Dynamic QR Code Generator

How a Dynamic QR Code Actually Works

A static code carries your destination inside the pattern. Change the destination and you have to change the pattern, which means reprinting. A dynamic code carries a short address on this site instead, and that address holds a record of where to forward people. Editing the record changes every printed copy at once, because none of them ever contained your link.

That indirection is the entire feature, and everything else follows from it: the destination is editable because it is data rather than ink, the scans are countable because they pass through us, and the code stops working if we stop answering. One mechanism, three consequences, two of them good.

1. 1Enter Today's DestinationThe address you want scans to land on right now. It goes through the same safety gate as every other code here, so dangerous link types are refused.
2. 2Get the Code and the Edit KeyThe symbol encodes a short address on this site, not your destination. The edit key is shown once and proves the code is yours. There is no account, so that key is the only proof there is.
3. 3Print It, Then Change Your Mind FreelyPaste a new destination and press update. Every printed copy follows immediately, because the symbol never contained the destination in the first place.
4. 4Check Scans When You Want ThemA total and a count per day. No location, no device, no cookie, nothing that identifies the person who scanned, because a menu does not need to know who read it.

What You Are Signing up To

Every dynamic QR provider has the same five properties. Most of them only publish the flattering two, so here are all five before you print anything.

It depends on this service existing

A static code works forever because the destination is inside the pattern. A dynamic code works only while somebody answers at this domain. That is true of every dynamic provider, including the ones charging you monthly, and it is the single most important thing to understand before printing a thousand of them.

The edit key cannot be recovered

We store a hash of it, never the key. Lose it and the code keeps redirecting exactly as before, but nobody can ever change where it points, including us. That is the cost of having no accounts, and it is deliberate.

Counts only, no visitor data

Scans per day, and when the last one happened. No IP address, no user agent, no location, no unique visitors, because storing those would make this a tracking product and the people scanning your menu did not agree to that.

One redirect, not a link shortener

A dynamic code cannot point at another code on this site. Chains and loops are the two ways a printed redirect becomes permanently broken.

Free while it is free

There is no plan and no card. If keeping redirects alive ever needs paying for, the honest options are to charge or to stop, and stopping would break printed codes. Use static codes for anything that must outlive us, and this for campaigns that will not.

How to Track QR Code Scans

Only a code that routes through a server can be counted. A static code contacts nothing when it is scanned: the phone reads the symbol and acts on what is inside, so there is no event anywhere to record. That is not a missing feature, it is what static means, and it is why every scan-counting product hands you a dynamic code.

Here the steps are: make the code above, keep the edit key it gives you, and open that key again whenever you want the numbers. You get the running total, a count for each day, and the time of the most recent scan. There is no account, no card and no dashboard to log into, and the counts start the moment the code is live.

One warning about free QR code tracking elsewhere. The tracking is usually the thing the free tier is trialling, so when the trial lapses the redirect stops answering and every printed copy dies at once, not just the statistics. Why free QR codes stop working covers how to tell whether a code you already printed has that problem.

What the Analytics Do and Do Not Include

Open any dynamic QR product and the analytics tab offers location, device, operating system, time of day and unique visitors. It looks generous. What it means is that the person who scanned your table tent to read a menu had their approximate location and device fingerprint recorded by a company they have never heard of, to answer a question the restaurant did not really need answered.

So this stores a total, a count per day, and the timestamp of the most recent scan. That is enough to tell whether a flyer worked, and it is not enough to identify anyone. The counts are visible only with your edit key, so they are not public either. If you need real audience analytics, the honest place for that is your own site, behind your own privacy policy, which the destination link reaches anyway.

When to Use Static Instead

Use a dynamic code when the destination is genuinely uncertain: a seasonal menu, a campaign landing page, an event schedule, anything you expect to repoint within a year or two. Use a static code when it is not: a Wi-Fi password, a phone number, a permanent page, equipment labels meant to outlive the campaign, or anything going on packaging with a five-year shelf life.

There is a third option people miss. Point a static code at a short URL on a domain you own, and you get editable destinations with no dependency on us at all, because you control the redirect. It costs a domain and ten minutes. For anything printed in the thousands, that is the right answer, and we would rather say so than sell you a dependency you do not need. The static versus dynamic guide measures what the redirect costs in module count and print size.

What Is Not Built Yet

• No accounts, so no dashboard across devices. The codes you make are remembered by this browser and by the edit keys you keep.
• No custom domain. The redirect runs on this site’s address, which is part of what you are depending on.
• A restaurant menu is the case this was built for, and the menu page works through when a redirect beats simply editing a page you already control. Often it does not.
• No bulk dynamic codes. The bulk generator makes static codes only.
• No scheduled or rule-based redirects, no A/B splitting, no geo-routing. Those need the visitor data this deliberately does not collect.
• No logo or colour controls here yet. Make the design on the branded page using the redirect address as its content.

Who a Dynamic Code Is For