[eduardordm]

If you click on "pricing" you will see this: "STARTING AT $995/month". I think that's pretty clear. Maybe the service changed and they started to charge and they didn't notify you.

Link: https://bitly.com/a/pricing

And a quote:

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity" - Robert J. Hanlon.

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Edit (please read this)

Oz Kats said: "as of april last year when we signed up for bit.ly that page was nowhere to be found"

My reply:

That actually changes everything.

As I understand, they are not retaining your data, but will pull the plug on a service you now depend and are not offering migration options, am I correct? This is certainly an awful business practice it could be illegal, but there is a problem.

At the time they failed to communicate the pricing so you started using their service, judging it would be free. If they started to charge, you could just pay or move to another provider, but the very model of their tool makes it impossible for you to truly "migrate" to another provider since the links are widespread, this isn't exactly their fault (nor yours).

If they are charging you 995$ just because they know you are out of options you might have a case, but that's so time/money consuming I would advise you to just do your best to migrate the widespread links.

Best of luck

[davidblueit]

there's no link to that page before signing up... no link from the home page that i can see. I think that's pretty unclear

[pushplay]

The pricing link isn't at the top of the home page, but it is at the top of 'Features' and 'Get Started.' More over, the list of clients at the bottom includes some large companies. Surely you must realize that someone is paying for something here.

I think Facebook and Google have lulled us into a false, unquestioning expectation that online services are free; when really we should be suspicious of any company claiming to offer a free service.

[eduardordm]

"Learn More" then "Pricing" or any page that shows the product has the pricing link on the navigation bar.

[ozkatz]

as of april last year when we signed up for bit.ly that page was nowhere to be found

[diwo]

Let's see what Internet Archive says about this. In April 2013 the Bitly homepage looked like this:

http://web.archive.org/web/20130401021533/https://bitly.com/

It had the new brand in use, and it had a "You Business?" link to Enterprise site:

http://web.archive.org/web/20130404123817/http://www.enterpr...

The enterprise site advices you to contact them for pricing.

[missblit]

For reference the ToS from March 2013 is here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20130320100810/http://bitly.com/p...

It still contains the clause outlining that the free version is for non-commercial use only.

[eduardordm]

That actually changes everything.

As I understand, they are not retaining your data, but will pull the plug on a service you now depend and are not offering migration options, am I correct? This is certainly an awful business practice it could be illegal, but there is a problem.

At the time they failed to communicate the pricing so you started using their service, judging it would be free. If they started to charge, you could just pay or move to another provider, but the very model of their tool makes it impossible for you to truly "migrate" to another provider since the links are widespread, this isn't exactly their fault (nor yours).

If they are charging you 995$ just because they know you are out of options you might have a case, but that's so time/money consuming I would advise you to just do your best to migrate the widespread links.

Best of luck