You don't need an account to make a QR code
There is no reason making a QR code should cost money.
The method is published as an international standard, and the whole computation happens on your own machine, so no server is involved. Yet search for "free QR code" and you get a wall of sites that say free, take a signup, and ask for a card a few days later. Once you know what they are actually selling, they are easy to avoid.
Why it is free in the first place
The QR code was invented in 1994 by Denso Wave, a Japanese company. It holds the patents but declared it would not enforce them against standard-compliant use, and the rules for building one are published as an open international standard. Any program that follows the rules produces a code that any phone in the world can read.
The reading side is the same. Your camera app just reads it. Nowhere between making a code and scanning one is there a company collecting a toll.
So what are the paid sites selling?
There are two kinds of QR code.
- Static: the address or text is baked into the picture itself. Once made, it works
forever, exactly as it is
- Dynamic: the picture contains the company's server address, and when scanned, that server
forwards you to the real destination
A dynamic code can have its destination changed later, and the company can count the scans. That is the feature paid services sell. It is a genuinely useful feature, and paying for it with your eyes open is fine.
Here is the problem. Because a dynamic code routes through the company's server, the code dies the moment the company stops forwarding. A common pattern in practice: a free trial lets you make the code, and when the trial ends, the code stops. If by then it is printed on a thousand business cards or flyers, the only fix is reprinting all of them.
Checking which kind yours is
Scan your own code with your phone. If the address that appears is exactly the one you put in, it is static. If an unfamiliar domain flashes up and then forwards to your address, it is dynamic, and that code is tied to that company.
For anything going to print, static is the safe choice. If you genuinely need to change the destination later, there is another route: encode an address you control, and do the forwarding yourself from there.
Worth knowing when you make one
- The more text you encode, the denser the dots, and a dense code printed small stops
scanning. Shorter addresses are better
- The white margin around a QR code is not decoration; it is part of the spec. Crop it off and
some scanners fail
- It doesn't have to be a URL. Plain text works, and so does anything tedious to retype on a
phone: Wi-Fi credentials, an account number, a serial
What this does not cover
- Scan statistics: that is the dynamic-QR services' territory
- Codes with logos or colors: those eat into the error-correction margin and deserve their own
discussion
- Payment QR codes at the register: payment networks have their own formats
There is a generator that turns an address or text into a QR image on the spot. It makes static codes, and the whole computation runs inside your browser, so what you type never leaves your machine. That means it is safe for things you would rather not hand to a website, like an internal URL or a Wi-Fi password. Save the image or copy it and you are done.