Comparison
The question is not which generator. It is who owns the redirect.
Every QR tool makes a scannable square. What separates them is what happens six months later, when the link moves, the offer ends or the trial does. Here is the comparison by category, with the mechanics behind each row.
Three kinds of QR code
Named products change their terms without notice. The category does not: what a code can do after printing follows from what was put in the ink.
Change the destination after printing
- Static generator
- no
- Free dynamic, trial-based
- yes
- QRMapper
- yes
A static code carries the destination in the pattern itself, so changing it means a new pattern.
Keeps working with no account and no service
- Static generator
- yes
- Free dynamic, trial-based
- no
- QRMapper
- no
The one real advantage of static: nothing has to stay running for the ink to work.
Whose domain is inside the printed pattern
- Static generator
- depends
- Free dynamic, trial-based
- no
- QRMapper
- yes
Scan your own generated code and read the URL before tapping. If it belongs to a shortener you have never heard of, your print depends on that company.
Scans counted per code
- Static generator
- no
- Free dynamic, trial-based
- yes
- QRMapper
- yes
Static codes go straight from camera to website, so nothing on the way can count them.
Scans never paused or capped
- Static generator
- yes
- Free dynamic, trial-based
- no
- QRMapper
- yes
A monthly scan cap means a printed code can go dark mid-month, exactly when the campaign starts working.
A fallback address when the destination cannot be served
- Static generator
- no
- Free dynamic, trial-based
- no
- QRMapper
- yes
Safe Home: the code lands on a page you own instead of an error. Included on every QRMapper plan.
Password, scan limit, expiry, instant off switch
- Static generator
- no
- Free dynamic, trial-based
- depends
- QRMapper
- yes
Only possible when something sits between the scan and the destination. On QRMapper these are Pro and up.
Serve codes on your own domain
- Static generator
- depends
- Free dynamic, trial-based
- no
- QRMapper
- yes
go.yourbrand.com/ab12cd instead of a shared short domain. Pro includes one, Business five.
Cost of a wrong link
- Static generator
- no
- Free dynamic, trial-based
- yes
- QRMapper
- yes
This is the whole argument. On a static code it is the print run. On a dynamic code it is an edit.
A dash means it depends on the specific product or on how you set it up. Static codes can carry your own domain, for instance, but only if you already own the exact address you printed.
Three checks that take two minutes
Scan your own code and read the URL before tapping.
If it is your domain, you control its future. If it is the generator’s domain, your printed material depends on that company staying in business and staying free.
Look for the words trial, scans included, codes included, expires.
If a free dynamic code carries no stated limit at all, be more suspicious rather than less. Resolving redirects costs money, and a service with no plan for covering it has a plan you have not been told about.
Ask what happens on the day you stop paying.
Codes that stop resolving turn a print run into scrap. It is a fair question to ask before the print run, and an expensive one to ask after.
The long version, with the ways free codes are paid for, is in what “free forever” QR code generators actually cost.
Check ours the same way.
Five dynamic codes, unlimited scans, seven days of history, no card. Scan one and read the URL before you tap it.
5 dynamic QR codes · Unlimited scans · No credit card required