Stop guessing which one. Put them side by side.

The grid says what these tools are. This says what builders did about it — one decision per person, changeable whenever you change your mind.

# Tool comparison — Dub vs Google Search Console vs Hacker News and Reddit

Source: Kbaise, a directory of tools that work with Lovable projects.
Pick one and tell me why before writing any integration code.

## Dub (dub)
- URL: https://dub.co
- Category: SEO, growth & newsletter
- Cost: paid — No free plan as of 2026. Business $90/mo: 10k new links/mo, 250k tracked events, 100 custom domains, 10 users. Advanced $300/mo: 50k links, 1M events, 20 users. Enterprise custom. 14-day trial, about 10% off annual.
- What it is: Dub is a link management and attribution platform: branded short links on your own domain, QR codes, geo and device targeting, A/B testing, and click-to-conversion tracking with SDKs for TypeScript, Python, Go, PHP and Ruby. It also runs affiliate and partner payout programmes.
- Why builders pick it: Branded short links on your own domain keep newsletter click data first-party and portable between email tools. Conversion tracking ties a link in an issue to an actual subscription rather than a click.
- Trap: The old generous free tier is gone — entry is now $90/mo, which prices out small publications. If you only need short links, a self-hosted shortener or your email tool's own tracking is the cheaper answer.
- Full dossier: /api/public/tools/dub

## Google Search Console (google-search-console)
- URL: https://search.google.com/search-console
- Category: SEO, growth & newsletter
- Cost: free — Free forever, no paid tier and no seat limits. Performance data covers 16 months. API, Looker Studio connector and BigQuery bulk export all included at no cost.
- What it is: Search Console reports how a site performs in Google: queries, impressions, clicks and average position, plus index coverage, sitemap submission, Core Web Vitals and manual action notices. Data spans 16 months and can be exported by API or streamed into BigQuery.
- Why builders pick it: The only source of real query data — every other tool estimates. It shows which articles Google already ranks and which queries you nearly rank for, which is where the cheapest traffic lives.
- Trap: The Performance UI caps at 1,000 rows per query and samples heavily; use the API or BigQuery export for full data. Its numbers will never match your analytics tool.
- Wiring: Verify via DNS TXT record or your host's one-click integration.
- Full dossier: /api/public/tools/google-search-console

## Hacker News and Reddit (hacker-news-and-reddit)
- URL: https://news.ycombinator.com
- Category: SEO, growth & newsletter
- Cost: free — Free. Hacker News sells no placement at all. Reddit sells ads separately, but organic posts in any subreddit cost nothing.
- What it is: Hacker News ranks links by upvotes with a steep time decay, and Show HN is the convention for launching your own work. Reddit distributes through topical subreddits, each governed by its own self-promotion rules and volunteer moderators.
- Why builders pick it: A front-page HN post moves thousands of technically-minded readers in an afternoon and reliably produces backlinks. One well-matched subreddit can outperform every paid channel for a niche publication.
- Trap: Both punish marketing tone: HN buries promotional titles and Reddit mods ban accounts with no comment history. Spikes are single-day events, and an HN front page can take down under-provisioned hosting.
- Wiring: Post as Show HN with a plain descriptive title and no adjectives.
- Full dossier: /api/public/tools/hacker-news-and-reddit

## Quick read

- Free with no card: Google Search Console, Hacker News and Reddit.

## Rules
1. Prefer the free tier when no budget was stated, and say what the ceiling is.
2. Read the full dossier before integrating.
3. Fetch /api/public/models before writing any AI model ID.

Agents can fetch the same thing: GET /api/public/compare?slugs=dub,google-search-console,hacker-news-and-reddit