Protecting and scheduling links

Passwords, expiry dates, go-live times, click caps, and fallback URLs: the Advanced options explained.

Reviewed 24 Oct 2026

Open LinksIn your workspace. You are asked to log in first if you are not already.

What each control does

These all live under Advanced options on the link form. Each works independently; combining them is fine and common. Password protection, scheduling (go-live and expiry), and max clicks need a Starter plan or above. Fallback URL is free on every plan.

Control	Effect on a visitor	Plan
Password protection	They are asked for the password before they see anything. The destination is not revealed to someone who does not have it.	Starter+
Go live at	Before this time the link does not redirect. After it, it behaves normally.	Starter+
Expiry date	After this time the link stops redirecting.	Starter+
Max clicks	Once the link has been used this many times, it stops redirecting.	Starter+
Fallback URL	Where to send someone when the link is expired, capped, or switched off, instead of showing them an error page.	Every plan

Password protection

A password-protected link shows a prompt rather than the destination. Get it right and you are let through, and remembered on that browser for an hour so you are not asked again on every click. After the hour the prompt comes back.

What a password does and does not do

It stops casual access to a destination you would rather not publish openly. It does not make the destination itself private: anyone who has been through once can copy the real URL and share that. Use it for gating, not for secrets.

Wrong guesses are rate-limited, and the ceilings are deliberately low: three attempts an hour on one link from one address, fifteen an hour from one address across every link, and twenty an hour on one link from all addresses combined. Past any of those the visitor sees "Too many attempts. Please wait before trying again." until their earliest attempt is an hour old. Nothing on the link clears it sooner, and a new password does not either, because the ceiling counts attempts, not passwords. Send a locked-out colleague the destination directly.

If the rate limiter itself is unreachable, the attempt is refused rather than waved through, and the visitor sees "Something went wrong. Please try again." Treat that message on a link you know the password to as an outage on our side, not a typo on theirs.

Clearing the password field and saving does NOT remove it: a blank field is read as "leave the current password unchanged", so the link stays protected. To remove a password, use the explicit Remove password action that appears once a password is set, then save. There is no way to recover a password you have forgotten: remove it and set a new one.

Scheduling with go-live and expiry

Both take a date and a time. Together they define a window: the link works between them and not outside.

Go live at only: the link is dormant until then, so you can print and distribute it early.
Expiry only: the link works now and stops on the date. Good for a time-limited offer.
Both: an exact campaign window with no manual switching on the day.

Which timezone?

Go-live and expiry are read in your browser's timezone: whatever the machine you are typing on is set to. If the campaign matters to the hour, schedule from a machine on the timezone it runs in, or convert the times before you type them.

Max clicks

A hard ceiling on how many times a single link may be used, for a limited number of seats, codes, or downloads.

This is the one place clicks really do stop a link

Your plan's monthly click allowance does not stop a link: going over it only produces an alert. A max-click cap that you set on a link is different: it is an entitlement you asked for, so it is enforced strictly, and it stays enforced even if our counting infrastructure is having a bad day. In that situation a capped link fails closed and shows a "This link has reached its click limit" page rather than risk letting extra people through.

Fallback URL

The single highest-value field on this panel, and the one most often left empty. Without it, everyone arriving at a finished link sees a dead end. With it, they land somewhere you chose.

It applies whenever the link would otherwise stop redirecting: expired, at its click cap, paused, deleted, and before the go-live time too.

Step by step

Publish a link that opens and closes on a schedule

For: Anyone who can edit links, on Starter or above

Before you start

A plan that includes link protection.
The open and close times converted to the timezone of the machine you are scheduling from.
The destination for the offer, and the destination for people who arrive too late.

Steps

Create the link as usual with its destination and a readable slug.
Open Advanced options.
Set Go live at to the moment the offer opens.
Until then the link will not redirect, so it is safe to print and distribute now.
Set Expiry date to the moment it closes.
Set Fallback URL to where late arrivals should go: the general product page, or the next campaign.
Skipping this is the difference between a graceful close and a dead link.
Optionally set Max clicks if the offer is also limited by volume.
The link now closes on whichever comes first: the date or the count.
Save, then open the short link.
Before the go-live time you land on your fallback URL if you set one, or the "This link isn't live yet" page if you did not. Either way, it is not the offer yet, which is the correct behaviour.

What you should see

A link that is safe to distribute immediately, starts working by itself at the right moment, and closes into a useful destination rather than an error.

How to check it worked

Opening the link before go-live lands on your fallback URL (or the "This link isn't live yet" page if none is set), not the offer early.
Opening it inside the window lands on the offer.
Opening it after expiry lands on your fallback destination.

Edge cases

Go-live is set on or after the expiry date.: The save is refused (on the form as an error against the expiry field, and again on the server if you get past it), so there is no such link to diagnose. Move go-live earlier or expiry later and save again.
You need to extend the offer.: Edit the expiry to a later date. An already-expired link starts working again as soon as the new date is in the future.
The link hit its max-click cap early.: Raise the number or clear the field. Clearing it removes the cap entirely.

If something goes wrong

The link closed hours earlier or later than you intended.: The times were almost certainly typed on a machine in a different timezone from the campaign's. Re-open the link and read the two fields on a machine set to the timezone you meant, or convert them by hand, then re-enter and save. There is no timezone setting to change: the fields read in the browser's own zone.
Visitors report a dead end after the campaign.: The link has no fallback URL. Add one: it takes effect immediately, including for people arriving right now.

Try it on a real link

The free plan needs no card and has no time limit.

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