Beacons vs Linktree in 2026: A detailed comparison

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but if you’re a business owner, you don’t post a picture to Instagram hoping people will ponder its meaning. You post to get customers to your website, visitors to your brick-and-mortar shop, and subscribers to your newsletter. The only way to do that is with links.

Social networks, however, want to keep people scrolling in their apps instead of switching over to your site. You can include just one link in an X profile, while LinkedIn profiles can include up to three links. Instagram now allows five links in your profile, but only one can be featured at a time (seeing the other four requires an extra tap). LinkedIn and X allow links in posts, but Instagram does not.

Your best option to turn social media attention into action is to include a single link that takes visitors to a link-in-bio page, which holds all of your other links.

Linktree was an early pioneer in the link-in-bio space. Built in 2016 as a quick way for bands to share links on Instagram, today it lets any business curate social media posts, sell products, and automate posting alongside its original link-in-bio page features.

Beacons, founded three years later, offers similar link-in-bio and e-commerce features, alongside an auto-updating media kit to promote your work, a course-building tool, and an AI tool to help you land creator deals.

Both tools simplify adding links to your social media bios, with Linktree more focused on managing your social presence and Beacons on turning your social media into a business. Here’s how to choose between Linktree and Beacons if you’re looking for the best way to add a page of links to your social media bio.

Beacons

Beacons creates a link-in-bio page from your social media profiles in a dozen or so taps. Sign up, enter your social media profiles, and it’ll automatically pull in your personal website or other links. Then it creates a unique landing page from a customizable AI prompt that, in my tests, correctly surmised that my posts are about tech, writing, and design. You can copy your beacons.ai link and add it to your bio, or you can dig in and customize further.

Customization is where Beacons’s social media and selling features take center stage. You can buy a domain to customize your bio page; add secondary pages to your site; connect social media accounts to get analytics on your post performance and trends; and start monetizing your page with digital products, affiliates, and brand deals. You can customize anything manually or you can use the built-in Beam AI to update your site, dig into stats, or create a full-fledged website with Beacons’s Website Builder.

What makes Beacons unique?

Beacons is designed to help you make money from your link page with brand sponsorships, affiliate links, and digital products. If you want to share links to all of your social profiles in one place and monetize your social media profiles without needing yet another website, Beacons gives you a way to do that.

Its social media analytics tool, for example, both crunches your social media performance numbers and matches your profile with brands looking to promote products. You can apply to join Beacons’s affiliate network to earn money when people purchase products you recommend. You can add a media kit to your site to showcase your niche and previous partnerships, and Beacons will automatically update with your latest social media profile stats. You can also offer paid memberships, courses, digital product downloads, or appointment booking directly through Beacons with simple checkout pages.

One downside I found in testing was that Beacons’s signups may be restricted based on your location. I had difficulty signing up outside of the United States, and I saw online reports of others who had similar difficulty (but were able to successfully sign up within the United States). Additionally, its affiliate features require approval to join and a PayPal account to receive payouts.

Linktree

Linktree is the original tool to add links to your bio and is still one of the simplest ways to do so. Add your social media accounts, upload an avatar, pick your favorite font style and color, then answer a few questions, and Linktree will pull your page together. It correctly surmised that I have a blog, offer editorial services, and have built software for writers, and it added appropriate action buttons on my landing page to try to bring new customers to my business and readers to my blog.

That’s where Linktree shines: bringing people in and then sending them to the action you’d most like them to perform. Its link-in-bio pages are a simple way to share all of your links and are easy to set up whether you’re trying to sell products or build a following.

What makes Linktree unique?

Linktree keeps your link-in-bio page focused on you, with a recognizable design featuring your avatar followed by your name, bio, social media profiles, and other links you’d like to share. You can share your page with a linktr.ee link on your social media profiles or with Linktree’s new business cards, which add a Linktree QR code to your Google or Apple Wallet to let people quickly scan and jump into your page.

Linktree also helps you keep your social media profiles up to date, with its Plann scheduling tool to publish posts across all your networks on a schedule, sync your Instagram posts to your Linktree page, and automatically reply to Instagram comments. And it can build your audience with a built-in form to let people send you a message or subscribe to your newsletter, without needing to set up anything extra.

As Linktree alternatives started offering similar link-in-bio features, Linktree branched out in 2024, launching Shops as a way to build order forms on Linktree. Today, you can sell courses, bookings, or digital products directly from your page without needing a separate e-commerce store. Linktree’s signups work globally, but its selling features do include geographic limitations. Shops and sponsored links are available only in the United States, and digital products, bookings, and courses require a Stripe account.

Beacons vs Linktree in 2026: Head-to-head comparison

Both Beacons and Linktree cover the basics. In a few minutes you can pull together your social media accounts into a polished landing page and customize it to match your branding. The differences show up when you dig in, with Linktree focusing on sharing your page and building your social media audience and Beacons focusing on building a more customized website and selling products online.

Ease of use and page configuration

Linktree wins out slightly on the initial setup process. It excels at analyzing your social media profiles and deciding what actions you hope visitors will take on your landing page. That makes it quicker to get started, with buttons to “subscribe to my newsletter” or “check out my shop.” A similar Beacons site by default will simply include links to your social media accounts.

The simplicity theme continues with Linktree, for better or worse. You add content to your page with additional link buttons or blocks that display your Instagram posts, TikTok content, YouTube videos, Spotify songs, and more, similar to Beacons’s options to pull in additional content, but in a more streamlined interface. Tweaking your Linktree page is straightforward, with a cleaner editor design, simpler tools with fewer options, and more preset defaults. And it’s easier to share your page with a link, QR code, or digital business card you can keep in your phone’s wallet app.

