A free Bitly alternative for QR codes
Unlimited static codes with no watermark, SVG downloads at no cost, and a dynamic code you can re-point after it is printed — with country, city, device and daily-trend analytics on the free plan.
- Unlimited static codes
- No watermark
- SVG included
- No scan limits
Switch here if
- You want a QR code, not a link-management platform
- A handful of codes, and a subscription is the wrong shape for that
- You need the scan chart without reaching for a card first
Stay with Bitly if
- Links are the job — hundreds of them, across email, ads and social
- Your team needs shared UTM conventions and a branded short domain
- The recognisable name on a printed link matters to your audience
Who moves away from Bitly
Most people who search for a Bitly alternative are not unhappy with link shortening. They went looking for a QR code, found that the code itself was the easy part, and then discovered that the two things they actually needed — changing where a printed code points, and seeing who scanned it — were the two things on the other side of a subscription.
The second group is doing something small. One code on a flyer, one on a table tent, one on the back of a van. A monthly plan is not expensive in absolute terms; it is simply the wrong shape for a job that needs one code and a scan count, and it never stops being a monthly plan.
If that is you, the honest answer is that you need very little. A static code costs nothing to make anywhere, including here, and if the destination will never change, that is the whole job. What you should be shopping for is the dynamic side: whether you can edit the destination later, what the analytics actually show, and what happens to the printed code the day you stop paying.
What Bitly is genuinely good at
Bitly is a link platform first and a QR tool second, and for link-heavy marketing work that is a genuine advantage. If your job is hundreds of tracked links across email, ads and social, with UTM conventions your team has to follow and a branded short domain on all of it, that is what Bitly is built for and this is not a fair fight.
It is also the name people recognise. A short link on a printed asset that reads as a known brand gets scanned by people who would hesitate over a domain they have never seen. That is a real, if unglamorous, advantage and worth weighing if your codes go in front of strangers.
Where it stops fitting is when links are not the job. If you want a QR code on a menu, a business card, a piece of equipment or a parcel insert, you are paying for a link-management platform to get a redirect and a scan count.
Side by side
A clear view of what is included here and what is normally reserved for paid QR platforms.
| Feature | Our pickCalculatorAIQR Codes | Paid QR platformsTypical market baseline |
|---|---|---|
| Static QR codes | Unlimited, no account | Usually unlimited |
| Watermark on free codes | None, ever | Common on free tiers |
| SVG (vector) download | Free | Often a paid feature |
| Dynamic codes on the free plan | One, with full analytics | Capped, or paid only |
| Scan analytics on the free plan | Country, city, device, browser, daily trend | Often counts only, or paid |
| Scan limit | None | Free tiers often cap total scans |
| Editing the destination after printing | Yes, dynamic codes | Yes, on a paid plan |
| Password-protected codes | Included | Usually a higher tier |
| Raw scanner IP addresses stored | No — hashed, then discarded | Varies, check the policy |
| Generator embeddable on your own site | Free, one line of HTML, no API key | Rare, or enterprise |
| Bulk generation from a spreadsheet | Not yet | Common on paid plans |
| Team seats, SSO, custom domain | No | Yes on business tiers |
The market column is a general baseline, not Bitly’s live price sheet. Check its current plans before purchasing.
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If what you actually have is a campaign to measure
4 steps- 01
Print one dynamic code per placement rather than one for the whole campaign.
The same code on the flyer, the poster and the counter card gives you a single number and no way to tell which one worked. Three codes pointing at the same page cost nothing extra and turn the scan chart into an answer.
- 02
Name the codes before you print them, not after.
"Front window" and "Counter, Oct" stay legible six months later; "QR 4" does not, and by the time the campaign is over nobody remembers which was which.
- 03
Watch the daily trend, not the total.
A code that gets 200 scans in the first week and nothing afterwards is a code somebody photographed once out of curiosity. A code with a steady weekly floor is doing a job. The total on its own cannot tell those apart.
- 04
If a placement underperforms, change the destination rather than the print run.
That is the whole point of a dynamic code — the pattern on the paper is a pointer, and the thing it points at is yours to move.
What the free scan analytics look like
Country and city, device, browser and a daily trend — on the free plan, with no card and no scan cap.
Before you print anything, wherever you end up
A dynamic QR code is editable only because somebody hosts the redirect in the middle. That is true of Bitly, of every paid platform, and of us. It means the printed code stops working the day that redirect stops — a cancelled plan, a shut-down product, a company that moves on.
The way out costs nothing and takes ten minutes: point the dynamic code at a URL on a domain you own, and do the final redirect there. Then changing QR provider is a config change instead of a reprint. If the destination will never change, skip the whole question and use a static code — nothing sits in the middle and it works forever.
Where we are the wrong answer
No asterisksNo branded short domain.
Your dynamic codes redirect through ours, which is fine for a table tent and wrong for a brand that needs its own domain on every touchpoint.
No UTM builder or link-management workflow.
If your team needs shared link conventions across email and paid ads, a link platform is the right tool and this is not it.
One dynamic code on the free plan.
Unlimited comes with Pro, which is a subscription like any other — we are cheaper, not free, once you need many.
No bulk creation from a spreadsheet, no team seats, no API.
Frequently asked questions
Moving off Bitly, what happens to codes you have already printed, and what the free plan really covers.
01Can I move an existing Bitly QR code here?
02What happens to my printed codes if I stop paying?
03Is the free plan really free, or is it a trial?
04Do you shorten links too?
05How accurate is the scan location?
Try it before you cancel anything
The static generator needs no account at all — make a code, download the SVG, see whether the output is what you need. The dynamic side takes a free account and about a minute.
Guides
How-to guides that use this tool
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