Self-hosted Multi-User URL Management Platform with Landing Pages, QR Analytics, Global Namespace Integrity, and Operational Tooling — written in Rust.

BZOD is a modern, lightweight, self-hosted platform for managing short URLs, landing pages, QR codes, analytics, and multi-user deployments.

Unlike traditional URL shorteners, BZOD is designed as a complete URL Management Platform that combines production-ready operational tooling, strong namespace integrity, multi-tenant isolation, and comprehensive administrative capabilities into a single deployable Rust binary powered entirely by SQLite.

Whether you're running a homelab, managing enterprise links, hosting marketing campaigns, operating educational portals, or deploying internal government services, BZOD provides complete ownership of your infrastructure without cloud dependencies or heavyweight external services.

Why BZOD?

Most URL shorteners focus solely on redirects.

BZOD takes a broader approach by combining URL management with operational tooling required for real-world production deployments.

Core capabilities include:

URL Shortening
Landing Pages
QR Code Generation (PNG & SVG)
QR Analytics
Visitor Analytics
Multi-User Platform
REST API
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
Responsive UI (Desktop, Tablet, Mobile)
Dark/Light Theme Support
Global Namespace Registry
Registry Validation
Transaction-safe Registry Repair
Health Diagnostics
Audit Logging
Backup & Restore
User Backup & Restore
Disaster Recovery
Upgrade Validation
Build Metadata (Version & Git Commit)
Single Binary Deployment

The result is a platform that is easy to deploy, lightweight to operate, and entirely controlled by its owner.

Designed For

BZOD is suitable for:

🏠 Homelabs
🚀 Startups
🏢 Small & Medium Businesses
🏭 Enterprise Deployments
🎓 Educational Institutions
🏛 Government Organizations
🌐 Internal Corporate Platforms
❤️ Self-hosting Enthusiasts

Complete Ownership

With BZOD, you own everything:

URLs
Landing Pages
QR Codes
Analytics
Users
Sessions
API Tokens
Audit Logs
System Configuration
Backups

No mandatory cloud services.

No telemetry.

No vendor lock-in.

No recurring subscription fees.

Runtime Efficiency (v0.7.0)

Metric	Value
Release Binary	~11 MB
Runtime Memory (RSS)	~12 MB
Peak Memory	~12 MB
Idle CPU Usage	~0.02%
Swap Usage	0 KB
Database	SQLite (WAL)

Typical deployment on a 32 GB Linux server:

Memory usage below 0.05%
Negligible CPU consumption while idle
Zero swap usage
No external infrastructure requirements

BZOD behaves like lightweight infrastructure software rather than a traditional web application.

Installation

System Requirements

BZOD is intentionally lightweight and has minimal runtime requirements.

Minimum

Component	Requirement
CPU	1 Core
Memory	512 MB
Storage	100 MB
OS	Linux (x86_64)

Component	Requirement
CPU	2+ Cores
Memory	2 GB
Storage	5 GB SSD
Database	SQLite (WAL)

Deployment Options

BZOD supports multiple deployment methods.

Docker
Docker Compose
Native Linux Binary
Systemd Service
Reverse Proxy (Nginx, Caddy, Traefik, NPM)

No Kubernetes is required.

Docker

Example:

services:
  bzod:
    image: ghcr.io/thakares/bzod:latest
    container_name: bzod

    restart: unless-stopped

    ports:
      - "8654:8654"

    volumes:
      - ./data:/app/data

    environment:
      - RUST_LOG=info

Start:

docker compose up -d

Native Installation

Download the latest release.

chmod +x bzod

sudo mv bzod /usr/local/bin/

Verify:

bzod --help

Initialize

Create the administrator.

bzod create-admin

Start the server.

bzod serve

Default server:

http://localhost:8654

Systemd Service

Example:

[Unit]
Description=BZOD URL Management Platform

After=network.target

[Service]

ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/bzod serve

Restart=always

User=bzod

WorkingDirectory=/opt/bzod

[Install]

WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable:

sudo systemctl enable bzod

sudo systemctl start bzod

Reverse Proxy

BZOD works behind:

Nginx
Caddy
Apache
Traefik
Nginx Proxy Manager

TLS termination should be handled by the reverse proxy.

