🚀 Shorty URL — A Modern, Secure URL Shortener Built with React & Express (New Release)

I’m excited to introduce Shorty URL, a modern full-stack URL shortener designed for real-world use. The goal of this project was to go beyond basic link shortening and deliver a secure, analytics-driven, and visually polished experience.

Shorty focuses on performance, security, and usability while maintaining a clean and scalable architecture.

✨ Features

• 🔗 URL Shortening — Create short, memorable links instantly
• 📱 QR Code Generation — Download QR codes for any shortened link
• 📊 Link Analytics — Track clicks, unique visitors, and performance metrics
• 🌙 Dark Mode — Elegant light and dark themes
• 🔒 Security Built-In
• HTTPS-only URL validation
• Rate limiting to prevent abuse
• Full input sanitization
• 📝 Link History — Local storage–based history of created links
• 🚨 Report System — Report suspicious or malicious URLs
• 📧 Contact Form — Built-in contact functionality
• 📱 Responsive Design — Works seamlessly on desktop and mobile

🌐 Live Demo

Frontend: https://shorty.msyb.dev

🛠️ Tech Stack

• Frontend
• React 19
• React Router 7
• Ant Design 6
• CSS3
• Backend
• Node.js
• Express
• MySQL

Security & Infrastructure

• Helmet.js for secure HTTP headers
• API rate limiting
• CORS with origin whitelisting
• Input validation and sanitization
• SQL injection and XSS protection

Deployment

Vercel with serverless-ready architecture

🧩 Architecture Overview

The project is split into two clear layers:

A React-based frontend responsible for UI, theming, routing, and user interactions

An Express-based backend handling URL generation, redirection, analytics, reporting, and security enforcement

This separation keeps the system scalable, maintainable, and easy to extend.

📡 API Capabilities

• URL creation and redirection
• Global and per-link analytics
• QR code tracking
• Contact submissions
• Malicious link reporting
• Health monitoring

🔒 Security First Approach

Security was a primary focus while building Shorty:

• Strict HTTPS validation for all URLs
• Rate limiting to mitigate abuse
• Sanitized inputs across all endpoints
• Parameterized database queries
• Hardened HTTP headers and controlled CORS access

🔗 Open Source

The project is fully open source and available on GitHub:
Link

📌 Final Notes

Shorty URL is built as a production-ready URL shortener, not just a demo project. It showcases how modern frontend frameworks and a well-structured Express API can work together to deliver a secure and scalable application.

Feedback, feature suggestions, and contributions are always welcome.
If you find it useful, a star ⭐ would mean a lot.

Thanks for reading.