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Free Affiliate Link Cloaker

Turn ugly affiliate URLs into clean, branded short links. Cloak any affiliate link, track every click, and boost your conversions, all with your own custom domain.

Create Free Account to Cloak Links

What you get with Flyn link cloaking

Custom domain

Use your own branded domain

Click analytics

Real-time clicks, location, device

A/B testing

Test different landing pages

Link expiration

Set auto-expire dates

See how Flyn cloaks popular affiliate networks

Rakuten Advertising

Before

https://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=AbC1dEf2GhI&mid=24366&murl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.merchant.com%2Fwireless-earbuds

After

go.yourbrand.com/wireless-earbuds
Awin

Before

https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=12345&awinaffid=678901&ued=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.merchant.com%2Fhosting-deal

After

links.yourbrand.com/hosting-deal
ClickBank

Before

https://hop.clickbank.net/?affiliate=myid&vendor=product123&cbpage=salespage&tid=campaign01

After

go.yourbrand.com/fitness-guide

Works with any affiliate link, but some programs restrict shorteners or, like Amazon, pay no commission on redirected clicks, so check each program's terms first.

How to Cloak an Affiliate Link in 3 Steps

Step 1: Paste your affiliate link, Link Cloaker screenshot
1

Paste your affiliate link

Enter the long affiliate URL from Rakuten Advertising, ClickBank, or another network that allows redirecting short links.

Step 2: Preview the cloaked link, Link Cloaker screenshot
2

Preview the cloaked link

See how your ugly affiliate URL transforms into a clean, branded short link with your custom domain.

Step 3: Create your cloaked link, Link Cloaker screenshot
3

Create your cloaked link

Sign up for free to create the cloaked link with click analytics and real-time click counts.

Before & After: See the Difference

Your audience clicks branded links they trust, not strings of random characters and tracking codes.

Rakuten Advertising

Before (raw affiliate URL)

https://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=AbC1dEf2GhI&mid=24366&murl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.merchant.com%2Fwireless-earbuds

After (cloaked with Flyn)

go.yourbrand.com/wireless-earbuds
Awin

Before (raw affiliate URL)

https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=12345&awinaffid=678901&ued=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.merchant.com%2Fhosting-deal&clickref=blogpost

After (cloaked with Flyn)

links.yourbrand.com/hosting-deal
ClickBank

Before (raw affiliate URL)

https://hop.clickbank.net/?affiliate=myid&vendor=product123&cbpage=salespage&tid=campaign01

After (cloaked with Flyn)

go.yourbrand.com/fitness-guide

Everything You Need to Cloak Affiliate Links

Flyn is a full link management platform, link cloaking is built in. No extra plugins or tools required.

Custom branded domains

Use your own domain like go.yourbrand.com for every cloaked link. Build trust and boost click-through rates by up to 39%.

Click analytics

Track every click in real time, see location, device, browser, referrer, and more. Know exactly which affiliate links perform best.

Link masking

Hide ugly affiliate parameters behind clean URLs. Visitors see your brand, not a string of tracking codes and session IDs.

One-click cloaking

Paste any affiliate URL and get a branded cloaked link in seconds. No coding, no plugins, no WordPress required.

No redirect penalty

Standard links are a plain server-side 302 redirect in one hop. The iframe mask is a separate Pro switch that stays off unless you turn it on for a link.

API access for bulk

Cloak hundreds of affiliate links programmatically with our REST API. Perfect for large affiliate sites and comparison pages.

Why Affiliate Marketers Cloak Their Links

Raw affiliate links are long, messy, and filled with tracking parameters that look suspicious to your audience. When someone sees a URL packed with random characters, session IDs, and affiliate tags, their instinct is to not click. Cloaked links solve this by replacing the raw URL with a clean, branded domain that visitors recognize and trust. Under the hood a cloaked link is an ordinary URL redirect: the visitor requests your branded link and the server forwards them to the affiliate destination in one hop.

Beyond trust, link cloaking gives you control. If a merchant changes their affiliate program or URL structure, you update the destination once in your Flyn dashboard and every cloaked link across your entire site updates instantly, no need to find and replace URLs in hundreds of blog posts. This single benefit has saved affiliate marketers thousands of hours. New to this? Our step-by-step guide on how to cloak affiliate links without a website walks through the whole process and, importantly, which networks allow it. Choosing a platform? Our comparison of link shorteners with cloaking shows that only four of eight major tools offer it at all.

Cloaking also protects your commissions. Some users know how to strip affiliate tags from URLs before purchasing, which means you do the work of driving the sale but earn nothing. A cloaked link hides the affiliate parameters, making it much harder for anyone to bypass your tracking.

Cloaking is also the first step toward a bigger win: because your affiliate links now run through a redirect you control, you can attach an ad pixel to them and retarget everyone who clicks, even though the merchant page belongs to someone else. That turns one-time clicks into an audience you can advertise to for months. The same move works for any link you do not own.

URL Cloaking vs URL Masking

Most people use URL cloaking and URL masking for the same goal: the link you share hides a long affiliate or tracking URL. Flyn does it two ways.

Redirect (the default on every Flyn short link): your short link sends the visitor on to the destination. The long URL never appears in your post, email or video description, but the browser shows the real page address after the click. It works on the free plan.

