The best Linktree alternative depends on what your link page has to do. If it only routes followers to your other platforms, a free page from Linktree, Beacons or Buffer's Start Page is enough. If it sells products, compare each platform's cut of every sale with a flat subscription. If you want the page on a domain you own, Carrd's paid plans and Beacons' Creator plan include one, while Linktree's pricing page lists no custom-domain option and Stan's help centre says it has none. Content rules settle the rest, because each provider limits what you may link to or sell.
Link-in-bio comparison matrix, checked 1 October 2026
Each cell comes from the provider's own pricing, help or policy pages. Fees on sales exclude payment processing, which every option that sells charges separately through Stripe, PayPal or similar.
| Tool | Free plan | Custom domain | Analytics and export | Platform fee on your sales | Content policy in brief | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linktree | Yes, described as free with restrictions: unlimited basic links plus email and phone sign-ups | Not listed; pages sit on the linktr.ee domain | Link analytics from Starter; all-time analytics and data export on Premium only | 12% on Free, 9% on Starter and Pro, 0% on Premium, per the help centre | Links to legal adult content allowed if marked sensitive; no adult media on the page and no selling it through Linktree | Linktree pricing; fees help; standards |
| Beacons | Free forever, with a link page, media kit, store and 50 email sends a month | Included from the Creator plan, $10 monthly or $100 a year | Real-time analytics on Free; audience import and export appear in the plan comparison | 9% on Free and Creator; 0% on Creator Plus and Creator Max | Adult links need the sensitive-content notice and the page itself must suit all ages; explicit photos, audio and video may not be sold | Beacons pricing; Beacons standards |
| Stan | No free store; affiliate-only accounts exist but are not a store | Not available; forward a domain you own to your stan.store address instead | Store and product analytics on Creator; pixel tracking on Creator Pro | 0% Stan fee on both plans; Creator costs $29 a month | Terms bar material related to adult content and services, including mature-audience content | Stan plans; domain help; Stan terms |
| Carrd | A free account can publish up to three sites, with Carrd branding | From Pro Standard at $19 a year, with SSL included | Google Analytics and similar tracking on Pro Standard; site download on Pro Plus | No Carrd sales fee listed; payment forms and Stripe or PayPal embeds come with Pro Standard | No pornographic content; adult-oriented artwork allowed on the artist's own site | Carrd Pro; content policy |
| Buffer Start Page | Yes, on Buffer's free plan, where it takes one of the three free channels | Not listed on the pages checked | Some features are limited on the free plan | No storefront | Not covered on the pages checked | Buffer Start Page |
| Later Link in Bio | No; it comes with a paid Later plan | Not listed on the pricing page | Up to a year of analytics on Starter and Growth, two years on Scale, plus views by location | No checkout; shoppable linked posts and affiliate links instead | Not covered on the pages checked | Later pricing |
Linktree shows prices in local currency. Viewed from Australia, its pricing page lists Starter at A$10 a month billed annually or A$13 monthly, Pro at A$18.50 or A$23, and Premium at A$46.50 or A$54. Beacons, Stan and Carrd quote US dollars. If you also schedule posts, Later and Buffer bundle their link pages with their schedulers, which our Later vs Buffer comparison covers in more depth.
Sales fees: read the help centre, not just the pricing page
Linktree's own pages disagree about what you pay on Pro. The pricing page lists “Sell and earn with 0% fees” among Pro features, while its transaction fees article gives a 9% Linktree fee on Starter and Pro and 0% only on Premium, and its digital products guide repeats the 9% figure. Until Linktree reconciles them, assume the help centre applies and confirm the fee on your first sale.
Beacons is consistent on the percentage: its fees article charges 9% on Free and Creator and nothing on Creator Plus or Max, and notes that Stripe charges 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction and PayPal 3.49% plus a fixed fee. Stan takes no cut and charges a flat subscription; its fees article lists Stripe's Australian standard rate as 1.75% plus A$0.30 per transaction, with extra charges for international cards and buy-now-pay-later options.
