REVIEW:
The UI:
As soon as you login to your dashboard, you get access to the backend which is quite simple to navigate and get things done. The process to shorten a URL is relatively easy. All you do is paste your long URL, and select an option from the dropdown. You can choose from direct, splash or frame,
NOTE: You can also click on advanced options to access more parameters and set things like custom alias, expiration date, add a password and set a description for yourself so you know exactly what those links are for.
For this test I set the following with the alias being
test1direct and password
test
You can check it out here: https://scur.link/test1direct
The password is test
As you can see here, my link is created and visible on the dashboard along with some insights regarding number of clicks etc.
A big bonus with this URL Shortener service is that it offers a wide range of features. If I click on edit, I can set a whole bunch of parameters which you can see in the image below:
Me being a new user, will never really use all of these features mostly because I don't even know what they are for and how to go about using them. Thankfully, some pages do have some short blurb on the right explaining what they are for but I still feel that it's insufficient.
Overview:
Scur.link has a ton of features including the ability to create a custom splash screen, Creating such a screen is quite simple provided your images are within the required dimensions.
Another great feature is the geotargeting feature which allows you to create links for different countries etc. This feature was tested and does work perfect!
One downside of the features offered is that some features will not work properly on some browsers. For example, I have selected to display an overlay on my shortened URL and on FireFox I see the following:
This isn't scur.link's fault but I'd assume this may be a deterrent for some end users if their browser shows something like this. Furthermore, when you use chrome, the link won't open at all:
This is probably because babiato has some protection or something in place that prevents these things from working.
When I did try on another site, it seemed to work however, my custom overlay did not show up at all:
Not all features available on this site is documented and that makes it a bit difficult to understand what everything means/is for. One such feature is bundles. I have no clue what this is and there's no way of knowing. It would be nice to have some guide or F.A.Q or Documentation available for every feature available on the site.
I would like to see Scur.Link provide documentation for their features. Features without documentation are as good as no features in my opinion. If the user doesn't know the capability of the features available, they can never fully utilize the service to it's full potential.
Insights:
Scur.Link does give you a lot of insights directly from the panel so you can see how users are reaching you (windows version etc) as well as the country they are in.
OVERALL:
It's a decent tool which does work however, some features do not work 100% due to limitations that are out of Scur.Link's control. The pricing isn't super expensive consider bit.ly charges $300/month for their service. It would be nice to have the custom domain feature available on the cheaper plans so that some users can at least use their parked domains for something useful.
Sample Links:
Overlay Link with Geotargetting enabled for USA
Password Protected Link With A Splash Screen (Password: test)
NOTE: I haven't tested out custom domains as I have a PRO account and NOT a Business Account.
Once again, thank you @hardcore99 for upgrading my account to PRO!