Custom and Vanity URLs

1. Vanity URL, custom alias, branded domain

Three terms get used interchangeably and mean quite different things, which matters because they differ by about three orders of magnitude in cost.

Term	What it means	What it costs
Custom alias	You choose the part after the slash on a shared domain: urlvanish.com/spring-sale	Free
Vanity URL	Usually a synonym for the above; sometimes used for any deliberately memorable address	Free
Branded domain	The domain itself is yours: yourbrand.link/spring-sale	Domain registration, plus a service that supports it

Most people searching for a vanity URL generator want the first row. They want a link that says something, and they do not want to register a domain to get it. That is a one-field change, and the rest of this guide is about doing it well.

A branded domain is worth it when the domain itself carries recognition — a large brand, a publication, a conference that runs annually. For everyone else it adds renewal fees and a single point of failure in exchange for a marginal trust gain.

2. How to create one, free

On the website

Sign in, paste your long address into the dashboard, and type your chosen ending into the alias field before shortening. If it is taken you are told immediately and can pick another. A free account needs a username and a password — no email address.

Through the API, with no account at all

The API accepts a custom alias from anybody, with no key and no account:

https://urlvanish.com/api/shorten?format=simple&url=https://example.com/page&shorturl=spring-sale
→ https://urlvanish.com/spring-sale

If the alias is already in use the API returns a 409 rather than quietly giving you something else, so a script can detect the collision and try a variation.

What is allowed

• Letters, numbers, hyphens and underscores.
• Up to 50 characters, though anything over about 20 defeats the purpose.
• Case is preserved but treat aliases as case-insensitive when you print them — people will not reproduce capitals reliably.
• First come, first served. An alias in use cannot be reassigned.

3. Choosing an alias that survives contact with reality

The test that matters: can someone hear it once and type it correctly? If a link is going on a slide, into a podcast script, onto a poster or into a conversation, this is the only criterion worth optimising.

What works

• Short. Two words is usually the ceiling. /tour26, /venue-map, /press-kit.
• Unambiguous when spoken. No characters that require explanation.
• Predictable spelling. If a listener has to ask how it is spelt, it has failed.
• Consistent across campaigns. /spring26, /summer26, /autumn26 is a system people can guess.

What to avoid

• Characters that collide when read or printed: 0 and O, 1 and l and I, 5 and S. In a sans-serif font on a poster these are genuinely indistinguishable.
• Underscores in anything spoken or printed. “Underscore” is four syllables and vanishes entirely under a text underline. Use hyphens.
• Mixed case. Nobody reproduces it correctly from memory.
• Dates that will be wrong. /black-friday outlives /black-friday-2026 only if you intend to reuse it — and you cannot, because an alias cannot be re-pointed. Include the year deliberately.
• Anything implying you are someone else. Using another company’s brand in an alias on a shared domain is impersonation, and it is a reportable abuse of the service.

4. Where a vanity URL actually earns its keep

• Anything printed. Posters, packaging, business cards, flyers, signage. A random code on paper is a typing exercise.
• Anything spoken. Podcasts, videos, presentations, radio. This is the strongest case of all: a spoken random code is simply not usable.
• Bio links. Short and meaningful in a field that shows very little.
• Per-channel links. /ig-sale, /yt-sale, /em-sale point at the same page but tell you which channel produced each click, and are readable in a dashboard.
• Support and documentation. /reset-guide is something a support agent can say on a call.
• QR codes. The code carries the address, but people photograph the printed text too, and a readable fallback saves the scan that does not work.

Where it does not matter: links posted once in a chat and never seen again, links inside email where the text is clickable anyway, and machine-to-machine links nobody reads.

5. Mistakes that make a custom link worse than a random one

1. Making it longer than the original. /our-amazing-spring-sale-2026 defeats the point. Two words.
2. Claiming an alias you will want to re-point. An alias points at one destination permanently. If the campaign page moves, you need a new alias — or you should have pointed it at your own domain and redirected from there.
3. Reusing one alias for several campaigns. You cannot, and even if you could you would lose the per-campaign click counts.
4. Hoarding aliases speculatively. They are first come, first served, but creating dozens you never use is the behaviour abuse systems are built to notice.
5. Assuming a custom alias makes a link trustworthy. It helps — a readable alias restores some of the signal shortening removed — but anyone can create one, so it is not proof of anything. Context around the link still does the heavy lifting.

6. The limits worth knowing before you commit

• Aliases are global, not per-account. A shared domain means a shared namespace. Obvious words went years ago; be specific rather than generic.
• They cannot be re-pointed or renamed. Decide the destination first.
• Removing a link from your dashboard does not release the alias, and does not stop the link working. It detaches it from your account, deliberately, so that links already shared keep resolving.
• The website form requires an account; the API does not. If you want a custom alias without signing up, the API is the route.
• An alias is not a trademark. Claiming one gives you that string on that domain, nothing more.

Frequently asked questions

What is a vanity URL?

A short link whose ending you chose rather than one generated at random — urlvanish.com/spring-sale instead of urlvanish.com/a7f3c2d1. The term is often used interchangeably with custom alias, and both usually refer to choosing the path on a shared domain rather than owning the domain itself.

How do I create a custom short URL for free?

Sign in, paste your long address and type your chosen ending into the alias field before shortening. Alternatively call the API with a shorturl parameter, which accepts a custom alias with no key and no account at all.

Can I create a custom alias without an account?

Through the API, yes: ?format=simple&url=...&shorturl=your-alias works with no key and no sign-up. The website form requires an account, because the dashboard is where you manage the aliases you have claimed.

What characters can a custom alias contain?

Letters, numbers, hyphens and underscores, up to 50 characters. In practice keep it under twenty, prefer hyphens to underscores, and avoid characters that look alike in print such as 0 and O or 1 and l.

Can I change what a custom alias points to later?

No. An alias points at one destination for its lifetime, so that a link someone has already saved cannot start going somewhere else. If your destination may move, point the alias at a page on your own domain and control the onward redirect from there.

What happens if the alias I want is taken?

Aliases are first come, first served across the whole domain. You are told immediately and can pick another; the API returns a 409 so a script can detect the collision and try a variation. A claimed alias cannot be reassigned.

Is a vanity URL the same as a branded domain?

No. A vanity URL or custom alias is the part after the slash on a shared domain and is free. A branded domain means the domain itself is yours, which requires registering and renewing it and a service that supports custom domains. It is worth it mainly when the domain name itself carries recognition.

Do custom aliases help with SEO?

Not directly. A short link is a 301 redirect, and the ranking signal accrues to the destination rather than the short link. A readable alias helps click-through rate where the link is visible, which is a real but different benefit.

Does a custom alias make a link look more trustworthy?

It helps, because a readable alias restores some of the context that shortening removes. It is not proof of anything, since anyone can create one. A sentence explaining where the link goes does more for trust than the alias does.