LinkFree: a LinkTree alternative you host as a GitHub Pages template

The template is the product, not a backend

LinkFree is described as a free and open source alternative to LinkTree, and the first thing to understand is that it is not a hosted service. It is a repository of templates that you fork and edit yourself.

The question the project answers is the link in bio problem. The readme puts it plainly: ever wanted to add more links to your Instagram bio, LinkFree does just that, gathering all of your links into one page that is easy to navigate. That is the entire feature set at the level of the user's goal.

The mechanism is GitHub Pages. You choose a template from the Templates directory, clone or fork the repository, adapt it with your information, and configure your personal page using GitHub Pages. The readme recommends forking to your own account as the path, and gives a reason: it lets you make edits much faster. Forking means you own the copy, and GitHub Pages builds from your fork.

The repository top level is minimal. There is a README, a LICENSE, a .gitignore, and a Templates directory. There is no src directory, no package manifest and no build configuration, which tells you that a template is a set of static files rather than an application with a toolchain. The primary language of the repository is listed as CSS, which fits a project whose deliverable is a styled static page.

The licence is Apache 2.0, so you can fork it, adapt it and host it without attribution obligations beyond the standard notice, and the repository carries no GitHub releases, so there is no version to pin.

Customisability is the argument against the hosted service

The readme lists the benefits of this approach against other solutions, and they are all about ownership rather than features.

No more pesky third party logos is the first, which is a design complaint about hosted profile pages that carry a vendor mark. Add your custom colors, images and fonts is the second, which is straightforward in a static template and often not possible without a paid tier. Use full custom analytics and metrics platforms is the third, and that is the one with a technical consequence. Create your own template or use one made by the community is the fourth, and it is what makes the Templates directory the real extension point.

The analytics point deserves a closer look because it explains how the whole thing is designed. The readme says you can use any statistics platform of your choosing that is based on client JavaScript, and recommends Amplitude and Hotjar by name. The integration mechanism is either the load and click functions defined by the template's JavaScript file, or your own code snippets added to the Head or Body of the HTML file.

That second option is the general one. Because the deliverable is plain HTML with a head and a body, there is no plugin system to learn and no vendor API to authenticate against. Any script that works on a web page works here. The constraint is that the platform must run in the visitor's browser, so a server side analytics pipeline is not in scope without extra work.

Three ways to contribute, and templates are the entry point

The contribution model is unusually open for a project of this size, with three routes offered.

You can make changes to the core LinkFree project. You can create new LinkFree templates. Or you can simply share your LinkFree, which is the lowest friction route and the one most people will actually take.

The template route has a definition attached: a new template is a general LinkFree that has a distinctive structure or style when compared to previous templates. The submission process is a pull request with the addition in the Templates directory. So the bar is stylistic distinctiveness, not new functionality, and templates are explicitly not allowed to invent new behaviour.

That constraint is what keeps the project coherent. Every template is a general LinkFree, so a user switching templates keeps the same mental model and the same workflow, and a contributor is not designing an application but a variation on one.

The topics attached to the repository include hacktoberfest, which explains the contributor volume pattern you would expect from a repository that participates in that event, and javascript alongside the CSS primary language, matching the analytics and snippet integration described above.

The last push was on 2026-04-24, and there are no GitHub releases. The repository is not archived and it is not marked as unmaintained, but the practical state is that a template you pick today is a copy of the Templates directory as it stood on that date, and there is no release stream telling you what changed.

A first page, start to finish, without a command line

There is no install step, and the readme does not describe one, because there is nothing to install. The deliverable is a set of static files that a web server can hand out, and the workflow is a sequence of web and Git actions.

Start by opening the Templates directory and comparing a couple of templates. The readme asks you to choose a template for your LinkFree from that directory, and the differences between templates are structural and stylistic, since a template is by definition a general LinkFree with a distinctive structure or style. Pick the one whose layout matches how many links you have, because that decision is the one you will live with.

Next, fork the repository into your own account. The readme is explicit that you can fork this repository to your own account and configure your personal page using GitHub Pages from there, and that this is the recommended route because it lets you make edits much faster. Cloning is offered as the alternative, but a fork gives you the web editing and the Pages settings in one place.

Then adapt the files with your information. What you are editing is an HTML page with a Head and a Body, and whatever the template's JavaScript file does for its load and click hooks. The Head and Body are also where you put your own analytics snippet, so that is the moment to add one if you want it.

Finally, switch on GitHub Pages for the fork and open the resulting URL. There is no build step and no server, so what you committed is what gets served, and if something looks wrong you fix the file and commit again.

The whole loop is worth doing once before you commit to the approach, because it takes minutes and it tells you exactly how much work every future link change will be.

What you give up by not having a service

The honest limitations come from the same design choice that makes the project appealing.

There is no dashboard and no editing interface. Every change to your page is a file edit and a commit, and publishing goes through whatever process you attach to the repository. For someone who changes their links monthly, that is a real tax compared with a hosted editor, and no amount of customisability compensates for it.

There is also no account system, no shared database and no way to see other people's pages from inside the product. Analytics are yours to wire up to whichever client side platform you prefer, which means the data ends up in a third party account anyway, so the privacy story is better than a hosted service only if you choose a platform with a policy you like.

The template model has its own failure mode. Each template is a fork, and once you have customised it, updating to a newer version of that template means reconciling your changes against upstream by hand. The readme does not document an update path, and a project with no release stream has no obvious place to hang one.

What you get in exchange is ownership. The page is static, it is served from your own GitHub Pages site, it does not depend on a company staying in business, and there is no account to lose. Whether that is the better trade depends on how often you change your links and how much you care about the appearance of the result.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt LinkFree if you want a single page collecting your links, you are comfortable editing HTML and CSS by hand, and you would rather own the file than rent a hosted profile page with a vendor logo on it. Do not adopt it if you want a service: there is no account system, no dashboard and no editing interface, so every change is a commit. Before you commit, pick a template from the Templates directory, fork it to your own account, and check that the analytics platform you want works as client side JavaScript, since the documented integration route depends on it.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. License: Apache-2.0
3. MichaelBarney/LinkFree on GitHub
4. README