CLI Overview

bzod serve
bzod backup
bzod restore
bzod migrate
bzod stats
bzod validate
bzod doctor
bzod repair

bzod shorten
bzod expand

bzod create-admin

bzod create-user
bzod delete-user
bzod disable-user
bzod enable-user
bzod reset-password
bzod list-users

bzod backup-user
bzod restore-user

bzod admin-migrate

Health Diagnostics

Inspect platform health.

bzod doctor

Checks include:

SQLite Integrity
WAL Status
Foreign Keys
Registry Integrity
Namespace Consistency
Missing Databases
Missing Records
Ownership Validation

Registry Repair

Preview repairs.

bzod repair registry --dry-run

Repair all orphaned entries.

bzod repair registry --force

Repair a single slug.

bzod repair registry \
    --slug my-page \
    --force

Repairs are:

Transaction Safe
Atomic
Non-destructive
Fully Logged

Backup

Platform Backup

bzod backup

Restore

bzod restore backup.tar.gz

User Backup

Backup a single tenant.

bzod backup-user \
    user@example.com

Restore.

bzod restore-user \
    backup.tar.zst

Statistics

View platform statistics.

bzod stats

Displays:

Users
URLs
Landing Pages
QR Codes
Analytics
Databases
Storage Usage

URL Management

Create a short URL.

bzod shorten \
    https://example.com

Expand a short code.

bzod expand abc123

Administrator Commands

Create Administrator

bzod create-admin

List Users

bzod list-users

Disable User

bzod disable-user alice

Enable User

bzod enable-user alice

Delete User

bzod delete-user alice

Reset Password

bzod reset-password alice

Admin Migration

Preview migration.

bzod admin-migrate 2 --dry-run

Execute migration.

bzod admin-migrate 2 --force

REST API

BZOD provides a REST API for automation.

Examples include:

URL Management
Landing Pages
Analytics
QR Codes
Administration
User Management

Authentication uses API Tokens.

Security

Security features include:

Argon2 Password Hashing
Secure Cookies
API Tokens
RBAC
Tenant Isolation
Audit Logging
Ownership Validation
Namespace Validation
SQLite Foreign Keys
Transaction-safe Repairs

Backup & Disaster Recovery

Designed for long-term reliability.

Features include:

Platform Backup
Tenant Backup
Restore Validation
Upgrade Validation
Registry Validation
Registry Repair
Backup Manifest
WAL Recovery

Documentation

Additional documentation is available in the docs/ directory.

ADMIN_GUIDE.md
ARCHITECTURE.md
BACKUP_RESTORE.md
CHANGELOG.md
CLI.md
COMPARISON.md
DATABASES.md
INSTALL.md
MULTI_USER.md
RELEASE-NOTES.md
SECURITY.md
TESTING.md
UPGRADE.md

Platform Architecture

BZOD is organized into independent functional layers, keeping the core lightweight while allowing future expansion.

                    Browser / API Client
                            │
                            ▼
                  ┌────────────────────┐
                  │     Axum Router    │
                  └─────────┬──────────┘
                            │
        ┌───────────────────┼───────────────────┐
        ▼                   ▼                   ▼

   Authentication      Business Logic      REST API

        │                   │                   │
        └──────────────┬────┴───────────────────┘
                       ▼

             Global Slug Registry

                       │
                       ▼

             Tenant Resolution Layer

                       │
        ┌──────────────┴───────────────┐
        ▼                              ▼

    Administrator                 Standard Users

        │                              │

        ▼                              ▼

 admin/*.db                 users/<id>/*.db

Multi-Tenant Architecture

BZOD is designed around complete tenant isolation.

Each user owns independent databases.

data/

├── admin/
│   ├── admin.db
│   ├── users.db
│   └── system.db
│
└── users/
    ├── 1/
    │   ├── content.db
    │   ├── analytics.db
    │   └── profile.db
    │
    ├── 2/
    │   ├── content.db
    │   ├── analytics.db
    │   └── profile.db
    │
    └── ...

Benefits include:

Complete tenant isolation
Independent backups
Faster restores
Simplified migrations
Better security
Reduced blast radius

Global Namespace Registry

Unlike many URL shorteners, BZOD guarantees that every public slug is globally unique.

Examples:

/docs
/about
/company
/presentation

cannot simultaneously exist as:

Administrator URL
Administrator Landing Page
User URL
User Landing Page

The registry is enforced during:

Creation
Updates
Import
Restore
Migration
Startup validation

This guarantees deterministic routing.