Full mask (Flyn Pro): the destination loads inside a full-page frame, so the address bar keeps showing your short link. Turn it on per link. Some sites refuse to be framed; Flyn checks for that and sends those visitors on with a normal redirect instead.

Affiliate programs set their own rules: some that allow a redirect draw the line at a mask, and some restrict shorteners altogether. Check each program's terms before you shorten or mask an affiliate link; our guide on how to cloak affiliate links covers the major networks.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is link cloaking?
Link cloaking is the process of disguising an affiliate URL behind a shorter, cleaner, branded link. Instead of sharing a long, ugly URL full of tracking parameters (like click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=AbC1dEf2GhI&mid=24366&murl=...), you share a clean link like go.yourbrand.com/product-name. The visitor clicks your branded link, which redirects to the affiliate URL behind the scenes. Link cloaking improves click-through rates, protects your commissions from link hijacking, and makes your content look more professional and trustworthy.
Why should I cloak my affiliate links?
There are several important reasons to cloak affiliate links: (1) Higher click-through rates. Clean branded links get 30-40% more clicks than raw affiliate URLs because they look trustworthy. (2) Commission protection, cloaking prevents tech-savvy users from stripping your affiliate tag and buying directly, which steals your commission. (3) Easier management, if a merchant changes their affiliate program or URL structure, you update the destination once and all your cloaked links update instantly. (4) Better analytics, track exactly which links, pages, and campaigns drive the most affiliate revenue. (5) Professionalism, branded links build audience trust and make your content look more polished.
Is affiliate link cloaking allowed by Amazon Associates?
Amazon does not ban link shorteners; its Program Policies prohibit using one "in a manner that makes it unclear that you are linking to an Amazon Site". The catch is commission: Amazon's Commission Income Statement excludes purchases referred by a "Redirecting Link", one that sends users to Amazon through an intermediate site "without requiring the customer to click on a link or take some other affirmative action on that intermediate site". A plain redirect from Flyn or any other shortener is exactly that, so for Amazon affiliate links use Amazon's own SiteStripe short link (amzn.to). Other programs differ, and some restrict shorteners or masking entirely, so check each program's terms before you shorten or mask a link.
Does link cloaking affect SEO?
A standard Flyn short link is a plain server-side 302 redirect, the kind search engines handle every day, and the short link itself is marked noindex, so it never competes with your own pages in search. Flyn Pro's full mask loads the destination inside a frame instead, so use it for links you share, not for pages you want search engines to index.
What is the difference between link cloaking and link shortening?
Link cloaking and link shortening are essentially the same technology, both create a short, clean URL that redirects to a longer destination URL. The term "link cloaking" is specifically used in affiliate marketing to describe hiding the affiliate URL behind a branded link. Link shortening is the broader term for creating shorter URLs for any purpose. With Flyn, every short link you create is effectively a cloaked link, it replaces the original URL with a clean branded one and tracks every click.
Can I use my own custom domain for cloaked links?
Yes. With Flyn, you can connect any custom domain you own (like go.yourbrand.com or links.mysite.com) and use it for all your cloaked affiliate links. Custom domain setup takes about 2 minutes, just add a CNAME record to your DNS and verify it in your Flyn dashboard. Every link you create will use your branded domain instead of a generic shortener domain, which builds trust and increases click-through rates by up to 39%.
How do I track clicks on my cloaked affiliate links?
Flyn automatically tracks every click on your cloaked links in real time. Your dashboard shows total clicks, geographic location (country and city), device type (mobile, desktop, tablet), operating system, browser, and referrer (which page or platform sent the click). You can filter analytics by date range, tag, or campaign. This data helps you understand which affiliate products perform best, which content drives the most clicks, and where your audience is located, so you can optimize your affiliate strategy.
Can I cloak links in bulk?
Yes. Flyn offers both a bulk link creation interface and a REST API for programmatic link cloaking. If you have hundreds of affiliate links to cloak, you can use the API to create short links in bulk, set custom slugs, add tags, and configure redirects automatically. The API and bulk creation are available on Pro. This is especially useful for large affiliate sites, comparison pages, or content publishers who manage thousands of product links.
What happens if I delete a cloaked link?
If you delete a cloaked link in Flyn, the short URL will return a 404 error when clicked. Before deleting, consider whether the link is embedded in blog posts, emails, or social media that you cannot edit. A safer approach is to change the destination URL instead of deleting the link, this way existing links continue to work but point to a new page (like a similar product or your homepage). Flyn also lets you set link expiration dates, so links can automatically stop working after a promotion ends.
Is link cloaking the same as link masking?
People use both terms for the same goal, hiding the original destination behind a cleaner, shorter URL. Technically there are two methods: a redirect, which shows the real page after the click, and a full mask, which keeps the short link in the address bar (Flyn Pro). Some people also call it "link disguising" or "pretty links." The goal is the same: replace a long, parameter-heavy affiliate URL with a short, branded, trustworthy link. In the WordPress ecosystem, plugins like ThirstyAffiliates and Pretty Links popularized the term "link cloaking," while the broader marketing world often uses "link masking" or simply "link shortening." Flyn handles all of these use cases with one tool.

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Stop losing affiliate commissions to ugly links

Join thousands of affiliate marketers who use Flyn to cloak, brand, and track their affiliate links, with custom domains, real-time analytics, and A/B testing.

Start Cloaking Links, FreeRead the API Docs