Is Bento.me Shut Down? What Happened and Where to Go Now (2026)

Yes: Bento.me shut down on 13 February 2026, and every bento.me link now goes to Linktree's homepage. What happened, what you can still recover and how to rebuild your grid.

Published August 6, 2026 · 10 min read · by Kasbu Team

Tags: Bento.me, Link in Bio, Bento Alternative, Alternatives

Yes, Bento.me is gone. The service shut down on 13 February 2026. If you typed "bento.me" and landed on Linktree, you didn't make a mistake: we checked on 14 October 2026 that bento.me, any bento.me/yourname and even the shutdown announcement page answer with a permanent redirect (HTTP 301) to Linktree's homepage. The link doesn't even go to your Linktree profile, if you moved there.

This post explains what happened, what you can (and can't) recover and where to rebuild your page. It's written by Kasbu, which is one of the options mentioned. That's why every outside fact links to its source, and prices were checked on each product's website on 14 October 2026.

What Bento.me was

Bento.me was a link in bio that, instead of a list of buttons stacked one under another, showed your links, photos, music and socials in a grid of blocks of different sizes. The style became known as the "bento grid", after the Japanese lunch boxes split into compartments. Widgets included Spotify, YouTube, GitHub, a map, Calendly, Figma, Substack and Instagram (landing.bento.me).

In February 2023 the company raised $1.6 million in a pre-seed round led by Sequoia Arc (TechCrunch). One user summed it up on X: "linktree is utility. bento is expression." (@kalashvasaniya, 19 Dec 2025).

What happened to Bento.me

At the time of the acquisition in 2023, Bento talked about a "symbiotic relationship" without promising anything about the product's future. Almost two years and eight months later, the service was closed. The notice promised an email with instructions for moving to Linktree and a "special Linktree Pro offer". The terms of that offer were never published, and we found no evidence that Linktree imported Bento pages automatically.

Bento.me no longer exists: what about the links I've shared?

This is the least visible damage. Every bento.me/yourname link you left around the internet now leads to Linktree's homepage, with its sign-up button, and not to you. It's worth doing a sweep:

• Your bio link on Instagram, TikTok, X and Threads
• Your email signature and your PDF résumé
• YouTube descriptions and pinned comments
• Printed QR codes: business cards, stickers, menus, banners
• Your GitHub profile README and your portfolio

Two wrong ideas going around about the end of Bento

"bento.me links don't go anywhere." They do: to linktr.ee, with a 301 (checked on 14 Oct 2026).

"Your bento.me link redirects to your new Linktree." No. Every bento.me address lands on the same Linktree homepage, whoever it belonged to.

And a warning: the site bentome.link is not Bento. It uses the Bento.me name, but every button leads to Taplink referral links (checked on 14 Oct 2026).

Can I get my page back?

Not the page itself: Bento announced it would delete user and profile data at shutdown, and the address now leads to Linktree. But you can gather its content again.

If you moved to Linktree: your Linktree is now a complete list of your links. Open it in a tab and use it as a checklist to build the grid somewhere else.

If you didn't move: Bento only held links. Your profiles on Spotify, YouTube, GitHub and social media still exist. You can recover them:

• From your social bios, which usually have the same links as your Bento page.
• From your phone's photo gallery: old screenshots of your page or of stories where you showed it.
• From the Internet Archive: search for bento.me/yourname on web.archive.org. Some public pages were saved, not all, and images don't always load.

Where to go now

What made Bento Bento was the grid. Most link in bio tools don't have a grid: they're lists of buttons, exactly what Bento users didn't want. A summary, with facts checked on 14 October 2026:

Linktree. It's where your old links already go. The free plan has unlimited basic links and 1 featured link; removing the Linktree logo requires Pro, at $15 a month (Linktree). The format is a vertical list, with grid collections only on paid plans, and there's no custom domain on any plan (Linktree help).

Beacons. Focused on selling: the free plan takes a 9% fee per sale and includes 50 emails a month, and a custom domain comes with the Creator plan, at $10 a month (Beacons). The layout is a list of blocks.

Carrd. A one-page website builder, made of sections, with no ready-made blocks. It's cheap: from $9 a year; with a custom domain, from $19 a year (Carrd).

Taplink. The free plan doesn't allow images or video, which rules it out as a free Bento replacement. PRO costs about $4 a month on the annual plan, and a custom domain is on BUSINESS (Taplink).

Avely and own.page. Both have a real grid. Avely shows its branding on the free plan and on Creator (€3.99 a month); only Pro, at €11.99 a month or €99.99 a year, removes it (Avely). own.page has unlimited links for free, with a limit of 10 images per page and 3 advanced widgets; Pro costs $79.90 a year (own.page). Both sites are English only.

Kasbu. It also keeps the grid: cards you drag and resize, with 8 columns on desktop and 4 on mobile, and the two layouts edited separately. Images, video, music and maps show on the page itself, and the interface is available in 9 languages. As we said, it's the tool that publishes this blog, so take that into account.

