Open Source · Self-Hosted

Short link,
Long reach.

A lightweight URL shortener you run yourself.
No third-party tracking. No rate limits.
Full control — containerised with Docker,
deployed on Render with PostgreSQL.

Try Live Demo → View on GitHub

Free tier — first load may take upto a minute to wake up

bash

# clone & run locally $ git clone https://github.com/vinigani01/snip $ cd snip $ docker compose -f docker-compose-local.yml up -d [+] Running 2/2 ✔ Container snip-db started ✔ Container snip-url started ✔ Running at http://localhost:3000 # stop $ docker compose down

// Features

Everything you need,
nothing you don't.

Custom Aliases

Choose your own short code - /my-project, /docs, anything you want instead of a random string.

Click Tracking

Every redirect is counted. See how many times each link has been clicked from the built-in dashboard.

Persistent Storage

Links are stored in PostgreSQL and persist across container restarts and redeployments on Render.

Any URL

Works with any valid web URL. Automatically prepends https:// if the protocol is missing.

Cloud Deployed

Deployed on Render with a free PostgreSQL database. Auto-redeploys on every push to GitHub.

Run Anywhere

Runs locally via Docker Compose or on any platform that supports Docker. No vendor lock-in.

// Tech Stack

Built with modern,
battle-tested tools.

⬡

Node.js + Express

REST API server — shortening, redirects, and stats

◫

PostgreSQL

Managed relational database via Render's free tier

◳

Docker + Compose

Fully containerised - one command deploy anywhere

☁

Render

Cloud hosting with Docker runtime and auto-deploy from GitHub

◈

Vanilla HTML/CSS/JS

No frontend framework - fast, served directly by Express

↗

nanoid

Compact, URL-safe random short codes

// Setup

Up and running,
within minutes.

Clone the repo

Download the project from GitHub onto your local machine.

docker compose up

One command starts both the app and a local Postgres container.

Or deploy to Render

Connect the repo — the blueprint provisions everything automatically.

Start shortening

Open the app, paste a URL, and get a short link instantly.

      # run locally with Docker

      # clone the directory

      git clone https://github.com/vinigani01/snip

      # navigate to the directory

      cd snip

      # build and run

      docker compose -f docker-compose-local.yml up -d 

      # stop

      docker compose -f docker-compose-local.yml down

Short link,Long reach.

Everything you need,nothing you don't.