AdSense pays you for ads on your page. A paying shortener pays you for ads on the hop before your page. They solve different layouts. People compare them because both are "I have traffic, I want a cut."
If you have a site that can pass AdSense review
Use AdSense (or a direct alternative) on the article. You keep the URL, the Google crawler sees the content, and you are not teaching readers to hate a countdown.
A shortener on top of that site usually makes the page worse and can get the destination flagged. Do not hop your own blog through an interstitial just to stack two ad systems. Pick one.
AdSense will also refuse a lot of paying-shortener inventory. Google has said for years that incentivized redirects are a bad fit. If your "site" is only short links, do not plan on AdSense.
If you do not have a site
You have a YouTube description, a Telegram channel, a newsletter, a Discord. There is no page to put an AdSense unit on. The click is the only surface.
That is the paying-shortener case. The interstitial is the ad unit. KooLink's unit is five seconds and a flat $3.50 / 1,000 valid views. Earnings are estimates until payouts go live.
Money, roughly
AdSense on a real article can beat $3.50 / 1k on good geos, or lose on bad ones. It also needs the session to land and see the page. A shortener gets paid even if they bounce after the hop, which is exactly why readers dislike it.
Do not take "AdSense alternative" landing pages at their word. Most of them are shorteners bidding on your frustration with Google's approval email.
Can you use both?
- AdSense on the destination, no shortener in front: normal.
- Shortener in front, no AdSense on a thin doorway: normal for this category.
- Shortener in front of an AdSense article: you add friction and risk the policy. Rarely worth it.
- AdSense on the interstitial itself: that is our problem, not yours, and Google often says no to that inventory. We are not going to pretend otherwise.
A practical split
Own a site? Monetize the site. Use a short link only if you need a short URL, and then a non-paying one is enough.
Own a channel and no site? A paying shortener is a meter on the taps you already get. Read is it legit before you move every description.
Sign up if you are in the second group.