Best link in bio tools for creators
Linktree's free plan is enough if you only route links. If you sell, the checkout has to sit on the page. Ten tools compared on price, fees and fit.
This guide is part of our independent creator software reviews. Where pricing matters, run the numbers in our pricing calculators or read a head-to-head comparison before you commit. Unfamiliar with a term? Check the creator tools glossary. For how we score and rank tools, see our review methodology.
Editorial policy: How we review software · How rankings work · Sponsored disclosure
Link-in-Bio Tools2,931 words
Picking between the best link in bio tools comes down to one question: do you need a tidy list of links, or a checkout?
If all you want is a clean page that routes followers to a newsletter, a shop and a latest video, Linktree's free plan does it and costs nothing.
If you sell anything at all, Stan Store at $29/mo is the stronger pick, because it puts the checkout on the page instead of sending buyers to a third site and losing most of them on the way.
This guide covers the ten link in bio tools creators shortlist, grouped by what you plan to do with the page rather than ranked one to ten.
Every price below comes from the vendor's own published rate card, with the plan name and the billing unit attached, because the headline number on a pricing page is rarely the number you pay.
Prices were checked between June and October 2026 and these pages change often. If you want to see what your current stack costs before adding another subscription, the subscription stack audit calculator will total it up.
What these tools replace
A link in bio tool hosts a single mobile page at a short URL, which you paste into the one clickable field a social profile gives you.
The page holds your links, and on most paid plans it also holds an email capture form, a payment button and click analytics. The category exists because Instagram and TikTok allow one link in a profile bio and no clickable links in captions.
The practical consequence is that your bio link is the only place where social traffic converts into something you own. Every follower who taps it is already interested.
What happens in the next six seconds decides whether they subscribe, buy or leave, so the page's job is narrow: load fast, show the one thing you want tapped, and capture an email address or a card.
Two design choices separate the tools. The first is whether the page is a list of outbound links or a storefront with its own checkout.
The second is whether your email list lives inside the tool or gets handed to a newsletter platform you already pay for. Get those two right and the rest is theming.
One more thing to settle before you pick: the page is a conversion surface, so the analytics matter more than the themes.
The useful number is clicks per link, not page views, because that tells you which of your four destinations is carrying the traffic and which is dead weight.
Linktree reports link-level clicks on the free plan, Beacons and Stan Store report sales alongside clicks, and Carrd reports nothing unless you add your own analytics script.
Aggregators versus storefronts
An aggregator sends traffic somewhere else. Linktree, Milkshake and Taplink all work this way: a visitor taps your Shopify listing and lands on Shopify.
Nothing wrong with that, and it is the right shape if your products already live on a platform with a working checkout.
A storefront keeps the transaction on the page. Stan Store, Beacons and Ko-fi Shop all take the card themselves, which removes one full page load and one redirect from the purchase.
The trade is that they charge for it: either a monthly fee, a cut of each sale, or both. Beacons' free plan takes 9% of sales, and Ko-fi's free plan takes 5% of shop sales, memberships and commissions while taking nothing on tips.
The break-even is simple arithmetic. Ko-fi Gold removes the Ko-fi fee for $12/mo, so it pays for itself once your monthly sales pass $240, because 5% of $240 is $12. Below that, the free plan with the percentage fee costs you less.
$240/month in sales, the point at which Ko-fi Gold's $12/mo flat fee costs the same as Ko-fi's 5% cut
Source: Stated in this guide: Ko-fi Gold removes the Ko-fi fee for $12/mo and 5% of $240 is $12. Below that figure the free plan's percentage costs less.
Run the same calculation against your own last three months before you upgrade anything.
Link in bio tools by fit
These ten are grouped by the job you are hiring the page to do. Within a group they are close enough that the deciding factor is usually your existing stack, not a feature.
Simple pages, no selling
Linktree is the default and the one your audience already recognises. The free plan gives unlimited links, basic themes and link-level click counts, which is enough for a creator whose only goal is routing people to a YouTube channel and a newsletter signup.
Paid tiers are Starter at $8/mo ($6/mo billed annually), Pro at $15/mo ($12/mo billed annually) and Premium at $35/mo ($30/mo billed annually), checked 6 October 2026. Pro is the tier that adds the deeper analytics and the priority link placement most creators upgrade for.
Best fit: anyone who wants the page handled in ten minutes and never thought about again.
Milkshake builds the page on your phone, as a set of swipeable cards rather than a vertical list, and it is the cheapest paid tier in the category.
Free is $0/mo; Lite is $2.99/mo, Pro is $6.99/mo ($59.99/year billed annually) and Pro+ is $10/mo ($99.99/year billed annually), checked 6 October 2026.
The card format suits a creator presenting a few distinct things, such as a podcast, a shop and a booking page, rather than a long link list. Best fit: phone-only creators who want something that looks designed without opening a laptop.
Taplink is the budget pick with real form building. Free is $0/mo, Pro is $3/mo (about $2/mo billed annually) and Business is $9/mo (about $4.50/mo billed annually), checked 11 June 2026.
