Rentry Alternative
A Rentry Alternative Built for More Than a Single Page
Create and share text, code and links instantly — no account required. Create a free account when you want to manage pastes, build a public profile and grow followers. Creator Mode adds analytics and API automation.
No account required to create your first paste.
Rentry and PasterLink solve overlapping sharing needs in different ways
Rentry is a well-established Markdown paste service. It is strongly focused on Markdown pages, deep page customization and ownership through an optional edit code, and it has been online since 2017.
PasterLink is designed around paste sharing with an optional account and creator layer on top. A paste can stand alone, or it can belong to a creator with an audience:
- A public profile page for your pastes.
- Followers, and a feed of new pastes from the creators you follow.
- Paste management: list, search, edit and delete your own pastes.
- Creator analytics: views, unique visitors, countries, devices and referrers.
- A Creator Mode API for publishing from your own scripts.
- Optional monetization tools, where available.
Neither approach is right for everyone. They suit different ways of publishing and sharing.
PasterLink and Rentry, feature by feature
Rentry is ahead on several rows, and that is fine. We only list features we could confirm from our own product and from Rentry's official pages, and we leave out anything we could not verify.
| Feature | PasterLink | Rentry |
|---|---|---|
| Create a paste without an account | Yes. A short bot check is required. | Yes. An optional edit code controls the entry later. |
| Markdown-first authoring | No. PasterLink uses a visual editor with Markdown-style typing shortcuts. Tables and other extended Markdown are not supported. | Yes. Rentry describes itself as a Markdown paste service, with preview. |
| Custom URL | Free account only. Guest pastes get an automatically generated address. | Yes. Optional, 2–100 characters. |
| Edit or delete a paste later as a guest | No. A guest cannot list, edit or delete a paste after publishing it. A free account can. | Yes. The edit code can edit, delete or rename the entry later. |
| View counts | Yes, in the paste list of the account that owns the paste. | Yes. Views update every 10 minutes and can be disabled per page. |
| API access | Yes, with a Bearer token from a Creator Mode account. Guests and accounts without Creator Mode cannot use it. | Yes. Rentry states that it is available over API and links a command-line tool. |
| Search-engine opt-out | No per-paste setting. Guest pastes and password-protected pastes are kept out of search indexes automatically. | Yes. A metadata option removes the page from the sitemap and asks search engines not to index it. |
| Page appearance and share metadata | Limited. Editor formatting and a paste title, with no custom description, share image or page theme. | Extensive. Metadata controls the page title, description, share previews, fonts, colors, backgrounds and layout. |
| Maximum text size | Guest and API pastes accept up to 500,000 characters in the submitted body. The limit is checked before formatting, so the stored HTML can be larger. | 200,000 characters for the text field, currently. |
Rentry features checked against official documentation in September 2026: the What page, the Markdown guide and the metadata documentation on the Rentry home page. Rentry can change its features and limits, so check its documentation for current details.
Try PasterLink Before You Sign Up
Paste text, code or links and create a shareable URL immediately. No account required.
There is one real difference from Rentry to know about. Rentry's edit code lets anyone who holds it edit or delete an entry later. A guest cannot list, edit or delete a PasterLink paste after publishing it. Create an account if you want to manage your pastes later.
For people who want an identity around their content
A free account turns one-off pastes into a body of work under your name. Some tools are available right away, and others unlock with Creator Mode.
With a free account
- Paste management: list, search, edit and delete your own pastes.
- A public profile page for your pastes.
- Followers, and a feed of new pastes from the creators you follow.
- Custom paste URLs instead of a random address.
- A profile setting that controls whether your pastes are listed publicly.
With Creator Mode
Creator Mode unlocks when the pastes on your account reach 1,000 views.
- An analytics dashboard with views, unique visitors, countries, devices and referrers.
- API keys for automating your publishing.
- Optional monetization tools, where available.
For developers: a paste API for your workflow
The PasterLink REST API lets you publish and manage pastes from scripts and tools. API keys come from Creator Mode accounts. Rentry also documents API availability, so check its documentation if you are weighing the two.
- Bearer-token authentication.
- Create, list, get, update and delete pastes.
- An analytics endpoint for views, unique visitors, countries, devices and referrers.
- A profile endpoint, and an earnings endpoint where enabled.
- A downloadable Python bulk uploader for TXT and CSV files.
curl -X POST https://pasterlink.com/api/v1/pastes \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"body":"Hello from API","title":"My first paste"}'
# The response includes the public address:
# "url": "https://pasterlink.com/paste/aB93kL"New to the API? Read the paste API overview.
Writing experience: Markdown pages or a visual editor
Rentry is strong here. Its Markdown support covers headings, emphasis, lists, quotes, code blocks with syntax highlighting, tables, images, links and tables of contents, plus extended formatting and page metadata for customizing how a page looks.
PasterLink uses a visual rich-text editor. It supports headings, bold, italic, underline and strikethrough, text colors, bullet and numbered lists, quotes, dividers, links and code blocks with syntax highlighting, and it accepts Markdown-style typing shortcuts. It does not render full Markdown documents or extended syntax such as tables.
Think of it as a workflow preference. Choose Rentry if a Markdown-first page workflow is what you want. Choose PasterLink if you want paste sharing tied to profiles, followers, creator analytics and automation.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use PasterLink without an account?
Yes. Guests can create and share a paste from the create page without signing up. A short bot check runs before the paste is published.
Can I edit a guest PasterLink paste later?
No, not currently. A guest paste cannot be listed, edited or deleted by the guest after publishing. If you want to manage a paste later, create a free account before you publish it.
Can a Rentry entry be edited later with an edit code?
Yes. Rentry’s official documentation says an optional edit code can be used to edit, delete or rename the entry later, and that it can be shared so a group of people can edit the same entry. A separate modify code can edit only the text.
Does PasterLink support Markdown?
Partly, and not as a Markdown-first service. The editor is a visual rich-text editor with Markdown-style typing shortcuts, such as # for headings, ** for bold, - for lists and ``` for code blocks. It does not offer extended Markdown such as tables or a table of contents. If a Markdown-first workflow is what you want, Rentry is built for it.
Does PasterLink have an API?
Yes. The REST API uses Bearer-token authentication and belongs to Creator Mode, so guests and accounts without Creator Mode cannot use it. See the API documentation for every endpoint.
Does Rentry have an API?
Yes. Rentry’s official “What” page states that it is available over API and links a command-line tool. We have not compared the two APIs in detail, so check Rentry’s documentation for what it supports.
What do I need to unlock analytics and the API?
Analytics, API keys and earnings tools are part of Creator Mode. It unlocks once the pastes on your account reach 1,000 views. Editing, custom paste URLs, profiles and following other creators only need a free account.
Which one should I use?
It depends on the job. Rentry is well suited to Markdown-first, customizable pages and to edit-code workflows. PasterLink adds account and creator features such as profiles, followers, analytics and automation, around a simpler visual editor.
Want the full list of tools? Browse all PasterLink features, or create a paste now. Comparing other paste sites too? See how PasterLink works as a Pastebin alternative.