Whether a percentage or a subscription costs less depends entirely on your monthly sales, which is the calculation our Stan Store vs Beacons worksheet walks through. Deciding what to sell and how to handle tax and refunds is covered separately in how to sell digital products as a creator.
Custom domains and what you actually own
A link page on someone else's domain is rented. If the provider changes its rules or closes your account, every bio pointing at it breaks at once. A domain you own can be repointed to a new page, which makes it cheap insurance for the whole stack. Stan's help centre says plainly that you cannot attach a custom domain to a Stan Store, though you can forward your own domain to it; that keeps a portable address in your bios even while the store stays on Stan.
Beacons words the benefit two ways. Its pricing page lists a free custom domain on the Creator plan, while its plans help article says the custom domain is free for your first year. Read that as a domain registration that may renew at a cost, and check the renewal price before you rely on it. Carrd's route is the reverse: you buy the domain yourself from any registrar and connect it on a Pro Standard plan.
Content rules decide where you can host
The policy column matters more than any feature for creators whose work includes age-restricted material elsewhere. Linktree and Beacons both allow links out to legal adult content with a sensitive-content label, while keeping the page itself clean and refusing to process sales of that material. Stan's terms rule out adult content and services altogether. Carrd bans pornographic content but allows adult-oriented artwork posted by the artist who made it. These rules cover both what appears on the page and what it points to, so read the full policy before you build.
If your link page sends fans to OnlyFans or a similar subscription site, the provider-by-provider rules for that use are covered in our link-in-bio tools for OnlyFans guide, and the page copy itself in the OnlyFans landing page checklist.
Link-in-bio audit checklist
Run this on the page you already have before switching tools; some of the fixes do not need a new provider at all.
- Open the page from inside each app where it appears, on a phone, and tap every link to confirm it loads in that in-app browser.
- Remove dead links, expired offers and anything you would not want a brand partner to see first.
- If the page collects emails or phone numbers, show a privacy notice before the sign-up; Linktree's community standards require one.
- Switch on the sensitive-content setting for any link that needs it, and keep the visible page suitable for every audience the provider requires.
- Check each platform's own rules for bio links, such as the eligibility steps in how to add a link in bio on TikTok.
- If the page sells, confirm who the payouts go to, that your payout and tax details are current, and what fee you paid on your latest sale.
- Export the subscriber list and any analytics your plan allows, and keep a copy outside the tool.
- If you use your own domain, check the renewal date and turn on auto-renew with a payment card that will not expire first.
- Note the clicks each link gets now, so any redesign can be judged against a baseline rather than a feeling.
- Decide whether the list you collect should feed a proper newsletter; our guide to an email list for creators covers that step.
Matching a tool to the job
- Routing followers only: stay on a free plan from Linktree or Beacons, or use Buffer's Start Page if you already schedule with Buffer.
- Selling digital products at low volume: Beacons' free store avoids a monthly bill, at the cost of its seller fee on each sale.
- Selling steadily: compare a flat subscription such as Stan or Beacons Creator Plus against the percentage you would otherwise pay.
- Owning the address: Carrd on a Pro Standard plan, or any provider that supports a domain you register yourself.
- Posting age-restricted work elsewhere: shortlist only the providers whose policies allow your links, then compare features.
If you do move, switch in a set order so nothing breaks in between. Build the new page completely, with every link tested, before touching any bio. Export your subscriber list and analytics from the old tool while you still have access. Update bios one platform at a time and keep a note of where the old address appears, including pinned posts, email signatures and printed QR codes. Leave the old page live with a single link to the new one until clicks on it fade, then close it. The order matters most when the page sells, because buyers who bookmarked a product link should land somewhere that still works.
Limitations of this matrix
The figures come from the providers' pages on 1 October 2026, some shown in Australian dollars because Linktree prices by location, and none of them include tax or payment processing. Where a cell says a page did not cover something, the feature may still exist; ask the provider. Policies change, and enforcement is at each provider's discretion, so this is general information rather than legal advice about any particular page. For the rest of the tool stack around your link page, see our guide to the best tools for content creators.