Linktree has 70 million users. That's 70 million people who decided a list of links on someone else's domain counts as a digital presence.
It doesn't.
The Problem You Don't Think You Have
Linktree solved a real problem in 2016. Instagram only allowed one link in your bio, so someone built a page that held all your links. Smart. Useful. But Instagram now supports five native links. The original constraint is gone. The habit isn't.
88% of creators already have their own websites, according to 2025 creator economy data. Only 24% still use a link-in-bio tool as their primary hub. If you're in that 24%, you're not in good company. You're in shrinking company.
Here's what bugs me about the whole thing. Linktree Pro costs $9 a month. That's $108 a year. You know what else costs about $108 a year? A domain name and basic hosting for an actual website you own. One builds your brand equity. The other builds Linktree's.
What Happens When You Build on Rented Land
In August 2025, Linktree got blocked in India. Not for a few hours. For days. India was their fifth-largest market, roughly 7.3 million monthly visits. Creators lost revenue. Audience engagement disappeared overnight. A Mumbai-based influencer called it "a silent killer for small businesses."
Those creators didn't do anything wrong. Linktree's regulatory problem became their problem because their entire digital presence lived on someone else's infrastructure.
And it's not just government blocks. A consultant named Mike used Linktree for two years. When he finally tried to move to his own site, he found out his clients had bookmarked his linktr.ee URL, not his actual domain. Two years of sending people to his business and they associated his brand with Linktree's domain. He had to choose between confusing existing clients or staying locked in.
That's the quiet cost of convenience. You train your audience to find you at an address you don't own.
The Numbers Tell the Story
Custom domains report up to 40% higher click-through rates compared to non-branded link pages. Linktree pages average 2.3 seconds load time versus the industry standard of under 1.5 seconds. Every fraction of a second costs you conversions.
And 77% of creators already worry about platform dependency for their income. 70% say an algorithm change could have "serious effects" on their life. A bio page adds another layer of dependency on top of the platforms you already can't control.
The link-in-bio market hit $1.2 billion in 2025. Projected to reach $3.2 billion by 2032. That's a multi-billion dollar industry built on creators paying someone else to host a list of links. Think about that for a second.
Linktree Is Becoming Something Worse
In April 2025, Linktree launched "Sponsored Links," brand integrations with companies like Hulu, Sam's Club, and Harry's. Your bio page may soon carry someone else's ads. You're paying them $9 a month and they're selling ad space on your page.
They've also made five acquisitions. They bought Koji in late 2023 and shut it down a month later. They acquired Fingertip in November 2025 and announced it sunsets May 1, 2026. Users get forced to migrate. When your digital presence lives on a platform that buys competitors and kills their products, your stability depends entirely on their corporate strategy.
The bio page market is trending toward "mini-websites" with scheduling, commerce, and CRM features baked in. Which proves the thesis. If your bio page needs to become a website to be useful, why not just build the website?
What a Website Actually Does for You
A bio page is a list of links. A website is infrastructure.
Your website builds domain authority over time. Every blog post, every page, every backlink compounds. A Linktree page sends that authority to linktr.ee, not to you.
Your website captures leads on your terms. Email signups, gated content, membership areas. You own that list. You own that relationship. Nobody can block it, sunset it, or stick sponsored links in the middle of it.
Your website shows up in search. When someone Googles what you do, your site can rank. Your Linktree page won't. And if it somehow does, it ranks for Linktree, not for you.
45% of full-time creators now own their own brands and businesses alongside their content. The ones averaging around $100K a year from brand ownership aren't running their business through a bio page. The creator economy is heading toward ownership. A Linktree page is the opposite of ownership.
The Real Product Linktree Sells
Linktree doesn't sell links. It sells the avoidance of learning how the web works. That was a reasonable trade in 2016 when the barrier to building a website was high and Instagram gave you one link to work with.
Neither of those things is true anymore.
The gap between creators with real digital infrastructure and those still running on a bio page is widening. The bio page isn't a stepping stone. For a lot of creators, it's a ceiling they've mistaken for a floor.
You don't need to become a web developer. You don't need to learn to code. You need to own your digital presence the same way you'd own your studio space or your equipment. It's part of the business, not an afterthought you outsource to a free tool that makes money by being between you and your audience.
What to Do About It
Start with a domain. Put your name on it. Build something simple that you control. A single page with your work, your story, and a way for people to reach you directly is worth more than any bio page with seventeen link buttons.
If you want to talk through what that looks like for your specific situation, come hang out in our Discord. No pitch, no sales call. Just creators figuring out the tech side of running a business.