Registry Validator

The Registry Validator introduced in v0.5.3 is responsible for maintaining namespace integrity.

It validates:

Missing URLs
Missing Landing Pages
Missing Databases
Invalid Owners
Orphaned Registry Entries
Stale Reservations
Misplaced Administrator Content

Every validation produces structured results used by multiple platform components.

Registry Repair Framework

The Registry Repair Framework provides explicit repair operations.

Workflow:

Scan
 ↓
Validate
 ↓
Preview
 ↓
Transaction
 ↓
Repair
 ↓
Verify

Supported commands:

bzod repair registry --dry-run

bzod repair registry --force

bzod repair registry --slug my-page --dry-run

bzod repair registry --slug my-page --force

Characteristics:

Transaction-safe
Atomic
Idempotent
Fully logged
Read-only preview
Explicit administrator confirmation

Health Diagnostics

The Doctor subsystem continuously validates platform health.

Checks include:

Database Health

SQLite Integrity
WAL Mode
Foreign Keys
Schema Version

Namespace Health

Registry Consistency
Ownership Validation
Missing Records
Duplicate Entries

Operational Health

Tenant Databases
Administrator Databases
Registry References
Restore Compatibility

Run:

bzod doctor

Security Model

BZOD follows a defense-in-depth approach.

Authentication

Username & Password
Argon2 Password Hashing
Secure Cookies
API Tokens

Authorization

Role-Based Access Control
Administrator Privileges
Tenant Isolation

Validation

Namespace Validation
Ownership Validation
Restore Validation
Registry Validation

Database

SQLite Foreign Keys
WAL Mode
Atomic Transactions

Operations

Audit Logging
Registry Repair
Backup Verification

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

Two primary account types exist.

Administrator

Capabilities:

Platform Management
User Management
Global Analytics
Moderation
Registry Repair
Backups
Restore
Audit Logs
System Statistics

Standard User

Capabilities:

Personal URLs
Personal Landing Pages
Personal Analytics
QR Downloads
Profile Management

Users cannot access platform-wide administrative data.

REST API

BZOD includes a REST API suitable for automation.

Current capabilities include:

URL Management
Landing Pages
Analytics
QR Codes
Authentication
Administration

Future API expansions are planned for:

Webhooks
Batch Operations
Tenant Statistics
OpenAPI Documentation

Backup & Restore

Backups are first-class features.

Platform Backup

bzod backup

Platform Restore

bzod restore backup.tar.gz

User Backup

bzod backup-user alice

User Restore

bzod restore-user alice-backup.tar.zst

Features:

Backup Manifest
Validation
Integrity Checks
Restore Verification
Automatic Database Migration
WAL Compatibility

Testing

BZOD includes extensive automated testing.

Validation is performed using:

cargo fmt --check

cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings

cargo test --all-targets -- --nocapture

cargo build --release

Test coverage includes:

Authentication
Authorization
Routing
Namespace Integrity
Registry Validation
Registry Repair
Backup & Restore
User Isolation
Concurrency
QR Endpoints
Analytics
Moderation
Business Workflows
Database Integrity
Transactions

Project Structure

src/

├── auth/
├── cli/
├── db/
├── jobs/
├── middleware/
├── services/
├── templates/
├── utils/
├── web/
│   ├── admin/
│   │   ├── analytics.rs
│   │   ├── api_keys.rs
│   │   ├── audit.rs
│   │   ├── auth.rs
│   │   ├── backups.rs
│   │   ├── dashboard.rs
│   │   ├── health.rs
│   │   ├── moderation.rs
│   │   ├── mod.rs
│   │   ├── pages.rs
│   │   ├── quotas.rs
│   │   ├── sessions.rs
│   │   ├── settings.rs
│   │   ├── urls.rs
│   │   └── users.rs
│   ├── api.rs
│   ├── bulk.rs
│   ├── middleware.rs
│   ├── mod.rs
│   ├── multi_user.rs
│   ├── pages.rs
│   ├── password_gate.rs
│   ├── qr.rs
│   ├── redirect.rs
│   ├── routes.rs
│   └── system.rs

templates/

tests/

docs/

www/

The codebase is organized by responsibility, making it straightforward to extend without introducing unnecessary complexity.

