I built a free, open-source Linktree alternative — here's why and how? Linkyaar.com

The problem that annoyed me enough to build something

Link-in-bio tools are one of the simplest product categories on the internet: one page, a list of links, some analytics. And yet somehow the popular ones have turned into subscription traps — watermarks you pay to remove, analytics locked behind a paywall, themes behind another paywall, and your audience data living on someone else's servers with no export button in sight.

For a page that is literally your identity on the internet, that felt backwards.

So I built LinkYaar — a free, open-source link-in-bio platform. Every feature that exists is free. No watermarks. No "upgrade to unlock." AGPL-licensed, so you can self-host it, fork it, or audit every line.

⭐ GitHub: https://github.com/bhuvan0808/linkyaar

What it does
One page for everything — unlimited links, socials, and work, live at linkyaar/yourname in under a minute
Drag, drop, schedule, toggle — reorder links, feature what matters, schedule drops, and hide links without deleting them
27 hand-tuned themes — or open the Studio and design your own with wallpapers, gradients, fonts, and button styles
QR code built in — one short URL plus a crisp QR for posters, slides, and business cards
Privacy-first analytics — views, clicks, CTR, 30-day trends, and top links. Collected without cookies or IP logging, visible only to you, never sold
Your data is yours — full JSON export in one click, and account deletion that's actually permanent
The design decisions I care most about

1. Cookieless analytics

I wanted creators to know what's working without turning their audience into tracking targets. So analytics are aggregated without cookies or IP logging. You get the numbers you actually need — views, clicks, trends, top links — and your visitors don't get followed around the internet. It turns out you don't need creepy tracking to answer "which link is working?"

1. AGPL, on purpose

I picked AGPL-3.0 deliberately. It means anyone can self-host or fork LinkYaar, but improvements to hosted versions have to stay open too. For a product whose whole pitch is "your audience belongs to you," the license should back that up.

1. No ransom model

A lot of "free" tools are really a hostage negotiation: your page gets popular, then the watermark-removal fee shows up. LinkYaar's rule is simple — if a feature exists, it's free. The project sustains itself through community support, not by holding profiles hostage.

1. SEO and social cards by default

Every profile gets a clean URL, rich previews, and an auto-generated social card. Your page should look good when it's shared anywhere, not just inside the app.

What I learned building it
<!-- ✏️ CUSTOMIZE THIS SECTION — this is what makes the post yours and what Dev.to readers actually love. 2–4 short lessons work best. Some prompts: --> <!-- - What was harder than expected? (theming system? analytics without cookies? scheduling?) --> <!-- - A specific bug or rewrite story --> <!-- - Your stack and why you chose it (e.g., Next.js, your DB, hosting) --> <!-- - What you'd do differently -->
[Lesson one — e.g., "Building 27 themes taught me more about contrast and rhythm than any design course"]
[Lesson two — e.g., "Cookieless analytics is a genuinely fun constraint — here's how I count uniques without fingerprinting"]
[Lesson three — e.g., "Shipping the export button first kept me honest about the data model"]
Try it, break it, fork it
🚀 Claim your page: linkyaar.com — live in under a minute
💻 Read the code: github.com/bhuvan0808/linkyaar
🗺️ Public roadmap: linkyaar.com/roadmap

It's early days and I'm building this in the open, so I'd genuinely love feedback — feature ideas, code review, theme requests, or just "this button feels wrong." Issues and discussions are open on GitHub.

If you've ever paid to remove a watermark from your own bio page, this one's for you. 💛

If you found this interesting, a ⭐ on GitHub helps more people discover the project — and tell me in the comments: what's the one feature every link-in-bio tool is missing?