Kutt

URL shortener that you run on your own domain.

Replaces

Paid link shortening services, such as Bitly.

All open-source alternatives to Bitly

Difficulty

Difficulty: Medium

1 service, 2 volume mounts, no env values to set, no elevated host access. Heuristic score 1 of 11: easy. A source checkout is needed, and the first start builds images from source, so the rating is at least medium.

Stack

JavaScript (language)

Deployment

docker_compose

Requirements

Not stated.

License

MIT (OSI-approved open source)

Read from github.com/thedevs-network/kutt/blob/029da42/LICENSE

Business model

Unknown

The README at the pinned commit does not state a business model, so it stays unknown.

Source: github.com/thedevs-network/kutt/blob/029da42/README.md, read on 2026-10-22.

Repository

thedevs-network/kutt

GitHub stats

Stars: 11,163
Forks: 1,514
Open issues and pull requests: 88
Last push: 2026-10-19
Latest release: v3.2.6
Released: 2026-07-05

From the GitHub API on 2026-10-22. These numbers are a snapshot, not live. GitHub detected the license as MIT.

Compose file

Config check passed docker compose config exited 0 on this exact file on 2026-10-22.

docker-compose.yml Version 1

services:
  server:
    build:
      context: .
    volumes:
       - db_data_sqlite:/var/lib/kutt
       - custom:/kutt/custom
    environment:
      DB_FILENAME: "/var/lib/kutt/data.sqlite"
    ports:
      - 3000:3000
volumes:
  db_data_sqlite:
  custom:

From the app's own repository: github.com/thedevs-network/kutt/blob/029da42/docker-compose.yml.

Compose file from thedevs-network/kutt, used inside a checkout of that repository (documented setup B).

Install

Docker with the Compose plugin and git (github.com/thedevs-network/kutt/blob/029da42/README.md)
A host with Docker, the Docker Compose plugin and git. This entry needs a checkout of the project repository.

Get the source at commit 029da42 (github.com/thedevs-network/kutt/blob/029da42/README.md)

git init kutt
cd kutt
git remote add origin https://github.com/thedevs-network/kutt.git
git fetch --depth 1 origin 029da42b2459693681886665589fd9512d6b473c
git checkout FETCH_HEAD

The compose file in the checkout: docker-compose.yml (shown here for reading) (github.com/thedevs-network/kutt/blob/029da42/docker-compose.yml)
Use the compose file shown above.
What the compose file check ran with (github.com/thedevs-network/kutt/blob/029da42/README.md)
The compose file check ran in a checkout of thedevs-network/kutt at 029da42b2459693681886665589fd9512d6b473c (a sparse checkout: only the top-level files). The README tells the reader to run docker compose up from the root directory of the repository.
Start it (github.com/thedevs-network/kutt/blob/029da42/README.md)
```
docker compose up -d
```
Open the app (github.com/thedevs-network/kutt/blob/029da42/docker-compose.yml)
Open http://localhost:3000. The compose file publishes host port 3000 for the server service.

Compose file check: config_ok on 2026-10-22.

Gotchas and maintenance

Gotchas

Some services build from source. These services have a build section and no image: server. They need the project source next to the compose file. (github.com/thedevs-network/kutt/blob/029da42/docker-compose.yml, checked 2026-10-22)
The compose file publishes host ports. Host ports: 3000 (server). A port without a host address listens on all host network interfaces. (github.com/thedevs-network/kutt/blob/029da42/docker-compose.yml, checked 2026-10-22)
The first start builds images from source. The compose file has a build section. The first docker compose up builds the image from the checkout, which needs time, disk space and network access. (github.com/thedevs-network/kutt/blob/029da42/docker-compose.yml, checked 2026-10-22)

Signals

Open issues and pull requests: 88
Last push: 2026-10-19 (3 days before this page was built)
Latest release: v3.2.6 on 2026-07-05 (109 days before this page was built)