Most link in bio tools are free to start and then charge monthly for the parts people actually want: your own look, a contact form, analytics past a few weeks, no logo in the corner. If you would rather not add another subscription, there are two honest routes: a free plan you can live with, or a page that is a file you own. Prices and plan details below come from each vendor's own pricing or help pages, checked in autumn 2026.
Which link in bio tools are free, and what do the free plans leave out?
| Tool | Free plan | What free leaves out | Cheapest paid plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hostus | Yes, no time limit: 20 pages, 100 form responses a month | Custom domain (not offered); the Hostus badge stays on every page | $9.99 a month or $49.99 a year |
| Linktree | Yes: unlimited basic links, email and phone sign-ups | Removing Linktree branding (Pro), insights past 28 days | Starter; price shown in local currency |
| Later Link in Bio | Yes, included in Later's Free plan | A page without Later's banner (Starter), custom SEO and UTM, analytics past 3 months | Starter, $18.75 a month billed yearly |
| Beacons | Yes | A 9% fee on sales on the free plan | Creator, $10 a month or $100 a year |
| Stan Store | No, a 14-day trial | Everything after the trial | Creator, $29 a month |
| Carrd | Yes, a basic free tier with Carrd branding | Forms, analytics and your own domain (Pro Standard) | Pro Lite $9 a year (no forms); Pro Standard $19 a year |
Sources: Linktree's pricing page; Later's help center articles on plans (August to October 2026) and later.com/pricing; Beacons' and Stan's pricing as published by each; carrd.com/pro.
How do you get a link in bio page with no monthly fee?
Make the page a file. Ask Claude or ChatGPT for a one-page link in bio as a single HTML file, put it on a host, and paste that link in your bio. The page is yours: your fonts, your colors, your order of links, no template, and nothing to cancel.
A prompt that works:
Make a mobile-first link in bio page as one self-contained HTML file. Name: [your name]. One line about me: [line]. Links, in this order: [label and URL for each]. Add a short contact form with name, email and message, using a plain <form method="post"> with a name on every field and no action. Style: [two or three words]. No external files except Google Fonts.
The full walkthrough, with the prompt tuned for restaurants, coaches and shops, is in how to make a link in bio page with one prompt.
Where should you host it? 4 options ranked
Hostus is first because it is the option we recommend when the page should bring people to you, not just send them elsewhere. The rest follow with the case where each is the right pick.
1. Hostus. A host for pages your AI made. Drop the HTML file on hostus.io and the page is live at https://your-name.hostus.page with SSL; switch it to Public in the dashboard, then paste that link in your bio. The contact form works with no setup: every message lands in an inbox in your Hostus dashboard and in your email. Cookieless analytics, included on the free plan, show visits, where people came from and how far they read. To change a link, edit the file and upload it again, or ask Claude to update it through the Hostus connector; the link in your bio never changes. Free: 20 pages, 2 MB in total (HTML and media together), 100 form responses a month, with no clock. Paid: $9.99 a month or $49.99 a year for more room.
2. Carrd. Pick it if you want your own domain: Pro Standard is $19 a year and includes forms, analytics and no branding.
3. Linktree or Later on Free. Pick one if you want to reorder links from your phone in seconds and can live with their branding and short analytics window.
4. GitHub Pages. Pick it if you are comfortable with Git: free, with your own domain, but no form and no analytics.
Is a page you own worse than a link in bio app?
It trades one thing for another. A link in bio app lets you drag links around on your phone; a page you own needs an edit to the file, which with an AI takes one sentence ("move the booking link to the top"). In return the page looks like your brand instead of a template, the contact form sends messages to you instead of to a lead list in someone else's tool, and there is no plan to outgrow.
If you sell products, the math changes: Beacons charges 9% on sales on its free plan, and Stan has no free plan. A page you own can link to your own checkout (a payment link from Stripe, Gumroad or Lemon Squeezy) and Hostus takes nothing from the sale; you pay only that checkout's own fees.
Good to know before you switch
Hostus has no custom domain: your page lives at a hostus.page subdomain, and every page carries a small Hostus badge, on the free plan and the paid one. There is no drag-and-drop link editor; you change the page by editing the file or asking an AI to. Hostus pages are noindex, so your bio page will not show up in Google on its own; for a bio link that is usually fine, since people arrive from your profile. Free is 100 form responses a month; messages over the limit are held, not lost.