If you've spent five minutes on Linktree's pricing page, you've probably noticed it's designed to make comparison difficult. Four tiers, annual vs monthly switching, and a seller fee buried in the fine print that most creators don't discover until they're already selling.
I'm Joseph Pugliese, founder of Linklay — a Linktree alternative built with transparent pricing and real SEO infrastructure. Here's the complete breakdown of what Linktree actually costs in 2026, what each tier delivers, and whether any of it makes sense to pay for.
The Four Linktree Plans in 2026
Linktree raised prices across all tiers in November 2025. New signups pay:
- Free — $0/month, 12% seller fee on digital products
- Starter — $8/month (up from $5, a 60% increase)
- Pro — $15/month (up from $9, a 67% increase)
- Premium — $35/month (up from $24, a 46% increase)
For the complete feature-by-feature breakdown of what each tier includes versus what Linklay Pro offers at $9.99/month, the Linktree vs Linklay pricing comparison is the most thorough resource available.
Linktree Free Plan: What You Actually Get
The free plan works for basic use cases but has three meaningful restrictions:
No branding removal. The Linktree logo stays on your page. Every visitor sees it.
Basic analytics only. Click counts, nothing more. No device data, no geographic breakdown, no referral sources.
12% seller fee. This is the one most creators miss. Sell a $50 digital product and Linktree takes $6 before Stripe processing fees apply. On $500/month in sales that's $60 going to Linktree on top of Stripe's cut.
How Much Is Linktree Starter? ($8/month)
Starter is the awkward middle tier most creators skip. It adds custom colors, email collection, and link scheduling — but critically, it does not include branding removal.
You're paying $8/month and Linktree's logo is still on your page. The seller fee drops slightly to 9% but is still significant. Most creators who want branding removal jump straight to Pro, making Starter largely redundant.
How Much Is Linktree Pro? ($15/month)
Pro is where most paid Linktree users land. At $15/month it includes:
- Branding removal (finally)
- Advanced analytics — device, location, referral data
- Instagram AutoDMs
- Custom colors and fonts
- Email capture
- 9% seller fee (not 0% — that's Premium only)
The 9% seller fee on Pro catches people off guard. On $1,000/month in digital product sales, Linktree Pro costs $15/month plus $90 in transaction fees — $105 total monthly cost before Stripe. That's a meaningful number for creators doing real sales volume.
For comparison: Linklay Pro is $9.99/month with 0% transaction fees on every plan including free.
How Much Is Linktree Premium? ($35/month)
Premium is the tier where the seller fee finally drops to 0%. It adds:
- 0% transaction fees
- Priority support
- Custom domains
- All features unlocked
At $35/month ($294/year), Linktree Premium is expensive relative to competitors. The 0% fee only makes financial sense if you're selling enough volume that the fee savings exceed the subscription cost increase from Pro. On $500/month in sales, switching from Pro to Premium saves $45/month in fees but costs $20/month more in subscription — net positive of $25/month. On lower sales volumes the math inverts.
The SEO Cost Nobody Talks About
Beyond subscription pricing and transaction fees, there's a cost to using Linktree that doesn't appear on any pricing page: your bio page is invisible to Google.
Linktree renders profiles client-side with JavaScript. Google struggles to reliably index client-rendered pages. Your linktr.ee profile effectively doesn't rank in search results for your name, your niche, or any keyword you care about.
Every outbound link uses a tracking redirect with rel="nofollow" — explicitly telling Google not to pass ranking equity to your destinations. Your most-shared URL contributes zero to your SEO regardless of which plan you're on.
This architectural decision affects Linktree, Beacons, Stan Store, and Later equally. None of them were built with search visibility as a core feature.
The Linktree vs Beacons comparison and Linktree vs Stan Store comparison cover how these tools compare beyond just pricing.
What Linklay Costs by Comparison
| Feature | Linklay Free | Linklay Pro ($9.99) | Linktree Free | Linktree Pro ($15) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Branding removal | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Transaction fees | 0% | 0% | 12% | 9% |
| Retargeting pixels | ✅ Free | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Facebook pixel | ✅ Free | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Video backgrounds | ✅ Free | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Google-indexed profile | ✅ | ✅ | Rarely | Rarely |
| SEO-Powered Links | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Apple Wallet passes | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
Linklay's free retargeting pixel and free Facebook pixel are included on the free plan — features Linktree gates behind the $15/month Pro tier.
The SEO-Powered Link: What No Linktree Plan Offers
The SEO-Powered Link is the feature that has no Linktree equivalent at any price point. Linklay Pro users can designate one link on their page that passes real Google ranking equity from their Linklay profile to the destination URL.
Point it at your Shopify store, your portfolio, your podcast website, or your booking page — that destination gets a real dofollow backlink from an indexed, server-rendered domain. Linktree can't offer this architecturally because their pages aren't indexed in the first place.
Who Should Pay for Linktree Pro
Pay $15/month for Linktree Pro if:
- You specifically need Instagram AutoDMs
- You have existing deep integrations with Mailchimp, Zapier, or Shopify
- Your digital product sales volume is low enough that the 9% fee is negligible
Look at a Linktree alternative if:
- You're paying $15/month primarily to remove their branding
- You sell digital products and the 9% fee is cutting into margins
- You want retargeting pixels without paying extra
- You want your bio page to rank in Google
The link in bio comparison covers every major tool side by side including pricing, free plan features, and SEO capabilities.
The Honest Pricing Summary
| Plan | Monthly | Seller Fee | Branding |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linktree Free | $0 | 12% | Linktree logo |
| Linktree Starter | $8 | 9% | Linktree logo |
| Linktree Pro | $15 | 9% | Removed |
| Linktree Premium | $35 | 0% | Removed |
| Linklay Free | $0 | 0% | Linklay logo |
| Linklay Pro | $9.99 | 0% | Removed |
Linktree charges $15/month to remove their branding and still takes 9% of your sales. Linklay Pro is $9.99/month with 0% fees on everything.
Joseph Pugliese is the founder of Linklay — a link-in-bio platform built with edge-rendered profiles, transparent pricing, and real SEO infrastructure. Free plan available. Pro at $9.99/month.`
Top comments (0)