Last year I used some random free url shortener for my product packaging. It worked fine until it didn’t. The company went dark, links died, and I had 3,000 boxes sitting in a warehouse pointing to nowhere.

Now I am revamping the manual and need to print fresh QR codes. I need something that will not cost me $50 a month forever. This is a small business, not a startup with VC money. It also needs to let me change where the link points later because I might move the help docs to a new site. And it cannot get flagged as spam or sketchy by security tools because that kills trust immediately. I know Linkly lets you edit destinations and use a custom domain even on the free plan, but I have never used them for anything long-term. I have looked at self-hosting but I am not a developer and I do not want to babysit a server. I just want a url shortener that works and does not disappear.

Has anyone actually found the best url shortener for physical printed materials? Or am I better off just buying a cheap domain and doing my own redirects?