Every feature, explained
ShieldmyLinks puts an access policy in front of any URL. A link is not simply protected or unprotected — it answers four questions before anyone reaches the destination: who is asking, where they are, when they are asking, and what they know.
Every gate is enforced on our servers at click time, never in the visitor's browser — so none of them can be skipped by tampering with the page. They also combine freely: a link can be geo-restricted, password-protected and time-limited at once.
The six access gates
Listed in the order they are checked. Every one is optional — leave it unset to skip it.
Captcha
Is this a real person?
Choose reCAPTCHA v2 (a checkbox — strongest) or reCAPTCHA v3 (invisible, lower friction) per link. Visitors verify before the destination is revealed.
Scrapers, link-harvesting bots, automated group-join scripts.
- WhatsApp & Discord invites
- Event registration
- Affiliate links
A captcha proves the visitor is human. It does not prove they were supposed to have the link — that is what the password gate is for.
Geo-Fencing
Are they in an allowed country?
Build reusable rule profiles — an allow list ("only these countries") or a block list ("everyone except these") — and assign one to any link. Region presets cover the EU, North America, Asia-Pacific and more.
Access from regions where your offer is not licensed, available, or welcome.
- Regional launches
- Licensed or regulated offers
- Local event RSVPs
Based on IP geolocation, so a visitor on a VPN can present as another country. It also fails open on a lookup error, by design — a third-party outage should never lock out real visitors.
Password
Do they know the secret?
Set a password on any link. Visitors enter it alongside the captcha. It is hashed with bcrypt inside our database and never leaves it — we cannot show it back to you, so keep your own copy.
Anyone who was not given the password directly, even if they have the URL.
- Client deliverables
- Private event details
- Anything shared with a named group
Because the password is checked only after the captcha passes, every guess costs a captcha solve — which is what keeps it from being a free brute-force target.
Availability Window
Is the link open right now?
Set an "opens at" and/or "closes at" time. Before it opens, visitors see a live countdown — never the destination. After it closes, the link simply stops working.
Early access, late arrivals, and links still live long after the offer expired.
- Scheduled announcements
- Application deadlines
- Embargoed press material
Visit Limit
Is there capacity left?
Cap the number of successful visits. Once reached, the link closes itself — the count is enforced inside a single database write, so two people cannot slip through the same last spot at once.
Overselling a fixed number of seats, spots, or downloads.
- Limited registrations
- "First 100" offers
- Anything with hard capacity
Allowed Referrers
Did the click come from where it should?
List the domains a click may arrive from — your own site, your newsletter platform. Subdomains are covered automatically.
Casual link-lifting: someone copying your link out of context and reposting it elsewhere.
- Newsletter-only offers
- Preventing hotlinking
Referrer information is sent by the browser and can be omitted or faked. Treat this as a deterrent, not a lock — we would rather say so than oversell it.
Managing a link after you share it
The URL you share stays fixed. Everything behind it can change at any time.
Pause and resume
Shut a link off instantly without deleting it. Its analytics history, gate settings and short code all survive — resume and it works again. Use it the moment a link leaks, or between runs of a recurring event.
Edit without re-sharing
Move a deadline, raise a visit cap, swap a password, change the destination entirely — all without generating a new short code. Everyone who already has the link keeps using the same URL.
At-a-glance status
Each link card shows badges for whatever is active — paused, password set, scheduled or expired, capacity used (e.g. 37/40), and which geo rule applies. Scan a dashboard of a dozen links and know where each one stands.
Bio link collections
Bundle links into a Linktree-style page on your own slug. Every link on it keeps its own gates, so a single page can mix a public link, a password-protected one and a scheduled one.
Analytics
Because a verification step sits in front of every link, we can tell real visitors apart from everything else — which is the number most link tools cannot give you.
Humans vs. blocked, side by side
Every link counts verified visits and blocked attempts separately. A raw click count from a URL shortener includes scrapers, preview bots and security scanners; this tells you how many real people actually got through.
Campaign tracking that survives the redirect
Add utm_source, utm_medium or utm_campaign to a protected link and we store them against the visit and forward them to the destination — so your attribution does not die at the hop.
Per-minute, hourly or daily resolution
A daily chart flattens a launch spike into a single bar. Switch to per-minute to see the real shape of a surge, with the busiest bucket called out automatically.
Country, city, device, browser, referrer
Every visit is logged with full context. Compare the same link across channels to see which one actually sends people rather than bots.
CSV export
Download the complete visit history for any link — every field, including campaign parameters — for reporting, spreadsheets, or an audit trail.
Which gate do you need?
Controls compose rather than substitute — most real setups use two or three.
| If the problem is… | Use |
|---|---|
| Bots and scrapers | Captcha |
| The wrong country | Geo-fencing |
| Someone who was never given access | Password |
| It is too early, or too late | Availability window |
| You are out of capacity | Visit limit |
| The link escaped its channel | Allowed referrers (deterrent) |
| You need it off right now | Pause |
Try it on one link
Protect up to 3 links free — no credit card. Every access control on this page is available from the moment you create a link.