Business is where the multi-step forms, bookings and payment blocks sit, which is unusual at that price. Best fit: service creators who need an enquiry form more than a shop.
Storefront-first picks
Stan Store is built around the checkout rather than the link list. Creator is $29/mo ($300/year billed annually) and Creator Pro is $99/mo ($948/year billed annually), checked 6 October 2026.
The page carries digital products, courses, memberships and one-to-one bookings, and the buyer never leaves it. For a creator selling a $47 template, that single saved redirect is worth more than any theming feature in this guide.
Best fit: creators whose bio link is a revenue channel, not a directory.
Beacons covers the same ground and adds a media kit that pulls your follower and engagement numbers into a pitchable one-pager, which saves real time if you chase brand deals. Free is $0/mo with a 9% transaction fee on sales; Creator Pro is $10/mo ($8.33/mo billed annually), Store Pro is $30/mo ($25/mo billed annually) and Business Pro is $90/mo ($75/mo billed annually), checked 12 June 2026.
Best fit: creators who sell and pitch sponsors from the same page.
Ko-fi Shop starts from tips rather than products. The free plan takes 0% on tips and 5% on shop sales, memberships and commissions; Gold is $12/mo and removes Ko-fi's own fee, with annual billing no longer offered to new users, checked 15 June 2026.
Payment processing is separate and goes to Stripe or PayPal either way. Best fit: illustrators, writers and musicians whose audience pays in small voluntary amounts.
Design control and self-hosting
Carrd is a one-page site builder that happens to make an excellent bio page, and it is the cheapest serious option by a wide margin.
Free is $0; Pro Lite is $9/year for 3 sites, Pro Standard is $19/year for 10 sites and Pro Plus is $49/year for 25 sites, checked 6 October 2026.
Note the unit: that is per year, not per month, so Pro Standard costs less annually than one month of Stan Store. You get a custom domain and full layout control, and you give up any built-in checkout.
Best fit: creators who want the page to look like their brand and already sell elsewhere.
Payhip is a digital product platform rather than a link tool, but its storefront page does the same job and the fee structure is unusual.
Free is $0/mo with a 5% transaction fee, Plus is $29/mo with a 2% fee and Pro is $99/mo with no Payhip fee, checked 11 June 2026.
Because the fee drops as the subscription rises, the right tier is a function of monthly sales volume rather than feature need. Best fit: creators with enough volume that a percentage fee hurts more than a subscription.
Gumroad has no subscription at all. Direct sales cost 10% plus $0.50 per sale, and sales found through Gumroad's Discover marketplace cost 30% per sale, checked 1 October 2026. For an occasional seller that is the cheapest possible entry, since an idle month costs nothing.
For a creator doing $2,000 a month in direct sales it is $200 plus the per-sale charges, which is where the fixed-fee platforms start winning. More options in our guide to Gumroad alternatives.
Later includes a shoppable link in bio page with its scheduling product rather than selling it separately. Starter is $25/mo ($18.75/mo billed annually), Growth is $50/mo and Scale is $110/mo, checked 1 October 2026.
Nobody should buy Later for the bio page alone at that price. It makes sense only if you are already paying for Later to handle social scheduling, in which case the page is included and the feed is tagged automatically.
Best fit: creators already inside Later.
One pattern worth naming: the storefront tools all charge more for the store than for the page.
Beacons Creator Pro at $10/mo and Store Pro at $30/mo are the same page builder with a different commerce ceiling, and Payhip Plus at $29/mo buys a lower transaction percentage rather than a better editor.
If you are comparing entry prices across the two groups you are comparing different products, which is why the table below separates the checkout column from the price.
Price comparison
Entry paid tier and selling model. Prices as published by each vendor, checked June to October 2026.
| Tool | Best for | Entry paid price | Checkout on page | Sales fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linktree | Simple link routing | $8/mo Starter | No | None |
| Milkshake | Phone-built card pages | $2.99/mo Lite | No | None |
| Taplink | Forms and bookings | $3/mo Pro | Yes, payment blocks on Business | None |
| Stan Store | Selling digital products | $29/mo Creator | Yes | None stated by vendor |
| Beacons | Selling plus sponsor pitching | $10/mo Creator Pro | Yes | 9% on the free plan |
| Ko-fi Shop | Tips and small commissions | $12/mo Gold | Yes | 5% free plan, 0% on tips |
| Carrd | Full design control | $19/year Pro Standard | No | None |
| Payhip | Higher sales volume | $29/mo Plus | Yes | 5% free, 2% Plus, 0% Pro |
| Gumroad | Occasional selling | No subscription | Yes | 10% + $0.50 per sale |
| Later | Already scheduling in Later | $25/mo Starter | No | None |
How the pricing works
Three pricing models run through this category and they behave differently as you grow. Flat monthly subscriptions are the Linktree and Stan Store pattern: the bill is identical whether you sell nothing or sell $5,000, which is predictable and expensive at low volume.
Annual-only pricing is the Carrd pattern, where $19 a year for ten sites is close to a rounding error. Percentage-of-sales pricing is the Gumroad, Beacons free and Ko-fi free pattern, which costs nothing in a dead month and scales linearly with success.
