Link, Page, Publisher – and everything behind them.
What Qelno does, software version 26.037. All features are included in Key, Atelier and House; differences are listed in the pricing table.
01 · Link
The short address.
Short links on your own domain; several domains in one instance, each with its own codes and owner
Redirect with 302 (temporary, default) or 301 (permanent), set in the panel; every redirect is sent with Cache-Control: no-store
Codes of lower-case letters and digits, four to sixteen characters; availability is checked while you type, an empty field draws a free code
Expiry date, click limit and password protection per link
Address for missing links: unknown, disabled, archived or expired codes can lead to an https address instead of the 404 page
Archive and permanent deletion; deleted codes stay locked (forever, free at once or for a chosen number of months) so printed codes never end up at someone else’s link
Categories as a tree with up to six levels, networks with link and click counts
02 · Page
The start page of your domain.
Today: every code redirects – with 302 or 301 to any https address, for example your website or a campaign page
One start page per domain: the home editor designs the page shown at the domain itself (when the domain root does not redirect). There is no builder for several pages yet
Home editor with header, hero, content, footer and metadata; show or hide each area
Up to eight slides with alt text, text and link; images are resized on the server (1600 × 900 and 800 × 450, with srcset and lazy loading)
Free content with text, table, image or video (YouTube without cookies, Vimeo); HTML is filtered by an allow list
Logo (PNG, JPG or WebP up to 500 KB), title and description, canonical, noindex, Open Graph, fixed language
Five templates, including “Paper” in the Qelno colours; font, colours and button shape adjustable
The last five versions are kept and can be restored
Domain root as the start page, as a redirect with 301, 302, 307 or 308 or as a short 410 page
Optional form in which visitors shorten a link themselves, with their own code if you allow it
No prices on the start page: A hop, not a shop
After the scan the code redirects, here to an example page on qelno.link. See the example.
Coming soon
A page of its own for each code
When you create a code you will choose: A a redirect to an address as today or B a new landing page. You build the landing page in a drag-and-drop editor:
Colour palettes and fonts
Widgets, video and Instagram embeds
Popups
Preview for desktop, tablet and phone
Preview of a planned feature. Not included today and not part of any offer; we do not give a date.
03 · Publisher
The piece for the recipient.
QR code as SVG or PNG, generated on the server; colour, size and quiet zone adjustable
QR pack: ten codes at once as a ZIP, as PNG, SVG or JPG, each file named like the code
Optional hosted QR image at /qr/<code>.png or .svg with “copy HTML” (not in Free mode)
Statistics by period, day or week, compared with the previous period, with key figures at a glance
Top links, origin, countries from a local database (DB-IP Lite), devices, browsers, operating systems and categories
CSV export of statistics and links
No IP addresses stored and no cookies
04 · Team
Several people, clear permissions.
Users with ownership: each person sees and changes only their own links and numbers
Permissions per user in a table, for example links, settings or “create new users”
Invitation by email; new accounts only by authorised users if you wish
Admins can use “view as” and assign links or domains to a user, also several at once
Two-factor sign-in with TOTP (authenticator app)
Panel in four languages, including German and English; installable as an app on the device
Illustrative image.
05 · Interfaces
Data in, data out.
CSV import with the columns code, target, title and network
CSV export in UTF-8 with byte order mark so that spreadsheets keep special characters
API: POST /api.php creates links; every request is signed with HMAC and bound to a channel
Webhook: on every click the server can send a small JSON message (code, short link, clicks) to an https address
Extensions in PHP via hooks, for example before the redirect
One code per channel: fair, flyer, poster. Test the code.
06 · Operation
What runs in the background.
Health check with interval, history and email for each new problem or as a daily summary
Signed updates (SHA-256 and RSA) from the update channel; the instance checks at most every twelve hours and installs nothing by itself
Security headers (CSP, nosniff, Referrer-Policy, X-Frame-Options), HSTS on by default
Error pages without technical details; causes go to the server error log
Plain PHP without framework or third-party libraries, PDO and MySQL, compatible with PHP 8.4
Panel tested against WCAG 2.2 AA; no fonts from third-party servers