Page design and customization flexibility

Beacons wins on customization and flexibility. All Linktree sites look similar, the only differences being your chosen background color, typography, and links. Beacons includes far more design customization options, with AI-generated themes and over a dozen built-in header designs. You can add an image, gradient, or video as your page background, choose typography from a deep library of Google fonts (as opposed to Linktree’s three dozen fonts), and you can use Beacons’s Beam AI to redesign your page.

Or, you can take your Beacons page beyond a link-in-bio page and turn it into a full-fledged website. Start by adding secondary pages to your core Beacons link page, or if that feels too restrictive, you can expand to a full website. Choose from built-in themes, or start with a blank slate and build a landing page or e-commerce store from scratch.

Link optimization, analytics, and traffic security

Both Linktree and Beacons give you a look into how your social media accounts and link-in-bio pages are performing. Linktree keeps everything simple, with a single page that shows your link-in-bio page’s views, clicks, and form entries, alongside your social media follower growth, your most engaging posts, and a summary of visitor stats. Beacons breaks things out, with a separate page that shows detailed stats for each of your social media profiles; your link-in-bio page’s stats; and details about your product sales, website visitors, affiliate purchases, and media kit interactions.

Linktree and Beacons can also shorten links to make them easier to share. Beacons wins out here, with shortened links that use your custom Beacons URL and log clicks alongside your other stats, while Linktree’s link shortener uses a separate account, tr.ee links, and tracks stats per link.

Integrations and ecosystem fit

Both Beacons and Linktree are built to integrate with your social media profiles. Beacons has stronger built-in integrations with your Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, Threads, Pinterest, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts. Connect your Beacons profile once to pull in stats, post to your accounts, and include content on your landing page. Beacons also comes with a website builder and email marketing tool, so you don’t need additional tools to grow your business.

Linktree keeps things more separate. The core app is focused on showcasing your posts from Instagram, TikTok, X, Threads, Facebook, Pinterest, Google Reviews, YouTube, Vimeo, Spotify, and more. But, to automatically post content, you’ll need to separately integrate Linktree’s Plann app with Instagram, Threads, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, and YouTube. Linktree also integrates with Shopify, Amaze, and Fourthwall to showcase products you’re selling outside of your landing page, while Beacons is focused only on your Beacons-powered shopping links. Best use cases

Linktree is best for quickly building and maintaining a link-in-bio page. If you want a simple, straightforward link site that’s easy to build and share, and you don’t mind using separate products to shorten links, sell items, and automatically post to social media, Linktree is a great way to keep your bio page up to date simply.

Beacons is best for a central hub for your landing page, social media posting, and e-commerce sales. If you want to deeply customize your landing page and have a direct route to upgrade it into a full-fledged website, and you want more integrated social media and selling features, Beacons is a great way to keep everything together in one place.

Beacons vs Linktree: pricing comparison

Linktree and Beacons both let you build a basic link-in-bio page for free.

Linktree’s e-commerce features for courses or physical products are included for free, while Beacons’s free plan comes with 10 AI credits, Instagram auto-replies, digital product sales, and 50 email sends per month. Linktree’s paid plans start at $8 per month, while Beacons’s starts at $10 per month, with both apps costing $30 per month for social media automation.

Linktree’s paid plans are aimed at individual creators, while Beacons also includes higher-tier plans with personalized onboarding and support for brands and social media managers.

If you’re comparing Beacons and Linktree and looking for a way to optimize your spending on link-in-bio sites and other landing pages for your brand, another option is to consider a tool like Jotform to handle both your intake forms and landing pages through one subscription. Jotform’s AI App Builder can turn your links into a landing page that matches your branding in minutes, from the same account that you use for signup forms and other interactive applications to streamline data gathering and keep you from paying for an additional app.

Why Jotform AI App Builder is the best Linktree and Beacons alternative

Jotform isn’t built as a link-in-bio app. Its core form builder tool is, instead, a powerful way to gather data for your business, and its companion features, including the Jotform AI App Builder, let you quickly build any tools your team needs, from link-in-bio landing pages to event management apps.

It takes no more than a few minutes to get started. Open Jotform’s AI App Builder, type in a prompt such as “I need a link-in-bio app with a digital download store and an email subscription field,” along with details about your site and social media profiles. Moments later, you’ll see your responsive, mobile-ready web app come to life.

When you start researching how to create an app without coding, you’ll find that your options typically are simple tools like Linktree and Beacons, which give you a well-designed base but limited customization, or fully AI coding with limitless options that are easy to grow out of scope. Jotform instead gives you a solid form builder base to start from, with AI to build on top, for an easily maintainable app that looks and works the way you want.

Jotform gives you complete creative control, with a drag-and-drop editor and more flexibility than the list-of-links style that’s common with most link-in-bio apps. It’s backed by the same tools that power Jotform’s enterprise-level data-gathering forms, letting you schedule appointments, get documents signed, accept payments from 40-plus payment providers, and integrate with hundreds of business tools, all from your landing page. And when you need to change anything, Jotform AI can handle the updates automatically.

Linktree simplifies the process of creating a link-in-bio page into tapping through a dozen or so pages, while Beacons streamlines your social media presence with a single hub for your site and social posts. Jotform gives you the power to turn your link-in-bio page into a full-fledged app, with the same simplicity of building out your landing page paired with more customizability to grow your page into the audience-building tool you’ve always wanted.