The full comparison of 10 alternatives, with a table and sources, is in Bento.me alternatives in 2026.

How to rebuild your grid on Kasbu

1. Keep your old material in view: screenshots, your Linktree or your social bios.
2. Create a free account at kasbu.bio/register and try the same username. If bento.me/annasmith was your address, try kasbu.bio/annasmith. Each account can have 2 profiles on the free plan.
3. Start with the big blocks. An image card with your photos; with 2 or more images it becomes a carousel.
4. Paste each link into a link card. Kasbu fetches the title, preview image and icon on its own.
5. Rebuild the widgets with the matching card (table below).
6. Use a Separator card for section titles and a text card for notes.
7. Switch to the mobile view and arrange it separately.
8. Replace the bento.me link everywhere on the list above and download your new QR code in Settings.

The detailed step by step is in the Bento migration guide.

How much it costs

Kasbu's free plan doesn't expire and includes 25 cards and 3 pages per profile, 2 profiles per account, all 36 card types, a QR code and a pass for Apple Wallet and Google Wallet. Since 13 October 2026, colors, 30 animated backgrounds, background photos and the 14 fonts are also free on every plan.

What's left out: visitors see a small follow button with the Kasbu logo at the bottom of the page, analytics show only today's breakdown and storage is 150 MB. Pro costs $4.99 a month or $54.99 a year, with a 14-day trial the first time; it removes the Kasbu branding and adds unlimited cards and pages, a custom domain, 7, 30 and 90-day analytics, 30 GB and up to 10 profiles.

So you don't lose your page again

Bento had money from Sequoia Arc and still closed in under three years. No company can promise it will be around forever, us included. What is in your hands:

• Keep a copy. On Kasbu, Settings → Account → Download my data creates a ZIP with your pages, your cards and every file you uploaded, on any plan.
• Use your own domain. If yourname.com points to your page, switching tools means changing one DNS record, not every bio, QR code and printed card. Kasbu, Avely, own.page and Carrd offer this on paid plans; Linktree doesn't.

Frequently asked questions

Is Bento.me really gone? Yes. The service shut down on 13 February 2026, after a notice published on 18 December 2025. On 14 October 2026, every bento.me address we tested redirected to Linktree's homepage.

Will Bento.me come back? There's no sign of that. The domain belongs to Linktree and redirects everything to linktr.ee.

Was my data really deleted? Bento announced that all user and profile data would be deleted at shutdown.

Did Linktree move my page over automatically? We found no evidence of it. The notice mentioned migration instructions and a Linktree Pro offer, with no published terms.

Is there a free alternative with a grid? Yes. Kasbu, Avely, own.page and tini.bio have a free plan with a grid. Kasbu, Avely and own.page show their own branding on free pages; for tini.bio we couldn't confirm it. On Kasbu you get 25 cards per profile with a small follow button with the Kasbu logo; Pro removes it.

I'm looking for someone else's Bento page. Where can I find it? It no longer exists: bento.me/name opens Linktree's homepage. Look for the new link in that person's Instagram, TikTok or X bio.

Did I lose my audience along with the page? Not necessarily. Your audience is on social media; what broke was the address in between. Once you change your bio link and QR codes, the traffic comes back.

Sources

All checked on 14 October 2026. Kasbu figures come from our own product and are valid for that date.

• TechCrunch, Bento's pre-seed round, 15 Feb 2023: https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/15/sequoia-backed-bento-wants-be-more-than-a-link-in-bio-tool-for-creators
• Bento (@joinbento) on X, 5 Jun 2023: https://x.com/joinbento/status/1665837936607379456
• Tech.eu, 6 Jun 2023: https://tech.eu/2023/06/06/sequoia-backed-bento-boxed-up-by-linktree
• TechCrunch, Koji acquisition, 14 Dec 2023: https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/14/linktree-acquires-link-in-bio-platform-koji-in-its-second-investment-of-the-year/
• Eike Drescher (Bento) on X, 18 Dec 2025: https://x.com/eikedrescher/status/2001695639806316904
• AlternativeTo, December 2025: https://alternativeto.net/news/2025/12/bento-to-shut-down-in-2026-as-linktree-takes-over-and-offers-migration-path/
• Roboin, 23 Dec 2025: https://roboin.io/article/2025/12/23/bento-shuts-down-the-end-of-a-simple-profile-link-aggregation-service
• Prices: https://linktr.ee/s/pricing, https://www.beacons.ai/i/pricing, https://carrd.com/pro, https://taplink.at/en/prices.html, https://avely.me/api/billing/prices/, https://own.page/pricing

Want to see what a Bento-like grid looks like before you decide? Browse real pages from other creators. If you decide to rebuild yours, creating your page is free. We also have a page about Bento alternatives and a guide with 8 alternatives and checked prices.