Every “best link-in-bio tools” article ranking on Google right now was written by one of the tools being compared. Linkfire wrote theirs. PUSH.fm wrote theirs. Releese wrote theirs. You can probably guess who comes out on top in each one.
This is a different kind of comparison. I spent 10 years as employee #2 at DistroKid helping thousands of artists figure out how to share their music, and I now run Gatefolded, which is one of the tools on this list. I'll be upfront about where mine fits and where it doesn't. But I've also used or supported artists through most of these tools, and I've seen what actually works versus what just looks good in a marketing screenshot. Some of these tools are genuinely excellent at what they do. Some are solving problems you don't have. And a few are charging you $25/month for features you could get for free.
Here's the honest breakdown.
The actual problem musicians are trying to solve
Before picking a tool, it helps to name the problem. Most artists need to share music with at least three different audiences:
Fans and the public. Your link-in-bio, your social posts, your show flyers. This needs to look good, load fast, and make it easy for someone to listen or find you on their preferred streaming platform.
Press and playlist curators. These people need to hear your music before it's out. They need a clean, professional experience. They don't want to download a ZIP file from Google Drive.
Labels, collaborators, and industry contacts. Private, secure sharing. You need to know who listened, and you need to make sure the music doesn't end up somewhere you didn't intend.
Most tools handle one of these well. Almost none handle all three. That's the gap.
Quick reference: who should use what
If you're scanning, here's the short version. The detailed breakdowns follow below.
- Just need a list of links: Linktree (free) or Beacons (free)
- Running paid ad campaigns and pre-saves: Feature.fm or Linkfire
- Want a full musician website: Bandzoogle or Squarespace
- Need secure private sharing for sync/labels: Songbox
- Need one page for fans, press, and private sharing: Gatefolded ($49/year)
Now the deep dives.
Generalist link-in-bio tools (not music-specific)
Linktree
The default. Everyone knows it. You get a page with a list of links, and you put that URL in your Instagram bio.
What it does well: It's simple, it's fast to set up, and the free tier is genuinely usable. If you just need a page that says “here are my links,” Linktree works fine.
Where it falls short for musicians: Linktree doesn't understand music. Your discography becomes a list of buttons. There's no way to play anything on the page itself. No privacy controls for unreleased tracks. No album artwork presentation. Your fans click a link, leave your page, and you never learn anything about them except that they clicked. Linktree Pro runs $9/month billed monthly ($108/year, or $90/year if billed annually) and still doesn't add music-specific features.
Best for: Artists who literally just need a list of links and don't need streaming, privacy, or analytics beyond click counts.
Beacons
More visual than Linktree. Supports embeds, e-commerce blocks, and a more modular page layout.
What it does well: The free tier is surprisingly full-featured. You can embed a Spotify player, sell digital products, and collect emails. The page builder gives you real design flexibility.
Where it falls short for musicians: It's built for influencers and general creators, not specifically for music. Embedding a Spotify player is not the same as hosting your music. No privacy controls for unreleased tracks. No access-level management.
Best for: Artists who want a visual, multi-purpose landing page and don't mind that music isn't the focus.
Carrd
A mini-website builder. One-page sites with full design control.
What it does well: You get a genuinely custom-looking page for $19/year (Pro tier). No templates that scream “this is a Carrd site.” Full creative control.
Where it falls short for musicians: You're building a website from scratch. There's no music functionality built in. No streaming, no analytics on plays, no privacy controls. Every feature you need, you're bolting on yourself.
Best for: Artists who want a unique landing page and have the time (and design sense) to build one.
Music-specific smart link and marketing tools
This is where things get interesting. These tools were built for music, but they were built for a specific moment in music -- the release campaign.
Linkfire
The industry standard for labels and major-label marketing teams. Used by Universal, Sony, Warner, and a ton of mid-size labels.
What it does well: Geo-routing (sends listeners to the right store for their country), deep DSP integrations, retargeting pixels, robust analytics. If you're running a six-figure marketing campaign for an album launch, Linkfire gives you the data to optimize it.
Where it falls short for musicians: It's built for labels, priced for labels, and designed around a single release moment. The cheapest plan is $9.99/month. The features that justify the price (retargeting, channel insights, audience tools) only matter if you're spending real money on ads. For indie artists, you're paying label prices for a smart link.
Best for: Artists or managers running paid ad campaigns who need conversion data and geo-routing. If you're not buying ads, you probably don't need this.
Feature.fm
Smart links, pre-save campaigns, retargeting pixels, fan segmentation, contest pages, and more. It's a full music marketing platform.
What it does well: Pre-save campaigns are solid. The free tier gives you basic smart links. The paid tiers ($2-$25/month depending on plan) unlock retargeting and advanced analytics. If you're actively running pre-save campaigns for every release, Feature.fm has the machinery for it.
Where it falls short for musicians: It's a lot of tool. The interface is dense. You'll spend real time learning the platform, and much of what you're paying for (retargeting pixels, conversion tracking) assumes you're running ads. There's no private sharing capability. It's entirely public-facing.
Best for: Artists who are actively running paid marketing campaigns and pre-save pushes. If pre-saves are a core part of your release strategy, Feature.fm is worth a look.
