I spent a week trying to set up Branch.io for my toothbrush timer app. A kids' app. It makes about £17 a month.
Branch wanted me to configure deep linking, set up deferred deep links, handle universal links, configure the dashboard, add their SDK (which is not small), and wire up postback URLs. For an app that has maybe 120 users.
I didn't finish the setup. I got halfway through the universal links configuration and thought: what am I actually doing here?
What Branch does well
I'm not going to pretend Branch is bad. It's not. It handles deep linking properly, it does fingerprinting, it has a massive team maintaining it, and if you're a company doing millions of installs, it makes sense.
The problem is that Branch was built for companies doing millions of installs. The feature set reflects that. Universal links, deferred deep linking, cross-platform routing, audience segmentation, A/B testing on link destinations. It's a full marketing platform.
If you're a solo developer or a small brand, you don't need a marketing platform. You need to know one thing: which link made me money?
Where it gets complicated
Branch's free tier exists, but it comes with limits that start biting pretty quickly. The SDK adds weight to your app. The dashboard has about 40 different views, most of which you'll never use.
The setup process assumes you have a mobile engineering team. The docs are thorough but they're written for someone whose job title includes "growth engineer." If you're a solo dev shipping from your kitchen table after the kids go to bed, it's a lot.
And the deep linking stuff is genuinely useful if you need it. But here's my question: do you need it? If someone clicks your link and it opens the App Store, and they install your app, and they buy something... do you actually need the link to deep link them to a specific screen? Or do you just need to know that this link led to that purchase?
What I ended up using instead
I switched to LinkOwl, which I'll be upfront about since I'm writing on their blog. But the reason I switched is real: it does one thing, and it does it quickly.
You create a link. You put it in your Instagram bio, or your Reddit post, or wherever. When someone clicks it, goes to the App Store, installs your app, and buys something, LinkOwl tells you that purchase came from that link.
That's it. No deep linking configuration. No universal links setup. No SDK that adds 2MB to your binary. The SDK is a few hundred lines. Setup took me about 15 minutes, and most of that was waiting for my RevenueCat webhook to save.
The actual differences
With Branch, you get deep linking, attribution, audience tools, and a full marketing stack. Pricing starts free but scales based on usage, and the enterprise pricing isn't public.
With LinkOwl, you get attribution. That's the whole product. You know which link drove which purchase. It costs 5p per attributed sale. No monthly fee, no minimum spend.
If you need deep links that route users to a specific product page in your app based on which ad they clicked, Branch is probably still your tool. That's a legitimate use case and Branch handles it well.
If you need to know whether your Instagram bio link or your TikTok post drove more purchases this week, you don't need deep linking for that. You need a tracked link and a webhook.
Who should stick with Branch
Honestly, if you're already set up on Branch and it's working, don't switch. Migrations are annoying and your historical data matters.
If you're a bigger company with a dedicated mobile team, Branch's feature set makes more sense for you. The deep linking is genuinely useful at scale, the audience segmentation helps when you're running multiple campaigns across multiple channels, and the analytics are thorough.
Who should look elsewhere
If you're an indie developer making under £1,000 a month, you probably don't need Branch's complexity. The setup time alone could be spent building features or doing marketing.
If you're a small brand selling through your app or website and you just want to know which influencer or which post drove sales, a simpler tool saves you time and money.
I spent a week on Branch setup. I spent 15 minutes on LinkOwl setup. Both told me the same thing in the end: my Reddit post drove 3 sales and my Instagram drove 1. The difference was how long it took me to find that out.
The bottom line
Branch is a proper enterprise tool. It's good at what it does. But if you're building small and shipping fast, you probably don't need the enterprise features. You need a tracked link and a count of purchases next to it.
Sometimes the simpler tool is the right one. Not because it's better, but because it's enough.