From Bitly

Bitly’s strength is brand recognition and a long-running v4 API. Elido trades that for EU residency, predictable pricing without overage cliffs, and a redirect tier you can self-host. The migration is mostly a CSV import and a CNAME flip — both can be done while Bitly stays live, so traffic doesn’t drop on cutover.

What you need before you start

The Bitly export is per-Group and arrives as a .csv with these columns: long_url, custom_bitlink, title, archived, tags, created_at. Note that custom_bitlink includes the host (bit.ly/abc123) — you only want the slug.

Import links in bulk

Elido’s bulk endpoint accepts up to 100 links per request.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
WS=1
TOKEN="$ELIDO_TOKEN"
 
# Skip header, batch by 100 lines
tail -n +2 bitly-export.csv | split -l 100 - batch_
 
for f in batch_*; do
  payload=$(awk -F',' '{
    gsub("\"","",$1); gsub("\"","",$2); gsub("\"","",$5);
    slug = $2; sub("^[^/]+/", "", slug);
    printf "{\"destination_url\":\"%s\",\"slug\":\"%s\",\"tags\":\"%s\"},\n", $1, slug, $5
  }' "$f" | sed '$ s/,$//')
 
  curl -sS -X POST "https://api.elido.app/v1/workspaces/$WS/links/bulk" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d "{\"links\":[$payload]}"
done
 
rm batch_*

A few caveats:

• Slug collisions return 409 slug_taken per row in the response. The whole batch still applies; only the conflicting rows fail. Re-run those with slug omitted to auto-generate.
• Tags import as a comma-separated string — Elido splits on , and trims whitespace.
• Archived links in Bitly become archived: true in Elido. They don’t redirect until un-archived.

Cut over the custom domain

Elido uses Caddy on-demand TLS, so you don’t manage certs. The flow keeps Bitly serving traffic until Elido is verified:

1. Add the domain in Elido — Settings → Domains → Add, enter the hostname.
2. Add the verification TXT at your registrar:

   _elido-verify.go.example.com.  TXT  "verify=<token-from-dashboard>"

3. Wait for verified — Elido polls every 30s. Bitly is still serving, the TXT is invisible to it.
4. Flip the CNAME:

   # Before
   go.example.com. CNAME bsr.bitly.net.
   
   # After
   go.example.com. CNAME edge.elido.me.

5. First request triggers a Let’s Encrypt cert (typically under 30s). Status moves from verified → active.

If anything goes sideways, flip the CNAME back — Bitly stays authoritative, no data lost.

API mapping

Elido scopes everything to a workspace; the Bitly Group is the closest analogue.

The auth header in both APIs is Authorization: Bearer <token>. Token formats differ — Elido PATs are prefixed pat_, workspace keys wsk_.

Click history

The Bitly export ships aggregated daily counts per link, not the raw event stream. Elido starts collecting click events at cutover, so don’t expect history to “merge” — keep the Bitly CSV around for retrospective reports.

If you need pre-cutover totals in Elido analytics, request a one-time backfill from support and provide the CSV. We won’t synthesize per-IP records; the import lands as a single imported row per link per day.

Pricing parity

Bitly meters “branded” links separately from short links; Elido doesn’t — every link in your workspace counts the same regardless of which custom domain it sits on.

After cutover

• Update SDK base URLs in any backend code (api-ssl.bitly.com → api.elido.app).
• Re-issue webhook secrets — the HMAC algorithm is the same (HMAC-SHA256(secret, ts.body)), only the secret value changes.
• Archive Bitly’s account but keep the export CSV — it’s the only record of pre-cutover history.