The mistake is reading a percentage as cheap. Gumroad's 10% plus $0.50 on a $29 product leaves you about $25.60 before payment processing, and on 100 sales a month that is roughly $340 in platform fees against Stan Store's flat $29/mo.
The subscription wins long before most creators switch, because the switch feels like adding a cost rather than removing one.
Watch the unit on every tier, not the number. Later's $25/mo Starter buys a scheduling plan that happens to include a bio page. Beacons' $10/mo Creator Pro and its $30/mo Store Pro differ mainly in what the store can do, not in page design.
Carrd's prices are annual. Payhip's tiers trade subscription against transaction percentage, so the cheapest plan depends entirely on your revenue. The subscription stack audit is the fastest way to see what you are paying across all of them.
Payment processing is the cost nobody quotes. Every tool here that takes a card hands the transaction to Stripe or PayPal, and that processor charges its own percentage plus a fixed amount per transaction on top of whatever the platform takes.
So a 5% Ko-fi fee is 5% plus processing, and Gumroad's 10% plus $0.50 is 10% plus $0.50 plus processing. Read the fee section of the vendor's own pricing page rather than a summary, because the summaries routinely omit this layer.
How to choose
- Count what you sell. No products means no storefront, and Linktree's free plan or Carrd at $19/year is the whole answer.
- Check where your email list lives. If you already pay for a newsletter platform, pick a tool that passes signups straight to it rather than building a second list you have to export.
- Do the fee arithmetic on your last three months of sales, not on your best month. Percentage fees and flat subscriptions cross over at a volume you can calculate exactly.
- Decide whether you pitch sponsors. If you do, Beacons' auto-generated media kit removes a recurring hour of work that no other tool here replaces.
- Test the page on a 4G connection, not office wifi. A bio page that takes four seconds to paint loses taps regardless of what is on it.
- Confirm you can export your links, your email subscribers and your customer list before you commit to anything paid.
If you are migrating rather than starting, read the specific Linktree alternatives breakdown, which covers what transfers and what you rebuild by hand. For the selling side, how to sell digital products covers pricing and delivery once the page exists.
A social media bio template will help you write the page itself, which is the part most creators rush.
Adjacent comparisons
Most shortlists here end as a two-way decision. Linktree versus Beacons is the free-page-against-storefront choice in its clearest form. Linktree versus Stan Store is the same question with a harder price gap, $8/mo against $29/mo.
Stan Store versus Beacons is the real fight at the top of the category, and the media kit usually decides it. If you are leaning towards a built page rather than a hosted one, Carrd versus Leadpages covers where a one-page builder stops being enough.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best link in bio app?
For most creators it is Linktree, because the free plan covers unlimited links and click analytics and your audience already knows the format. If you sell anything, Stan Store at $29/mo is the better choice, since the checkout sits on the page instead of behind a redirect. Carrd at $19/year for ten sites is the pick if you want design control and sell elsewhere.
Is there a better Linktree?
It depends which part of Linktree you are replacing. For selling, Stan Store at $29/mo and Beacons from $10/mo both put a real checkout on the page, which Linktree does not. For design, Carrd gives you full layout control and a custom domain for $19/year on Pro Standard. For price alone, Taplink Pro is $3/mo against Linktree Starter at $8/mo.
Why don't people use Linktree anymore?
Plenty still do. The creators who leave mostly leave for one of two reasons: they started selling and wanted the checkout on the page, or they wanted the page on their own domain with their own layout. Linktree's paid tiers run from $8/mo to $35/mo, and at the Pro and Premium end creators tend to compare it against storefront tools rather than other link lists.
How do I do a link in bio?
Create a page in one of these tools, copy the URL it gives you, and paste it into the website field of your Instagram, TikTok or YouTube profile. Then add the three or four destinations that matter and delete everything else. A page with eleven links converts worse than a page with three, because every extra option is a decision the visitor has to make.
Can people see if you click a link in their Instagram bio?
Link in bio tools report click counts, referrers and device types, not the identity of individual visitors. So a creator can see that a link got 340 taps yesterday and that most came from Instagram, but not which follower tapped it. Exactly what each vendor logs and retains is set by its own privacy policy, so check that document rather than relying on a general answer.
Is a free link in bio page good enough?
Yes, if you are not selling. Linktree's free plan carries unlimited links and basic analytics, and Milkshake and Taplink both have usable free tiers. The free plans that cost you money are the storefront ones with percentage fees: Beacons takes 9% of sales on its free plan and Ko-fi takes 5% on shop sales, which passes a $10 to $12 monthly subscription quickly.
The short version
The best link in bio tools divide cleanly by whether money changes hands on the page. Not selling: Linktree free, or Carrd at $19/year if you care how it looks.
Selling: Stan Store at $29/mo for products, Beacons from $10/mo if you also pitch sponsors, Ko-fi for tips. Already paying for Later: use the page you have.
Before you add the subscription, total your current tools in the subscription stack audit, because the commonest outcome of this decision is a sixth monthly charge that replaces nothing.