Building a High-Performance Branch.io Alternative for 80% Less

I built a Branch.io alternative for $79/mo instead of $499

OBHOLZ SOLUTIONS developed LinkHopp as a direct response to the 2025 shutdown of Firebase Dynamic Links. The platform provides a high-performance alternative for deferred deep linking with sub-10ms redirects. It offers a transparent, self-service model starting at $49/month compared to enterprise-only competitors.

Why This Matters

The deprecation of free tools like Firebase Dynamic Links created a significant market gap where developers are forced to choose between enterprise-grade pricing or building complex attribution logic from scratch. LinkHopp demonstrates that by using edge-native services like Cloudflare Workers, engineers can achieve sub-10ms latency and high-accuracy deferred linking while maintaining 95% margins. This technical shift allows small-to-medium apps to access sophisticated campaign tracking and A/B testing features that were previously gated behind $499/month ‘Contact Sales’ barriers.

Key Insights

• Fact: Firebase Dynamic Links shutdown scheduled for August 2025.
• Concept: Deferred deep linking using a 3-stage matching process including Play Install Referrer, Clipboard, and Fuzzy Fingerprinting for a ~90% match rate.
• Tool: Cloudflare KV Cache used by LinkHopp to achieve sub-10ms redirects across 300+ edge locations.
• Fact: Branch.io standard pricing starts at $499/month compared to LinkHopp’s tiers starting at $49/month.
• Tool: Supabase Pro used by LinkHopp to manage PostgreSQL and Auth with a total infra cost of ~$30/month for 100 customers.

Working Examples

The LinkHopp technical infrastructure stack

Cloudflare Workers (Redirect Engine + API)\n└── KV Cache (sub-10ms link lookups)\nSupabase (PostgreSQL + Auth + RLS)\nSvelteKit on Cloudflare Pages (Dashboard)\nFlutter SDK + React Native SDK\nStripe (Billing)

Practical Applications

• System: LinkHopp Migration Tool. Behavior: Automatically converts legacy Firebase Dynamic Links to new endpoints to prevent link rot. Pitfall: Manual link migration which increases the risk of broken marketing campaigns and high developer overhead.
• System: Android Play Install Referrer. Behavior: Passes unique tokens through the Play Store to achieve a 98% matching rate for new users. Pitfall: Relying on basic IP-only matching which results in poor attribution accuracy across mobile networks.
• System: Fuzzy Fingerprinting. Behavior: Uses weighted scoring for IP, OS, and device metadata to maintain a 70/100 threshold for matching. Pitfall: Using exact match strings for OS versions which fails when users update from iOS 17.4 to 17.5.

References:

• https://dev.to/stefanobholz/i-built-a-branchio-alternative-for-79mo-instead-of-499-50oe
• http://linkhopp.com
• http://linkhopp.com/docs