Documentation

The project includes comprehensive documentation.

Document	Description
ADMIN_GUIDE.md	Administrator Guide
ARCHITECTURE.md	Internal Architecture
BACKUP_RESTORE.md	Backup & Recovery
CHANGELOG.md	Project History
CLI.md	Command Reference
COMPARISON.md	Feature Comparison
DATABASES.md	Database Layout
INSTALL.md	Installation Guide
MULTI_USER.md	Multi-User Architecture
RELEASE-NOTES.md	Release History
SECURITY.md	Security Model
TESTING.md	Testing Guide
UPGRADE.md	Upgrade Instructions

Performance

Typical production deployment:

Metric	Value
Binary Size	~11 MB
Memory Usage	~12 MB RSS
Database	SQLite (WAL)
External Dependencies	None

BZOD scales efficiently for:

Personal deployments
Small businesses
Enterprise internal services
Educational institutions
Government organizations

Comparison

Feature	BZOD	Traditional URL Shorteners
Rust	✅	Rare
SQLite Only	✅	❌
Single Binary	✅	❌
Multi-User	✅	Limited
Landing Pages	✅	Limited
QR PNG/SVG	✅	Limited
Analytics	✅	Basic
Global Namespace	✅	Rare
Registry Validator	✅	❌
Registry Repair	✅	❌
Health Diagnostics	✅	❌
Backup & Restore	✅	Limited
User Backup	✅	❌
Transaction-safe Repairs	✅	❌
Self Hosted	✅	Mixed
Zero External Services	✅	Rare

Production Ready

BZOD has been designed for production deployments with emphasis on:

Operational simplicity
Reliability
Maintainability
Recoverability
Security
Performance

It provides enterprise-grade operational tooling while remaining lightweight enough for homelab deployments.

Roadmap

BZOD follows a pragmatic roadmap focused on operational reliability, maintainability, and long-term ownership.

Rather than chasing feature count, development emphasizes quality, stability, and self-hosting excellence.

Completed

v0.1

Basic URL Shortener
SQLite Storage
Web Interface

v0.2

QR Code Generation
Password Protected URLs
Link Expiration
Preview Pages
Bulk Operations
Audit Events

v0.3

Landing Pages
Analytics
User Dashboard
Administrator Dashboard
QR Downloads

v0.4

Multi-User Platform
Tenant Isolation
REST API
User Administration
Backup & Restore
Moderation
User Quotas

v0.5

Major operational improvements.

Highlights include:

Global Namespace Registry
Routing Integrity
Dashboard Parity
Administrator Content Consistency
Registry Validator
Registry Repair Framework
RBAC
Health Diagnostics
Disaster Recovery
Upgrade Validation
Backup Manifest
Transaction-safe Maintenance
Modular Admin Architecture (v0.5.3)
Redirect Handler Hardening (v0.5.3)

v0.6

Legacy Backup Restore Compatibility
CLI Version Reporting (--version / -V)
Deploy Script Modernization

v0.7

Responsive UI and theme refactor.

Highlights include:

Responsive Admin & User Registry Panels
Desktop, Laptop, Tablet, and Mobile Layouts
Dark/Light Theme Support with Persistence
Table-to-Card Responsive Behavior
Build Metadata (Version & Git Commit)
Root Landing Page Runtime/Embedded Fallback

Future Roadmap

Planned features and improvements:

Webhooks
OpenAPI Documentation
API Versioning
Personal Statistics API
Improved Search
Bulk Import
Bulk Export
Custom Domains
Better QR Styling
Email Notifications
Team Workspaces
Shared Projects
Administrator Notifications
Enhanced Moderation
Scheduled Jobs

Long-Term Vision

Potential future capabilities:

SSO / OpenID Connect
LDAP Integration
High Availability
Read-only Replicas
Plugin System
Metrics Export (Prometheus)
Event Streaming
Federation
Object Storage Support

Development priorities will continue to favor reliability over unnecessary complexity.

Why Rust?

Rust provides several advantages for long-running infrastructure services.

Memory Safety
Zero-Cost Abstractions
Excellent Performance
Strong Concurrency
Predictable Resource Usage
Single Binary Deployment
Cross-Platform Support

These characteristics make Rust particularly well suited for self-hosted infrastructure software.

Why SQLite?

