Perimattic Managed Shlink - URL Shortener on AWS

This AMI runs Shlink, the open-source URL shortener with a REST API and visit statistics, together with its web client and PostgreSQL 17, on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. The official images shlinkio/shlink (5.1.8) and shlinkio/shlink-web-client (4.9.0) are pinned, with PostgreSQL 17.11, and baked into the AMI, so first start does not depend on a registry. Shlink is an independent open-source project and Perimattic is not affiliated with it; product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

Why Shlink?

Shlink creates short links on your own domain, with custom slugs, tags, expiry dates, redirect rules by device or language, and visit statistics. You manage it through the REST API or the web client, which also draws QR codes.

What Perimattic adds

API key generated for you: Shlink has no username and password. During first-login setup this AMI generates a random 24-character API key on your server and Shlink creates it on its first start, so the REST API is never open and no key is shipped in the image. Setup then checks that the key works, that a wrong key and a missing key are refused with 401, that the short-link redirect works and that the web client's own files contain no key. DEFAULT_DOMAIN is your domain and IS_HTTPS_ENABLED is true.

HTTPS: Apache is configured as a reverse proxy and a free Let's Encrypt certificate is requested for your domain with certbot. Shlink and its web client listen only on the loopback interface and PostgreSQL is reachable only inside the Docker network.

Patched base: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS built through an automated EC2 Image Builder pipeline, with security updates applied at build time.

What you should know

Short links are public by design: every short link (https://your-domain/ ) and the root redirect work for anyone, without a key. /rest/health is open and only reports that the server is up. The rest of /rest/v3 needs a valid X-Api-Key header.

Web client sign-in: the web client is a static single-page app served over HTTPS on port 8443 (it cannot be served from a sub-path), so the security group must also allow TCP 8443. It holds no key. Open https://your-domain:8443 , choose Add a server and enter any name, the URL https://your-domain  and the API key printed at the end of setup (also in /opt/app/access.txt). The browser keeps the key in its local storage. Only the web client's origin is allowed to call the API from a browser (CORS).

Visitor locations need a free MaxMind GeoLite2 licence key, which you add to the compose file. Without it Shlink records visits but does not resolve country or city. Shlink sends no telemetry; the web client talks only to the Shlink servers you add.

Shlink is light: about 190 MB of memory for the server, 11 MB for the web client and 55 to 65 MB for PostgreSQL in our tests, so a t3.small (2 GB) is the recommended starting size.

Licence

Shlink and the Shlink web client are released under the MIT licence; this AMI runs the unmodified upstream images, whose source is at github.com/shlinkio/shlink and github.com/shlinkio/shlink-web-client. PostgreSQL is released under the PostgreSQL License.

Getting Started Launch the AMI and open ports 22, 80, 443 and 8443 in the security group SSH in and answer the setup prompts (domain and admin email) Open https://your-domain:8443 , add your server with the API key printed at the end of setup Create short links, or call the REST API with the X-Api-Key header

A domain name with an A record pointing at the instance is required, because the site is served over HTTPS.

This AMI is built and supported by Perimattic.

Book a free setup consultation at https://cal.com/gaurav-pareek-perimattic/marketplace-setup-consultations  or email us at aws-support@perimattic.com .

Support Managed and supported by Perimattic, a cloud infrastructure company with 13+ years of experience serving global clients. We offer free setup assistance, custom integrations, infrastructure consulting, and 24/7 support.