A free Flowcode alternative
Design control that survives the printer — custom module and corner shapes, gradients, a centre logo, a transparent background, and vector export at no cost.
- Unlimited static codes
- No watermark
- SVG included
- No scan limits
Switch here if
- You want full design control and the vector file, at no cost
- You already have a website to send people to
- You would rather your traffic and analytics stayed on your own domain
Stay with Flowcode if
- You need hosted landing pages and have nowhere else to send scans
- A brand kit and reusable templates save your team real time
- Several people design codes together and need shared assets
Who moves away from Flowcode
Flowcode built its reputation on codes that look designed rather than generated, and people who come here are usually not rejecting that idea. They want the same thing and have run into one of two walls: the design work is free but the export they need for print is not, or the code they made is tied to a landing page hosted by the vendor rather than to their own site.
The landing-page question is the one worth thinking about first. A hosted page is genuinely convenient when you have nowhere to send people. It is a liability when you do, because your traffic, your analytics and your content end up living somewhere you are renting, attached to a printed code you cannot change your mind about cheaply.
The design question is simpler. Shapes, gradients, logos and transparency are table stakes now, and so is a vector file — a raster export blown up to poster size is the most common reason a beautiful code fails to scan.
What Flowcode is genuinely good at
Flowcode is good at the part most tools treat as an afterthought: making the code feel like part of the design rather than a black square dropped into it, and giving marketers a fast path from code to a decent-looking mobile page without involving a developer.
That path has real value if you genuinely have no website to point at, or if the campaign is short enough that building a page is not worth it. A hosted page you can publish in ten minutes beats a perfect page that never ships.
If you do have a site, the calculation inverts — and it is worth being clear that this is a difference in approach rather than a defect. We do not host landing pages. We assume the destination is yours.
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 Flowcode’s live price sheet. Check its current plans before purchasing.
Share this comparison
Publish it on your site
Copy the styled table, Markdown source, or a live widget that stays up to date.
Designing a code that stays scannable
5 steps- 01
Design and verification are separate steps.
Every choice that makes a code prettier — a logo over the middle, a gradient, rounded modules, low contrast — removes some of the redundancy that lets a scanner recover the data. That is fine, as long as you check afterwards rather than assuming.
- 02
Order of operations that works:
pick High error correction first, then add the logo, then the colours, then scan the result from a phone you do not normally use before it goes anywhere near a print run.
- 03
Transparent backgrounds are for placing a code on a coloured design, not for skipping the quiet zone.
The margin still has to be there, and it still has to contrast with the code.
- 04
Rounded modules and fancy corner styles cost a little scanability at small sizes.
On a business card, keep the shapes simple; on a poster, do what you like.
- 05
Export SVG for print and PNG for screens.
If the code will be resized by anyone other than you — and on a print job it will be — vector is the only format that survives it.
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 Flowcode, 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 hosted landing pages.
Codes point at a URL you supply; if you have nowhere to send people, you will need to build that yourself.
No template gallery or brand kit — the design controls are per code.
One dynamic code on the free plan.
No team collaboration, no bulk generation, no API.
Frequently asked questions
Moving off Flowcode, what happens to codes you have already printed, and what the free plan really covers.
01Can I make a QR code with my logo in the middle for free?
02Do you offer a landing page for the code to point at?
03Will custom shapes and gradients still scan?
04What is the difference between a static and a dynamic code here?
05Is SVG export really free?
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
Comparing something else?
Keep reading
QR Code Generator
Static and dynamic codes, twelve content types, custom shapes and logos, PNG and SVG.
QR Codes Tracker
Where dynamic codes live: edit the destination, pause a code, read the scan dashboard.
QR Codes Handbook
Static vs dynamic, error correction and logos, what the analytics record — and what they deliberately do not.
Best free QR code generator
The full feature comparison against spreadsheets, free tools and paid platforms.