BZOD intentionally uses SQLite as its primary database.

Benefits include:

Embedded Database
Zero Configuration
ACID Transactions
WAL Support
Excellent Performance
Easy Backups
Simple Disaster Recovery
Proven Reliability

For the majority of deployments, SQLite offers an excellent balance between performance and operational simplicity.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome.

Areas where contributions are particularly valuable include:

Bug Reports
Feature Requests
Documentation
Performance Improvements
Security Reviews
Testing
Translations

Before submitting large changes, please open an issue to discuss the proposed implementation.

Reporting Issues

Please include as much information as possible.

Useful details include:

BZOD Version
Operating System
Deployment Method
Browser
Logs
Reproduction Steps

This helps reproduce and resolve issues efficiently.

License

Licensed under either of the following, at your option:

MIT License
Apache License 2.0

See the LICENSE files for full details.

Repository

GitHub

https://github.com/thakares/bzod

Codeberg

https://codeberg.org/thakares/bzod

Documentation

Complete documentation is available in the docs/ directory.

ADMIN_GUIDE.md
ARCHITECTURE.md
BACKUP_RESTORE.md
CHANGELOG.md
CLI.md
COMPARISON.md
DATABASES.md
INSTALL.md
MULTI_USER.md
RELEASE-NOTES.md
SECURITY.md
TESTING.md
UPGRADE.md

Support

If you find BZOD useful:

⭐ Star the project
🐞 Report issues
💡 Suggest improvements
📖 Improve documentation
🚀 Share the project

Community feedback helps guide future development.

Project Status

Current Version

v0.7.0

Production Ready

Highlights

✅ Single Rust Binary
✅ SQLite + WAL
✅ Multi-User Architecture
✅ Global Namespace Registry
✅ Landing Pages
✅ QR Code Generation
✅ PNG & SVG Downloads
✅ Analytics
✅ REST API
✅ Role-Based Access Control
✅ Responsive UI (Desktop, Tablet, Mobile)
✅ Dark/Light Theme Support
✅ Registry Validator
✅ Registry Repair Framework
✅ Health Diagnostics
✅ Backup & Restore
✅ Disaster Recovery
✅ Upgrade Validation
✅ Build Metadata (Version & Git Commit)
✅ Extensive Automated Test Suite

Project Philosophy

BZOD is more than a URL shortener.

It is a lightweight, self-hosted URL Management Platform designed around ownership, reliability, and operational excellence.

Every feature is guided by a few core principles:

Own your infrastructure.
Own your data.
Keep deployments simple.
Prefer reliability over complexity.
Build tools that administrators can trust.

The goal is not to become the largest URL management platform, but to become one of the most dependable, maintainable, and resource-efficient self-hosted solutions available.

Acknowledgements

BZOD is built using outstanding open-source software, including:

Rust
Axum
Tokio
SQLite
Askama
Argon2
QRCode
Image
Chrono
Serde

Many thanks to the Rust and open-source communities whose work makes projects like BZOD possible.

Author

Sunil Thakare

GitHub: https://github.com/thakares

Codeberg: https://codeberg.org/thakares

BZOD

Own your links.
Own your analytics.
Own your infrastructure.

README.md

BZOD

Why BZOD?

Designed For

Complete Ownership

Runtime Efficiency (v0.7.0)

Installation

System Requirements

Minimum

Recommended

Deployment Options

Docker

Native Installation

Initialize

Systemd Service

Reverse Proxy

CLI Overview

Health Diagnostics

Registry Repair

Backup

User Backup

Statistics

URL Management

Administrator Commands

Admin Migration

REST API

Security

Backup & Disaster Recovery

Documentation

Platform Architecture

Multi-Tenant Architecture

Global Namespace Registry

Registry Validator

Registry Repair Framework

Health Diagnostics

Database Health

Namespace Health

Operational Health

Security Model

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

Administrator

Standard User

REST API

Backup & Restore

Testing

Project Structure

Documentation

Performance

Comparison

Production Ready

Roadmap

Completed

v0.1

v0.2

v0.3

v0.4

v0.5

v0.6

v0.7

Future Roadmap

Long-Term Vision

Why Rust?

Why SQLite?

Contributing

Reporting Issues

License

Repository

Documentation

Support

Project Status

Highlights

Project Philosophy

Acknowledgements

Author

BZOD