4 ms·

Show HN: Pxl.to – A serverless link shortener with no limits and no downtime

10 points by nemz44 4y ago

I built a service based on Amazon CloudFront's global edge network of points of presence. This distributed architecture affords the user: - Protection against network and application layer attacks - Robust and reliable links that will never go down - Instant links with low latency no matter where your visitors are in the world - Unlimited tracked clicks (no cap on clicks/month) The service has support for teams and custom domains, and auto-generates an SSL cert for every custom domain added, for HTTPS-secure links. It's largely free and can be found at https://www.pxl.to I'd love any feedback... no matter how brutal :)

Hakeemmidan 4y ago
The UI is quite clean and responsive; it looks great! What is your frontend tech stack if you don't mind me asking?
- nemz44 4y ago
  Cheers- Frontend is Next.js React
ftyhbhyjnjk 4y ago
Unlimited links? Dude... people can abuse your service to use as key-value database. Also, unlimited clicks on free plan? With no rate-limits? You might face a massive DOS attack. Also, I heavily doubt you could afford those plans while still maintaining good QOS. Anyways, best wishes for your journey :)
- jcwayne 4y ago
  > It's largely free Looks like it's $30/mo for a useful plan.
  - nemz44 4y ago
    I'd like to offer a free version that is useful for non-pro users. I feel that a limit on link creation is a way to differentiate. That said, I'm still experimenting with pricing so this could well change.
- nemz44 4y ago
  There are some measures in place to prevent bots and click-fraud. DOS is less of a concern, as everything is serverless and based on CF/S3. I'm actively experimenting with pricing and it could well change in the future. You've given me plenty to think about!
jraph 4y ago
Link shorteners are called like this because they shorten the life of links. I'll paste mgdlbp's comment from 21 days ago [1] (about git.io deprecation, which in the end is kept read-only and isn't simply turned off as originally planned): The problems with url shorteners https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=545565 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=545565 – 2009-04 (56 comments) URL Shorteners – the herpes of the web https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=570041 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=570041 – 2009-04 (17 comments) Url Shorteners: Destroying the Web Since 2002 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=660087 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=660087 – 2009-06 (57 comments) URL Shorteners are evil, here's one to prove it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=904941 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=904941 – 2009-10 (57 comments) – ironically dead Link shorteners hurt the user experience and destroy the Web https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7803290 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7803290 – 2014-05 (89 comments) – dead The URL shortener situation is out of control https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7836626 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7836626 – 2014-06 (78 comments) URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25624112 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25624112 – 2021-01 (207 comments) Link shorteners: the long and short of why you shouldn’t use them https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27462261 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27462261 – 2021-06 (145 comments) There are very few places where you actually need a link to be short, and that's mostly for printed documents or posters. At this point, if you also edit the website, you can build a small and nice URL from your domain. WordPress has a free redirection extension that makes it easy for non-technical users as well. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31163972 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31163972
- nemz44 4y ago
  Thanks for your comment, I'll be look into these posts today.
abdouls 4y ago
I like the interface, it looks clean! What kind of information do you have with the analytics?
- nemz44 4y ago
  Thanks! We collect OS/browser information from the user agent, country, referrer and query parameters.
Bla2e 4y ago
Liked the clean simple design and the pages load quickly! What do you mean by "2 pixels" on the Free package and Unlimited pixels for the paid plans?
creativedg 4y ago
I want also to implement the custom domains for my own project and you are currently using Amazon AWS to handle custom domains and auto-generates an SSL cert? If I'm not wrong Amazon AWS for custom domain is limited to a fixed number of certificate (something less than 1000). How do you plan to scale support a large amount of the customer?
- nemz44 4y ago
  Thanks for showing interest. The service doesn't use AWS to auto-generate SSL for custom domains, it uses a dedicated instance of Open Resty with LetsEncrypt.
  - creativedg 4y ago
    Thank you for your response
_justinfunk 4y ago
I enjoy the "creative" use of the brand bar where people expect to see logos of your customers.
- nemz44 4y ago
  Admittedly, I can understand how this would be misleading. I'll fix this soon
allynjalford 4y ago
Make it useful for Web3 addresses and you may have something great.

10 points by nemz44 4y ago

Hakeemmidan 4y ago

The UI is quite clean and responsive; it looks great! What is your frontend tech stack if you don't mind me asking?

nemz44 4y ago
Cheers- Frontend is Next.js React

ftyhbhyjnjk 4y ago

Unlimited links? Dude... people can abuse your service to use as key-value database. Also, unlimited clicks on free plan? With no rate-limits? You might face a massive DOS attack. Also, I heavily doubt you could afford those plans while still maintaining good QOS. Anyways, best wishes for your journey :)

jcwayne 4y ago
> It's largely free Looks like it's $30/mo for a useful plan.
- nemz44 4y ago
  I'd like to offer a free version that is useful for non-pro users. I feel that a limit on link creation is a way to differentiate. That said, I'm still experimenting with pricing so this could well change.
nemz44 4y ago
There are some measures in place to prevent bots and click-fraud. DOS is less of a concern, as everything is serverless and based on CF/S3. I'm actively experimenting with pricing and it could well change in the future. You've given me plenty to think about!

jraph 4y ago

Link shorteners are called like this because they shorten the life of links. I'll paste mgdlbp's comment from 21 days ago [1] (about git.io deprecation, which in the end is kept read-only and isn't simply turned off as originally planned): The problems with url shorteners https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=545565 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=545565 – 2009-04 (56 comments) URL Shorteners – the herpes of the web https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=570041 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=570041 – 2009-04 (17 comments) Url Shorteners: Destroying the Web Since 2002 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=660087 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=660087 – 2009-06 (57 comments) URL Shorteners are evil, here's one to prove it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=904941 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=904941 – 2009-10 (57 comments) – ironically dead Link shorteners hurt the user experience and destroy the Web https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7803290 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7803290 – 2014-05 (89 comments) – dead The URL shortener situation is out of control https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7836626 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7836626 – 2014-06 (78 comments) URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25624112 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25624112 – 2021-01 (207 comments) Link shorteners: the long and short of why you shouldn’t use them https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27462261 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27462261 – 2021-06 (145 comments) There are very few places where you actually need a link to be short, and that's mostly for printed documents or posters. At this point, if you also edit the website, you can build a small and nice URL from your domain. WordPress has a free redirection extension that makes it easy for non-technical users as well. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31163972 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31163972

nemz44 4y ago
Thanks for your comment, I'll be look into these posts today.

abdouls 4y ago

I like the interface, it looks clean! What kind of information do you have with the analytics?

nemz44 4y ago
Thanks! We collect OS/browser information from the user agent, country, referrer and query parameters.

Bla2e 4y ago

Liked the clean simple design and the pages load quickly! What do you mean by "2 pixels" on the Free package and Unlimited pixels for the paid plans?

creativedg 4y ago

I want also to implement the custom domains for my own project and you are currently using Amazon AWS to handle custom domains and auto-generates an SSL cert? If I'm not wrong Amazon AWS for custom domain is limited to a fixed number of certificate (something less than 1000). How do you plan to scale support a large amount of the customer?

nemz44 4y ago
Thanks for showing interest. The service doesn't use AWS to auto-generate SSL for custom domains, it uses a dedicated instance of Open Resty with LetsEncrypt.
- creativedg 4y ago
  Thank you for your response

_justinfunk 4y ago

I enjoy the "creative" use of the brand bar where people expect to see logos of your customers.

nemz44 4y ago
Admittedly, I can understand how this would be misleading. I'll fix this soon

allynjalford 4y ago

Make it useful for Web3 addresses and you may have something great.