An overview of LinkStack

My Self-hosted Link Sharing Hub

I use LinkStack as an app at link.michaellamb.dev and have added it to my social media pages as a link dashboard. I often share the link to the app with new contacts to give them all the options to connect with me. There are even a few other users on my LinkStack with their own pages as the app has an admin feature and a registration toggle (disabled by default). My instance of LinkStack is running in the Raspberry Pi cluster¹ I have documented in the past².

LinkStack is an open source project which solves link sharing and management of shared links. It offers a customizable page like Linktree, but with so much more opportunity and freedom – as long as you’re comfortable starting a Docker container!

I trust the project’s documentation on GitHub and recommend using that to determine how you might want to add this free and available resource to your web properties.

LinkStack vs. Linktree

Features

Linktree is a very quick and simple solution for creating a list of links with customizable buttons, colors, and backgrounds but its features are limited. Linktree intentionally limits these features to ensure only the most user-friendly experience is possible on their platform. When compared to LinkStack, Linktree has no feature that comes close to the Themes offered by default with new instances of a LinkStack app. Custom Themes in LinkStack gives users the ability to design their page exactly how they like it.

Hosting

LinkStack offers a robust platform with the option to host yourself or host on their servers. Self-hosting a LinkStack app is straightforward and can happen in a few clicks. LinkStack’s inspiration is to empower data ownership among individuals and groups who need a reliable and autonomous solution for sharing links. Alternatively, you may find using a hosted instance might be right for you. The LinkStack org provides low-cost hosting in addition to their community instance program which anyone can use for free.

Linktree isn’t a project, it’s a product. Their pricing model is a higher premium than LinkStack’s.

Support

Because it is an open source project, LinkStack offers community support on Mastodon and Discord.

Developer Contribution Guide

LinkStack is written in PHP with the Laravel framework. Developers may contribute bug reports, code discussions, code fixes, and new features. The Discord server is where communication around this work takes place. The maintainers use GitHub Flow as an integration strategy.