. The free plan does not expire and does not convert to a trial. You can stay on it indefinitely. Linktree earns from creators who choose to upgrade and from the sales commission, not from pushing free creators off the tier.
Is Linktree free to use for beginners?
Yes, and it is a reasonable place to start. Setup takes a few minutes, no payment details required, and the free plan is enough to get one link live under your bio. If you later outgrow the basics, you can upgrade or move to another tool. Your links are just URLs, so switching is not locked in.
Is Linktree safe?
Linktree is an established, widely used platform, and using it does not put your accounts at risk, since you are sharing links rather than passwords. As with any hosted page, your public page lives on their servers under their terms, so the usual advice applies: keep your own copy of your important links so you are never dependent on one tool.
Is there a free Linktree alternative without the sales cut?
Yes. Because ByteSize links out to your store rather than processing payments, there is no commission on what you sell, and the free Start plan covers unlimited links and embedded content at no cost. (Analytics on ByteSize sit on the paid Creator Pro tier, not the free one.) Beacons and Bio.link also offer free tiers worth comparing. See our free Linktree alternatives list for the full rundown.
Read next
Keep going
- Linktree Pricing Explained: Every Plan, Fee, and What You Actually Pay (2026)Linktree pricing runs from a free plan to four tiers, plus a sales fee most guides miss. Here is what each plan adds and the real cost.
- How Does Linktree Make Money? The Business Model Explained (2026)How does Linktree make money if the core product is free? Three ways: paid subscriptions, a cut of your sales, and brand-sponsored links.
- Beacons Pricing: What Each Plan Costs and What Forces the UpgradeBeacons pricing runs from a free plan to $90 a month. Here is what each tier costs, the transaction fee to watch, and what pushes you up the ladder.
Plan your next step
Turn the guide into a better bio page
- Browse every creator guideMove from setup questions into use cases, comparisons, and link-in-bio fundamentals.
- Compare Linktree alternativesChoose a tool by content, commerce, maintenance, pricing, and creator fit.
- See Bytesize pricingCompare the free Start plan with Creator Pro before you build your page.