Introduction
What LinkNest is, what ships in the package, how a page reaches its visitors, and where to start reading.
3 min readUpdated Oct 17, 2026Applies to LinkNest 1.0.0
On this page
LinkNest is a self-hosted link-in-bio platform. Each creator, shop or venue claims a username and gets one public page with their links, socials, products and tips. On top of the usual link list it adds four modules: a live status strip, extra faces that switch by weekday, place commerce for venues (specials, hours and table QR codes) and an AI page co-pilot.
You can run it for yourself, or as a service for many creators with the included plans, three payment gateways and an admin panel.
Tip
Want to see it first? The live demo runs at linknest.link: open Sign in and choose Explore the creator studio or Explore the admin panel. No password is needed, and the demo is read-only. /u/solandclay is the demo’s public page.
What is in the package
| Area | What you get |
|---|---|
| Public page | 18 colour themes, 9 typefaces, 6 button styles, accent colour, background photo, 8 social icons, the live status strip, a place card, tip button, shop, email capture and a message form |
| Creator studio | Home, Links, Look, Share, Co-pilot, Earn, Place, Audience, Insights, Inbox and Settings, plus five tools: business cards, caption planner, keyword replies, link shortener and post ideas |
| Links | Five link kinds (web, YouTube, Spotify, booking, product), scheduled visibility, a "now" pin, four kinds of lock (age, email, password, tip) and A/B title tests |
| Money | Plan subscriptions through Stripe, PayPal or Razorpay; tips, products and tip-to-unlock links paid through the same gateways; creator payout requests |
| Admin panel | Overview, Plans, People, Finance, Payment settings, Brand and Export |
| Marketing site | Landing page, /features, /pricing, /templates, /marketplace (a gallery of starter blocks) and /learn |
| Source and tooling | Full TypeScript source, 16 SQL migrations, a migration runner, a Dockerfile and an offline HTML help file in documentation/ |
It is built with TanStack Start (React 19), Vite 8, Nitro, Postgres through pg, Better Auth and Tailwind CSS v4. The AI co-pilot uses xAI when you give it a key and a built-in rule-based planner when you do not.
How a page reaches its visitors
LinkNest is a single Node application. The same process serves the marketing site, the studio, the admin panel, the public pages and the payment webhooks.
| Address | Who uses it | What it is |
|---|---|---|
/ |
Everyone | The marketing site, or a creator's page when the request arrives on their verified custom domain |
/u/<username> |
Visitors | A creator's public page. /u/<username>/<face> shows one of their extra faces. |
/dashboard |
Creators | The studio. Sign-in happens in a modal on the same page. |
/admin |
Platform admins | Plans, people, finance, gateways and branding |
/api/stripe/webhook, /api/paypal/webhook, /api/razorpay/webhook |
Payment providers | Subscription and payment events |
/s/<code> |
Visitors | Short links made in the studio's link shortener |
There is no separate worker, queue or cache to run. Everything lives in Postgres.
What you need to run it
The short version, detailed on Requirements:
- Node.js 22.
- Postgres for real use. An embedded in-memory database is included for trying it out.
- A domain with HTTPS. Sign-in cookies are refused on plain HTTP.
- Optional: a Stripe, PayPal or Razorpay account to take payments, an xAI key for the AI co-pilot and a Resend key to email subscribers.
Third-party usage (payment fees, AI calls, email, hosting) is billed to you by those providers and is not included in the purchase.
Where to go next
- Evaluating? Read Requirements, then Known limitations and the FAQ.
- Trying it locally? Quick start gets you running with no database and no keys.
- Going to production? Follow Installation and deployment, then Admins and the admin panel.
- Selling it to creators? Read Selling it as SaaS, including the licensing note.