Link management: Build vs buy

Creating short links seems straightforward: paste in a URL, get a shortened version, and share it with your audience. But this simplicity is deceptive.

Behind every reliable link management system lies a complex infrastructure that handles millions of redirects, real-time analytics, enterprise security, and seamless integrations across your entire marketing stack.

Your business needs a solution that scales with campaign volume, supports team collaboration, and meets enterprise compliance requirements. The question is: should you build your own link management system from scratch or invest in a proven platform?

We’ll examine both paths, breaking down the technical requirements, hidden costs, and strategic trade-offs so you can make an informed decision.

The real cost of building link management in-house

Building a basic shortener is easy. Building a scalable, secure, and flexible link management system is not. Here’s how building a link management solution from scratch adds complexity, time, and costs for your team.

Development complexity beyond basic redirects

Basic URL shortening and production-ready link management infrastructure are completely different projects. Building a link management tool means you need much more than a simple redirect function. You need:

• Global CDN support for low-latency redirects
• Real-time logging and traffic monitoring
• Branded domain and subdomain routing
• Link expiration and editability

Availability and performance considerations include:

• Multi-region hosting
• Redundant architecture
• Load balancing and uptime assurances
• Disaster recovery and failover systems

Click volume grows fast with ad campaigns, email newsletters, and social posts. You need flexible database architecture for scaling click volume that includes:

• Efficient query handling for redirects
• Scalable storage for billions of records
• Real-time analytics pipelines
• Monitoring and alerting infrastructure

To integrate with other tools in your tech stack, including marketing automation and analytics tools for campaign optimization, you need API support. That means handling RESTful endpoints, authentication, rate limiting, error handling, and change logs. Your external partners also need access to these features with guaranteed uptime and support.

Add support for multiple browsers, mobile devices, and carriers, and you can see how complexity increases quickly.

Security and compliance implementation

Cross-channel marketing on mobile, email, and social media brings security and compliance requirements that add complexity. To protect your business and audience, every link needs SSL certificate management and security protocols. Custom-branded domains require ongoing:

• TLS certificate provisioning and renewal
• Subdomain tracking and routing configuration
• Redirect security and spoofing protections

To comply with data privacy regulations such as GDPR, TCPA, and CCPA, your team needs to:

• Log user consent
• Manage data retention periods
• Support user data deletion requests
• Implement IP anonymization and data encryption
• Perform regular security updates and vulnerability patches

Marketing in regulated industries may require SOC 2, HIPAA, and ISO 27001 certifications. This means penetration testing, abuse prevention, and tiered access control with authentication guardrails like role-based permissions, admin controls, workspace segmentation, and data isolation.

We haven’t even discussed feature development yet.

Full-stack feature development requirements

Modern link management platforms include features you might not build in-house:

• Real-time analytics and reporting dashboards
• Teammate collaboration and permission controls
• UTM parameter automation and templates
• QR code generation and brand customization
• Smart routing by device, OS, or location
• Link editing and destination management
• Bulk creation and CSV import/export
• RESTful APIs and Zapier/Make/HubSpot connectors

This requires significant time and resources from your team while adding complexity and overhead to your development and maintenance processes.

That said, there are key factors that might make building in-house worthwhile:

When building makes sense

The build or buy decision depends on your company’s specific needs. Here are cases where developing your own link management infrastructure might make sense:

• You have unique regulatory requirements that demand complete control of all tools
• You need highly specialized workflows not covered by commercial tools
• You have an existing dev team with available bandwidth
• Your use case is extremely simple (just redirect links, no analytics)
• Budget constraints make existing solutions financially unviable

Decision criteria checklist for build scenarios

Only consider building if you can answer yes to most of these questions:

• Do you have two or more developers available for 3–12 months?
• Will the system be simple enough to maintain long-term?
• Are there no commercial tools that meet your exact compliance or workflow needs?
• Is the opportunity cost lower than delaying your core roadmap?
• Do you have a budget for security, scaling, and support?

If you can’t answer yes to these questions, you’ll benefit more from an off-the-shelf solution.

The benefits of buying

For most teams, buying an enterprise-grade platform like Rebrandly is the fastest and most cost-effective path forward. It frees your developers to focus on core products while offering competitive advantages. When you buy instead of build, you gain benefits that help your team extract more value from every link.

Immediate deployment and reliability

With a dedicated link management tool, you skip months of development and testing. The platform is production-ready from day one. Purpose-built tools like Rebrandly deliver enterprise-level reliability, backed by uptime guarantees and globally redundant infrastructure.

Failover systems and built-in disaster recovery protocols ensure every click routes accurately—even in high-traffic environments or edge-case scenarios. Your team never has to manage servers, scale databases, or troubleshoot redirect errors.

All of this is supported by a dedicated team of link management experts who help you implement the solution seamlessly, with documentation and training.

Advanced features out of the box

A link management platform like Rebrandly offers advantages beyond basic URL shortening—it’s a full-featured system designed to support modern marketing, development, and analytics needs:

• Real-time analytics and attribution: Monitor every click, location, device, and referral source with precision
• UTM parameter management: Use prebuilt templates and automation to ensure consistency across campaigns
• Cross-channel reporting: Understand how links perform across email, SMS, social media, ads, and more
• Team collaboration tools: Workspaces, roles, and permission controls help teams work together securely
• Tool integrations: Native connections with automation, CRM, and more help streamline your marketing process
• QR code generation and customization: Build fully branded QR codes for print, packaging, events, or signage
• Bulk operations: Manage thousands of links at once with CSV imports, exports, and editing capabilities
• Mobile and browser tools: Use extensions and mobile apps to create or manage links on the go

These features aren’t nice-to-haves—they’re requirements for companies serious about link performance, branding, and campaign optimization.

Continuous innovation without development overhead

Building your own system means owning all future complexity. Buying Rebrandly means you benefit from constant improvements—without additional work.

• Regular feature updates: Rebrandly rolls out improvements based on user feedback and industry trends
• Built-in compliance and security maintenance: Security updates, vulnerability patches, and compliance monitoring happen automatically
• New capabilities and integrations: As your needs evolve, Rebrandly evolves—giving your team access to new tools without rebuilding anything
• No technical debt: You don’t worry about deprecated APIs, infrastructure updates, or resource allocation. Your team stays focused on your core mission

A commercial link management tool saves development time, speeds up results, and reduces risk—while providing enterprise-grade features that scale with your campaigns.

Maintenance cost analysis: Build vs. buy

Build scenario costs

Buy scenario costs

Decision framework and evaluation

To determine the right answer to your build vs buy question, ask yourself:

1. Do we have developer capacity and timeline flexibility to devote to the project?
2. Do we need basic link shortening or full link management features?
3. What’s the opportunity cost of diverting engineers from core product development?
4. Do we have the specialized expertise to maintain uptime, support, and compliance?
5. Will our needs evolve past basic functionality? And if so, when?

If your needs go beyond basic redirect functionality, buying typically offers more value, ROI, and long-term stability.

Link management: Build or buy? Know what’s right for your team

Most teams choose commercial solutions for one simple reason: they help your team focus on what matters—your core product and the customer experience.

While there are edge cases where building a custom solution makes sense, the time, cost, and complexity of implementing and maintaining a secure, scalable, feature-rich link management platform make buying the smarter choice for 90% of teams.

Explore platforms that offer flexibility, compliance, and integration out of the box—so you can spend your valuable development time where it matters. If you’re interested in learning more about Rebrandly’s platform, book a free demo with our team today!