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Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to Zero Width Shortener

Shorten URLs with zero-width characters

Zero Width Shortener is a URL shortener that conceals shortened links using invisible zero-width characters instead of traditional shortened URLs. The tool makes links appear normal to humans while encoding the… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Zero Width Shortener launched in 2019; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

  1. 1

    Replace scary zero-width characters with funny emojis - elchiapp/zero-width-chrome-extension

    2018 · github.com · its alternatives →

  2. 2
    linkmoji▲456

    The emoji URL shortener (🍕💩.ws)

    2015 · its alternatives →

  3. 3
    ZeroBlur▲266

    Blur sensitive information and share screen with confidence

    2021 · divbyzero.com · its alternatives →

  4. 4

    Shorten URLs like a pro

    2021 · rapidapi-example-url-shortener.vercel.app · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    Minimal URL shortener that can be entirely hosted on GitHub pages. - nelsontky/gh-pages-url-shortener

    2020 · github.com · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    A Chrome extension to detect, highlight, and sanitize text with zero-width characters. - roymckenzie/detect-zero-width-characters-chrome-extension

    2018 · github.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7ZB

    I created this a year or so ago but recently made updates and I thought people might like to know that it exists. I made this to easily send links or text to someone else verbally, like over the phone or over voice chat (which is what I made it for). The goal is to be able to tell the link to someone else without being ambiguous or needing to spell it out, so I grabbed the words off a Grade 5 level dictionary. I understand that the domain itself doesn’t qualify but I’m trying to get a better domain.

    2013 · zigg.be · its alternatives →

  8. 8

    A simple, modern, free and privacy-friendly URL shortener.

    2019 · chl.li · its alternatives →

  9. 9
    ne.fo▲65

    A really tiny URL shortener

    2022 · ne.fo · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    The most sophisticated URL shortener & conversion tracking

    2023 · exactlinks.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11

    Fast, free and decentralized URL shortener

    2023 · w3.do · its alternatives →

  12. 12
    ZWS.IM▲3

    Link Shortener which uses whitespaces

    2022 · zws.im · its alternatives →

  13. 13

    Extremely powerful URL Shortener with open stats

    2019 · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    Shorten the web, expand possibilities

    2023 · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    Shorten any link you want, with no accounts

    2023 · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    Was bored at work so I threw this together. First bash at a Node app. Built a simple Chrome extension for it too.

    2011 · github.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17US
  18. 18

    A dead-simple url shortener that respects your privacy.

    2022 · shortie.sh · its alternatives →

  19. 19
    + Link▲72

    A URL Shortener that helps combat phishing

    2018 · plus.link · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    I built a demo of two Unicode steganography techniques, zero-width characters and homoglyph substitution, in the context of AI misalignment. The first is about the use of two invisible zero-width characters (ZWS and ZWNJ) to binary encode text. The second is much cooler. Most characters in the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets look nearly identical, but have different unicode. If you have text to encode and convert it into binary representation (1s and 0s), you could take plain english "carrier" text and for each 1 in the binary representation you could substitute the Cyrillic letter equivalent.…

    Apr 2026 · steganography.patrickvuscan.com · its alternatives →

  21. 21
  22. 22IB
  23. 23
    MagLit▲20

    Open source privacy respecting encrypted link shortener

    2022 · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    A URL Shortener by Clio Websites

    2025 · cliow.com · its alternatives →

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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →