Zippy Founding Hero: First 100 Lock $99/yr Forever

The Zippy Founding Hero deal locks the annual Hero plan at $99 per year, forever, for the first 100 people who subscribe annually. That is the full Hero plan — unlimited links, unlimited never-metered clicks, custom slugs, full analytics, and editable links — at a price that never rises as long as the subscription stays active.

What do the first 100 Founding Heroes actually get?

Founding Heroes get the complete Hero plan with nothing removed — the discount is on the price, not the product. Concretely, that means:

• Unlimited links and unlimited clicks. Clicks are never metered on Hero, and never will be. The reasoning behind that is spelled out in why Zippy never charges per click.
• Custom slugs. zipthe.link/summer-drop instead of a random string.
• Full analytics. Geo, device, platform, referrer, and time-of-day breakdowns — not just a total click counter.
• Living links. Edit the destination after posting. The link in your bio stays put while the offer behind it changes.
• No Zippy branding. Your audience goes straight through, no interstitial.

And every one of those links does the thing Zippy exists for: it opens the native app — YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Reddit, Product Hunt, X — instead of dumping your click into the in-app browser. If you're not sure why that matters, read why your links die in the in-app browser first. It's the whole business case.

How much do you save with Founding Hero pricing?

Founding Hero works out to $8.25 per month — a $141/yr saving against monthly Hero, and $81/yr against the regular annual price, every single year. Here's the math side by side:

The lock is the real prize, not the first-year discount. Regular prices can change as Zippy grows; a Founding Hero's $99 doesn't. Keep the subscription active and year five costs exactly what year one did.

Why would Zippy lock a price forever?

Because early believers are worth more to a young product than the margin, and we'd rather pay for that in price than in ad spend. Plainly:

1. Annual revenue up front funds the roadmap. A hundred annual subscriptions is real runway for a small team, without touching the product's promises to get it.
2. The first 100 users shape the product. Founding Heroes are the people filing the sharp bug reports and telling us which platform's webview changed behavior this week. That feedback is cheap at $81 a year.
3. A locked price is a credibility bet you can verify. Zippy already makes a promise most link tools won't: links never stop redirecting — not on free, not after a trial, not after you cancel. A forever price is the same philosophy applied to billing. And because the redirect engine is open source (AGPL, Cloudflare Workers + KV, self-hostable), you're not trusting a pinky promise — you can read the code and walk away with it if we ever break faith.

What does "forever" actually mean here?

Forever means the $99/yr price never increases for as long as you keep the annual Hero subscription active — through plan improvements, through regular price changes, through everything. Some precise edges, because "forever" deserves fine print you can actually read:

• If Hero gets better, you get the better Hero. Feature additions to the plan flow to Founding Heroes at the same locked price.
• If you cancel, the permanence law still protects your links. Every link you created keeps redirecting. Links over the free plan's cap go read-only — they keep their slug and keep redirecting, you just can't edit them until you're back on Hero.
• The guarantees apply in full. The Actually-Opens guarantee (we refund the month if a Zippy link opens the in-app browser on a supported platform) and the 30-day money-back guarantee both cover Founding Hero subscriptions like any other.

How do you claim a Founding Hero spot?

Start the 14-day Hero trial — full plan, no credit card — and subscribe annually before the 100 spots are gone. The sequence:

1. Sign up at zipthe.link. Every new account starts a 14-day trial of full Hero. No card, and if you do nothing it soft-downgrades to the free Sidekick plan (your links keep working — see the permanence promise above).
2. Put Zippy on a real campaign. An Instagram bio link, a TikTok caption, an affiliate push — the guides for Instagram deep links and TikTok deep links show the exact setups. Watch the analytics and judge for yourself.
3. Subscribe to annual Hero. If you're inside the first 100 annual subscriptions, the checkout is $99 and the lock is applied to your account permanently.

The spots are first-come. When number 100 subscribes, annual Hero returns to $180/yr and the Founding Hero price is gone for good — we're not the kind of shop that runs a "last chance" counter four times a year.

Is Founding Hero worth it if you're small right now?

Yes — arguably it's worth more when you're small, because you're locking tomorrow's price with today's audience. The free Sidekick plan (5 active links, random slugs, total clicks only) is genuinely enough to test whether app-opening links move your numbers. But if the trial shows you what most affiliate marketers and creators see — recovered conversions that used to vanish into the webview — then $99/yr fixed forever is the cheapest that recovery will ever be. Waiting until you're bigger just means paying the regular price for the same plan.

FAQ

What happens to the Founding Hero price if I cancel and come back?

The lock requires an active subscription, so canceling gives up the Founding Hero rate. If spots are still available when you return you could claim one again, but with only 100 total, that's not a safe bet. Your links, however, never stop redirecting either way — that's the permanence law, and it doesn't depend on any plan.

Does Founding Hero include Legend features like custom domains or API access?

No. Founding Hero is the Hero plan at a locked price — unlimited links and clicks, custom slugs, full analytics, editable links, no branding. Custom domains, 3 seats, API access, bulk create, and CSV exports live on Legend ($49/mo or $480/yr), which is a separate subscription.

How do I know Zippy won't just retire the deal or raise the price anyway?

Two ways. First, the guarantees are contractual and refundable: 30-day money-back, plus the Actually-Opens guarantee refunding any month a link opens the in-app browser on a supported platform. Second, the redirect engine is open source under AGPL on GitHub — if Zippy ever broke its promises, you could self-host your links on Cloudflare Workers and keep every redirect alive yourself. A company that hands you the exit is betting you'll never need it.

Do clicks ever get metered on a Founding Hero account?

Never. Unlimited clicks on Hero means unmetered — there is no soft cap, no fair-use throttle, no surprise overage email. A viral post that sends a million taps through one Zippy link costs you the same $99 that year as a quiet one.

Can I start with monthly Hero and upgrade to Founding Hero later?

Yes, as long as spots remain — the lock applies to the first 100 annual subscriptions, so switching from monthly to annual claims a spot if one is open. Just remember the count doesn't wait for your billing cycle.

One hundred lockers, one welded price — grab yours at zipthe.link.