Static vs dynamic
Most generator sites blur this line because fear sells upgrades. The truth is simpler and sells fine on its own: static codes work forever and cannot be edited · dynamic codes cost money and can.
What a static code is
A static QR code encodes the content itself · the URL, the WiFi credentials, the vCard · directly in the modules. The phone that scans it decodes it on the spot, offline, with no server in the path. Two things follow:
- It never expires. There is nothing to renew and nobody who could turn it off. A static code from any generator, including our free one, outlives the generator that made it.
- It is frozen at the printer. The content and the pattern are the same thing, so a new destination means a new code and a reprint. And because no scan touches any server, there is nothing to count: no analytics, ever.
What dynamic adds
A dynamic code encodes a short URL on a host you or we control, and the destination behind it stays yours to change. The printed artwork never changes; what it points at does.
- An editable destination · repoint the menu, the campaign, the firmware manual after printing. The payload itself is write-once (that string is on physical things), but where it leads is editable forever.
- Scan analytics · the scan passes through the short URL, so it can be counted: when, where (city-level), device and language. First-party, cookie-free, and only for dynamic codes · see analytics.
- Routing · one code answering differently by time, place, device or language, plus gates like passwords and scan caps · see routing.
- A price · 1 credit to create, once, and 1 credit per scan, on prepaid credits. Static codes cost nothing because they cost us nothing; dynamic scans run on infrastructure, and the rate card says so out loud.
How to choose
Use the reprint test: if the thing you are printing is cheap to replace and its content is stable · a WiFi card, a contact card, a poster for one event · static is the right call and paying for it would be waste. The moment a code goes on something with a print run, a long shelf life, or a destination that might move · packaging, menus, signage, product manuals · you want dynamic, because the one thing static cannot give you is a second chance after the printer.
One caution that applies to us as much as anyone: a design edit never breaks a printed dynamic code, because the QR encodes the URL and nothing else · but no product can make a printed static code editable, and any tool that implies otherwise is selling the blur this page exists to remove.
Questions
- Do QR codes expire? · The symbol never does: a static code carries its content in the pattern itself and the scanning phone decodes it offline, so there is no server whose bill could come due. When a "free QR code" stops working, what expired was a dynamic short link on somebody's trial plan · a business decision, not a property of QR codes.
- Will a static code from another generator stop working? · No. A static code is self-contained, so it works forever no matter who generated it · ours, anyone else's, or one drawn by hand. No generator can revoke a static code, including us.
- Can I edit a static code after printing? · No. The content is the code: changing the destination means a different pattern, which means a reprint. If the destination has to stay editable after printing, that is precisely what a dynamic code is for.
- Does the free generator track my scans? · It cannot. Static codes from our free studio are built in your browser and never touch our servers, so we do not see the code, the content, or any scan of it. Scan analytics only exists for dynamic codes, where the scan passes through the short URL.
- What does a dynamic code cost here? · Prepaid credits, no subscription: 1 credit to create a code, once, and 1 credit per scan. Editing the destination after printing is free, which is the point of having one.