Migrating from Bitly without breaking a single link

What you can and cannot move

Links on your own branded domain can move completely — you own the domain, so you control where it resolves. Links on the provider's shared domain cannot move; those will die when you leave. Audit which is which before planning anything.

Step one: export

Export your links to CSV. You want the slug, the destination, the title and the tags at minimum. Historical click counts generally do not transfer as click events; export the analytics you care about separately and keep it as a record.

Step two: import before you touch DNS

Load the CSV into the new platform with the same slugs, on the same domain, and check a sample by hand. Getting this wrong after the DNS switch means live links break; getting it wrong before means nothing at all happens.

Step three: cut DNS over

Change the A record for your branded domain to the new provider. Existing links keep working because they resolve to whoever holds that domain. Lower the record TTL a day in advance so the switch is fast and reversible.

Step four: run a fallback window

For a month, have the new platform resolve unknown slugs against your old provider, then cache the answer. This catches anything the export missed — links created after you exported, or slugs that failed to import — with no visible 404s.

Step five: verify then finish

Watch the fallback hit rate. When it drops to effectively zero, turn fallback off and remove the domain from the old account. Do not delete the old account until the fallback has been off for a couple of weeks.