Case study: ThirstyAffiliates vs Pretty Links on a 2,100-link site
A deals site with 2,100 cloaked links measured both link managers for redirect speed and report accuracy over 30 days.
ThirstyAffiliates Pro
Pros: link categories, auto-keyword linking, geolocation routing
Cons: ~$99/yr, stored every click in wp_posts — bloated the DB to 1.4GB
Pretty Links Pro
Pros: leaner click table, cleaner UI, dynamic redirects
Cons: keyword auto-link is clunkier, fewer report dimensions
Result: redirect time was a wash (~40ms both, server-side). The real gap was database health — ThirstyAffiliates' click logging added 11ms to every page load via autoload options. Pretty Links kept TTFB flat.
Gotcha nobody mentions: both store clicks in the same DB as your content, so at scale your nightly backup doubles in size from click rows you'll never read.
My pick: Pretty Links for big catalogs where page speed is revenue. ThirstyAffiliates if auto-keyword linking saves you real editing hours.
Bottom line: at 2,000+ links the differentiator is DB bloat, not redirect speed.
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Case study: ThirstyAffiliates vs Pretty Links on a 2,100-link site
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