onelink.to Alternative: What to Do When Your Free Links Start Showing Ads
onelink.to's own FAQ confirms it: once a free-plan link passes 1,000 clicks in a month, it may start showing ads before redirecting your users to the app store. Here is what triggers that, and a way to avoid it entirely.
onelink.to's own FAQ confirms it: once a free-plan link passes 1,000 clicks in a month, "your Onelinks will still work but may show ads to users before redirecting to the destination." That is the worst possible moment for it to happen, since it means your best-performing link is the one that starts showing ads.
What Triggers Ads on a Free onelink.to Link
onelink.to is a smart link and QR code service built by Olto AB, a Stockholm-based company operating since 2011.
*It is not affiliated with AppsFlyer, whose similarly-named OneLink product lives on the onelink.me domain. That is a common point of confusion, since the two are otherwise unrelated products from unrelated companies.
The free plan gives you 3 links and unlimited traffic, but only the first 1,000 clicks per month per account stay ad-free. onelink.to's own support page, titled "What happens after I reach 1,000 clicks on the free plan?", states directly that once you are over that threshold, your links keep working but may show ads before redirecting the visitor to the App Store, Google Play, or your fallback URL.
That is the detail worth sitting with. A link is not something you set and forget, it is something you put in a bio, a QR code on packaging, or a paid campaign. The month it actually works, the month clicks spike past 1,000, is the month an ad gets inserted in front of the people you worked to bring in.
The Free Plan, in Full
- 3 links maximum, not per month, total.
- 3 QR codes maximum, one per link, so the QR cap tracks the link cap exactly. No custom colors or logo at this tier.
- 1,000 ad-free clicks per month. Beyond that, ads may appear before the redirect.
- No custom domain. Branded short links require a paid plan.
- No deep linking at any tier. onelink.to only ever redirects to an app store listing or a fallback URL. It cannot route a visitor who already has your app installed to a specific screen inside it, and it has no deferred deep linking to preserve that destination through an install.
- No attribution. It counts clicks, referrers, countries, and UTM tags, but it cannot tell you which link drove an install, a signup, or a purchase.
None of that makes onelink.to a bad product for what it is: a simple, no-SDK-required way to point one link at the right app store. The gap is what happens once you are actually using it, at the free tier, at any real volume.
The ChottuLink Free Plan
ChottuLink's free plan has no click-based ad insertion, at any volume. Links stay unlimited and clicks stay unlimited, with no asterisk.
There is one mechanic worth being upfront about: a brand-new account can create up to 10 links before connecting the ChottuLink SDK. That cap exists to stop the free tier being used as a pure URL-shortener with zero product intent, and it disappears the moment you integrate the SDK, which is also free. In practice, most teams hit that unlock naturally within their first setup session, since installing the SDK is also what turns your links into real deep links instead of app-store redirects. There is no separate charge and no sales call attached to removing it.
QR Codes: Free Quantity vs. Paid Customization
Both products generate a QR code for every link, but the free-tier math is not close. onelink.to's free plan is boxed in by the same 3-link ceiling everything else on that tier hits, so you get at most 3 QR codes, period. ChottuLink's free plan gives you unlimited QR codes, one auto-generated for every link, no separate cap.
Where the two products actually line up is customization. onelink.to reserves QR styling (a saved custom look, one style on Professional, three on Team and above) for paid plans. ChottuLink follows the same shape: colors, logo embed, and saved styles for on-brand QR codes are a paid-tier feature, while the free tier gets the standard auto-generated code. The difference is what "free" gets you before you ever reach that paid customization question, unlimited codes on ChottuLink versus three total on onelink.to.
Why This Matters More Because You Already Have an App
Here is the part worth being direct about: almost nobody lands on onelink.to without an app to point people toward. That is the entire premise of a smart app-store redirect link, you already shipped something on the App Store or Google Play. Which means the deep linking gap above is not a hypothetical "if you build an app someday", it is a gap in the product you are using onelink.to for right now.
onelink.to can get a new user to your app store listing. It cannot take a user who already has your app installed and drop them directly into a specific product page, referral flow, or piece of content inside that app, it just reopens the app at its default screen. It also cannot preserve that destination across an install, so someone who taps a link before installing lands on your generic home screen after signup instead of the page they actually clicked toward. For anything where the destination matters, an influencer promo, a specific listing, a referral code, a piece of UGC, that context is lost the moment the click leaves onelink.to.
ChottuLink is built for exactly this case: deferred deep linking carries the destination through the install for users who do not have the app yet, and standard deep linking routes users who already do, straight to the intended screen. It runs on the same short links, unlimited QR codes, and click analytics you already expect from a link tool, so switching is not a downgrade on the parts of onelink.to you rely on today, it adds the part that was missing.
Moving Existing Links Over
ChottuLink does not currently have a one-click importer for all your onelink.to links. Two practical paths exist today:
- Recreate manually. For 3 links (the onelink.to free-plan max), this is a five-minute job in the dashboard.
- Use the REST API. If you are on a paid onelink.to plan with more links, or want to script the move, ChottuLink's REST API lets you create matching branded links programmatically rather than clicking through the dashboard one at a time. Our team can help walk through this for anyone migrating more than a handful of links.
Either way, your old onelink.to links keep working during the move, since you are creating new ChottuLink links rather than modifying anything on their end. Update your bio links, QR codes, and packaging to point at the new links once they are live, and retire the old ones on your own schedule.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is onelink.to the same as AppsFlyer OneLink?
No. onelink.to is built by Olto AB, based in Stockholm, Sweden, and has operated since 2011. AppsFlyer's OneLink is a separate product from a separate company, running on the onelink.me domain. The name overlap is a coincidence, not a rebrand or partnership.
What happens when a free onelink.to link passes 1,000 clicks in a month?
According to onelink.to's own support page, the link keeps working, but it may start showing ads to visitors before redirecting them to the app store or fallback URL. Traffic itself is not capped, only the ad-free portion of it.
Does ChottuLink's free plan really have no link limit?
Yes, with one caveat: a new account can create up to 10 links before the ChottuLink SDK is integrated. Once the SDK is connected, which is also free, links and clicks are unlimited. There is no ad insertion at any point on the free plan.
Can onelink.to send users to a specific screen inside my app?
No. onelink.to redirects to an app store listing, a fallback URL, or (with the app already installed) reopens the app at its default entry point. It does not support routing to a specific in-app screen or preserving that destination through an install. ChottuLink supports both through standard deep linking and deferred deep linking. That is relevant to nearly every onelink.to user, since the product is built around already having an app.
How many QR codes do I get on each free plan?
onelink.to's free plan is capped at 3 links total, so at most 3 QR codes. ChottuLink's free plan includes unlimited QR codes, one generated automatically with every link. Custom QR styling, colors and a logo, is a paid-tier feature on both products.
How do I move my links from onelink.to to ChottuLink?
There is no automated importer yet. For a handful of links, recreating them manually in the ChottuLink dashboard takes a few minutes. For a larger set, the REST API can script the migration, and our team can assist directly if needed.
The Bottom Line
onelink.to does one thing, app-store redirect links and QR codes, and does it without requiring an SDK. The catch is in the free plan's fine print: only the first 1,000 clicks a month stay ad-free, 3 links and 3 QR codes is the hard ceiling regardless of volume, and there is no way to route an installed user to a specific in-app screen at any tier. ChottuLink's free plan covers the same ground with unlimited links, unlimited QR codes, and no click-based ads, and adds the deep linking and deferred deep linking that onelink.to's own core use case, app owners, actually needs.
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