For privacy-conscious users

A link shortener that doesn’t track you.

Q: Can I check a link before opening it?

Yes. Add + to any zou.sh link, as in zou.sh/launch+, to see its destination, creation date and total clicks. For short links from other services, use the link expander.

Blinkhop is a private URL shortener: no cookies, no trackers, no ads, and no captcha when you arrive from Tor or a VPN. Visitor IP addresses are never stored with links or clicks.

Read the privacy policy Shorten a link

The problem

Why privacy-minded people avoid short links

01
Captchas for Tor and VPN users

Arrive from a privacy network and many sites answer with captchas, block pages or a flat refusal, as if protecting yourself were suspicious.
02
Redirects that collect data

A redirect is an easy place to set a cookie, log an IP address and add a click to a profile, and you never see any of it happen.
03
Links that hide their destination

A short link says nothing about where it leads. Clicking blind is how people end up on phishing pages and tracker-heavy sites.

How it fits

What happens to your data, step by step

What Blinkhop keeps when a link is created and opened, and what it leaves out.

Step 1
You create a link

We store the destination, the code, the creation time and the channel: web, API or MCP. Your IP is held in memory only, for rate limiting, 24 hours at most.
Step 2
Someone opens it

The redirect sets no cookies and stores no IP address. The browser’s user agent is read to tell people from bots, then discarded.
Step 3
Counts stay aggregated

Clicks become daily totals by country, referrer domain and device type, never individual records. Bots, link previews and scripts aren’t counted.
Step 4
Anyone can check it

Add + to a zou.sh link to see its destination, creation date and total clicks before visiting. The link expander does the same for other short links.

Use cases

Where a private shortener makes a difference

Browsing over Tor

Shorten, preview and open links over Tor without a captcha, a block page or an extra verification step.
Citing sources

Journalists and researchers can cite sources with short links that set no cookies on readers and never ask them to prove they’re human.
Nonprofits and advocacy

Share resources with supporters and get aggregate counts only, with no cookies or ad trackers riding along with each click.
Checking a suspicious link

Got a short link in a message? Paste it into the link expander to see where it really leads before you open it.
Strict privacy policies

Organizations that limit third-party tracking can use a shortener whose website self-hosts its fonts and images and runs no analytics scripts.
Shared and public networks

Libraries, campuses and coworking spaces often put many people behind one IP address. Blinkhop serves them without bot walls.

Features you’ll use

The parts of Blinkhop that matter here.

Link safety
Every destination is checked against 390,000 known bad domains.
Analytics
Clicks by day, country, referrer and device. No cookies.
Link shortener
Turn any long URL into a clean zou.sh link in a second.

FAQ

Questions, answered.

Visit the help center

Do you store IP addresses?

No. IP addresses never reach our database. Rate limiting holds them in memory for up to 24 hours, the blinkhop.com request log records only the time, page and status, and the API and MCP server keep no access logs.

Does Blinkhop use cookies?

No. The website, the redirects, the API and the MCP server set no cookies, and there are no analytics trackers, ads or third-party fonts.

What does Cloudflare see?

Cloudflare provides CDN, TLS and DDoS protection in front of all our domains, so every request passes through it, IP address included, and it processes that traffic on our behalf. Its bot challenges are switched off: it sets no cookies in normal operation, though during an attack it may set a strictly necessary security cookie.

Does Blinkhop work over Tor and VPNs?

Yes, with no captchas or bot walls in front of the website, the API, the MCP server or redirects. Limits are counted per IP address, so on a busy exit node you may share yours with other people.

Can I check a link before opening it?

Yes. Add + to any zou.sh link, as in zou.sh/launch+, to see its destination, creation date and total clicks. For short links from other services, use the link expander.

Are the links I create private?

No. Every short link is public: anyone who has one can open its preview and see the destination, creation date and click total. Keep personal information and private sharing links out of the URLs you shorten.

Help
What data does Blinkhop collect?
As little as possible: no cookies, no trackers and no IP addresses stored with links or clicks. Here is exactly what we store when you create, click or report a link.
Help
Can I use Blinkhop over Tor or a VPN?
Yes. The website, the API, the MCP server and zou.sh redirects all work over Tor and VPNs, with no captchas or bot walls.
Blog
Privacy-first link analytics: what we count, and what we refuse to collect
Blinkhop counts clicks by day, country, referrer domain and device type, with no cookies and without storing IP addresses. Here is how it works, and why it is enough.
Guide
How to check where a short link goes, and whether it is safe
Check where a short link goes before you click: the + preview on zou.sh, tricks for other shorteners, a free link expander, phishing red flags and what to do next.