PUSH.fm
Pre-save campaigns, reward gates (fans unlock content by following or saving), and smart links. A solid mid-tier option.
What it does well: The reward gate concept is clever. Fans pre-save your track on Spotify to unlock bonus content. The free tier is usable. Paid plans start at $4.99/month.
Where it falls short for musicians: Like Feature.fm, it's campaign-focused. Once the release is out and the pre-save window closes, the tool isn't doing much for you. No private sharing.
Best for: Artists who want to run pre-save campaigns with fan-engagement hooks like unlockable content.
Also in this category: ToneDen leans heavier into social ads and event promotion. Good Facebook/Instagram ad integration, but if you're not spending money on ads, most of the value disappears.
Music-specific page builders
Bandzoogle
A full website builder designed for musicians. Custom domains, album pages, merch stores, mailing lists, commission-free sales.
What it does well: If you want a complete musician website, Bandzoogle is one of the better options. Commission-free merch and music sales. Built-in mailing list. Smart links included. Plans start around $8.29/month.
Where it falls short for musicians: It's a website builder. You're building and maintaining a site, not just sharing music. The setup takes time. There's no private sharing or access control for unreleased tracks. If you just need a link-in-bio or a way to share a demo with a label, building a whole website is overkill.
Best for: Artists who want a full website with merch sales and are willing to invest the time to build and maintain it.
Also in this category: Supertape offers a cleaner, more minimal website-as-link-in-bio approach. Nice aesthetic, simpler setup than Bandzoogle, but limited privacy features and a smaller user base.
Bundlers (distribution + link tools)
Kinjari
Music distribution plus biolink pages for $3/month.
What it does well: If you're looking for cheap distribution and a basic link page in one package, it's efficient. $36/year covers distribution and your link page.
Where it falls short for musicians: Your sharing tool is now tied to your distributor. If you switch distributors, you lose your link page. The link pages are basic. No privacy controls.
Best for: Artists on a tight budget who want distribution and a basic link page in one subscription.
Releese
Full-suite platform: distribution, smart links, analytics, release planning.
What it does well: The all-in-one pitch is appealing. One dashboard for everything.
Where it falls short for musicians: Same coupling problem as Kinjari. Your link tool is locked to your distribution choice. If Releese's distribution isn't right for you, neither is their link tool. You shouldn't have to pick your sharing tool based on who distributes your music.
Best for: Artists who want everything in one platform and are comfortable with that lock-in.
Private sharing tools
These tools solve a completely different problem. They're not for fans. They're for industry: labels, press, sync supervisors, collaborators.
Songbox
Secure, private music sharing with detailed analytics. Built for B2B music sharing.
What it does well: This is the best pure private sharing tool. Watermarking, download controls, detailed play analytics, email verification. If you're sending music to labels and press and security is your top priority, Songbox is excellent.
Where it falls short for musicians: It's private-only. There's no public-facing page. You can't use it as your link-in-bio. You can't flip a release from private to public when it comes out. You need a separate tool for everything fan-facing.
Best for: Artists, managers, or labels who need serious security features for private music sharing and already have a separate public-facing solution.
DISCO
The sync and licensing industry standard. Used by music supervisors, publishers, and licensing teams.
What it does well: If you're pitching music for TV, film, and advertising, DISCO is where the buyers are. Deep metadata, cue sheet integration, catalog management.
Where it falls short for musicians: It's enterprise software priced for companies. Not relevant for most independent artists unless you're actively in the sync world. Not fan-facing at all.
Best for: Publishers, sync agents, and artists actively pitching for placements who need to be where music supervisors are searching.
So where does Gatefolded fit?
As I mentioned up top, this is mine. I built it because I kept watching artists juggle multiple tools for a problem that should have one answer.
The pattern I saw over and over: an artist would use Linktree for their public link-in-bio, a private SoundCloud link or Google Drive folder for demos going to labels, and then scramble to update everything when the release goes public. Three tools, three URLs, three experiences.
Every tool above lives on one side of a line. The public tools (Linktree, Linkfire, Feature.fm) are great at getting your released music in front of fans, but they can't help you share anything privately. The private tools (Songbox, DISCO) are great at secure sharing, but they have zero public-facing capability. Gatefolded sits on the line itself.
One page per release. That page can be password-protected when you're sharing rough mixes with your bandmates, email-allowlisted when you're sending an advance to press, and public when the song drops. Same URL the entire time. The link you sent a blog three weeks before release becomes the page their readers land on after release. Nothing to rebuild, no new tool to set up on launch day.
Your music shows up with full artwork and a playable tracklist, not a list of buttons. Analytics tell you who actually listened, not just who clicked. $49/year, everything included, no tiers.
Where Gatefolded isn't the right fit: If you need retargeting pixels and conversion tracking for ad campaigns, Feature.fm or Linkfire are better tools for that. If you need a full website with merch sales, Bandzoogle or Squarespace makes more sense. If you need enterprise-grade sync catalog management, DISCO is the standard. Gatefolded doesn't try to be everything.
The bottom line
Most artists don't need the most expensive tool. They need the right tool for how they actually share music. Figure out which audiences you're serving, and pick accordingly. If you skimmed to the end, the quick reference near the top has the short version.