Linkpen

This is a collaborative project owned by SleepingAmi

Linkpen is an open-source, self-hosted alternative to Linktree that allows you to create a personalized landing page with all your important links in one place.

You host it yourself: on a VPS, a Raspberry Pi, whatever you want. Your data stays yours.

Main Features

• Link-in-bio pages at /{username}
• 8 pre-built themes
• Drag-and-drop link reordering
• Admin dashboard with user management
• First registered user becomes admin automatically

Themes

Linkpen ships with 8 built-in themes:

• Catppuccin Frappé
• Purpleboi
• Dark Mocha
• VS Code Dark (I made this one)
• Privacy Matters (I made this one)
• Cozy Cat Café (I made this one)
• Ami’s Anime Theme
• Terminux (CRT)

Users pick their theme from the dashboard. No code required.

Admin Dashboard

The first user is automatically made an admin, as an instance admin, you can:

• View all registered users
• Promote or demote users to admin
• Delete problematic accounts
• Jump to any user’s public page

Security

Linkpen takes security seriously:

• Rate limiting on API routes (100 requests per 15 minutes)
• XSS sanitization on all user input
• CSRF protection on forms
• bcrypt for password hashing
• Cookie consent required before registration

There’s also a test mode for development that lets you selectively disable these protections without modifying code.

Logging

Four separate log files:

• auth.log - Logins, logouts, registrations
• admin.log - Admin actions
• user.log - User activity
• error.log - Errors

Technical Stack

Component	Technology
Backend	Express.js
Database	SQLite
Sessions	connect-sqlite3
Templates	EJS
Frontend	Vanilla JS + CSS
Drag & Drop	SortableJS

SQLite keeps things portable. The entire database is a single file. Backup means copying one file. Migration means moving one file.

I might rewrite the database and api stuff to use better-sqlite3.

Extending Linkpen

Want to add a theme? Create a folder in /public/templates/:

your-theme/
├── template.ejs
├── style.css
└── script.js (optional)

Register it in the themes config, and it appears in user dashboards automatically.

Official instance

We are running the official instance at linkpen.xyz.
Here’s my page: linkpen.xyz/sooox

Final Thoughts

Linkpen solves a simple problem without over-engineering. No microservices. No Kubernetes. Just a Node app, a SQLite file, and some EJS templates.

If you want a link-in-bio page and prefer self-hosting over SaaS lock-in, give it a try. The repo is github.com/SleepingAmi/linkpen.