A free Uniqode alternative
For the businesses that need a handful of codes and a scan chart rather than a deployment platform — free static codes, free vector export, and a dynamic code with real analytics.
- Unlimited static codes
- No watermark
- SVG included
- No scan limits
Switch here if
- One location, or a few — not forty
- You want the codes to point at pages you already own
- Most of the plan you are being sold is built for somebody larger
Stay with Uniqode if
- Multi-location deployment with per-site roles and roll-up reporting
- Procurement needs SSO, a signed data agreement and an uptime commitment
- A custom domain on every redirect is non-negotiable for your brand
Who moves away from Uniqode
Uniqode, which most people still know as Beaconstac, sells to organisations running QR at scale: many locations, many codes, a team that has to manage them and a procurement process that expects seats and SSO. The pricing and the product both reflect that, and both are reasonable for that buyer.
The people who end up comparing it against a free tool are usually not that buyer. They are one restaurant rather than forty, one clinic, one gym, one property manager with a few units. They have the same practical problem — a code that has to be updatable after it is printed and a way to see whether anyone used it — without the scale that makes a platform pay for itself.
The tell is when you look at the plan page and most of the value is in things you will never switch on: user roles, bulk deployment, custom domains, integrations with systems you do not run. If four fifths of what you are buying is for somebody larger, you are the wrong size for that product, not the wrong customer for QR.
What Uniqode is genuinely good at
For genuine multi-location work, a platform is the right answer and this is not a close call. When forty sites each need their own code, when a regional manager must be able to change a menu link without access to everything else, and when the analytics have to roll up by region, you need seats, folders and permissions. We have none of those and are not pretending otherwise.
Enterprise buyers also need things that are invisible until they are missing: a signed data-processing agreement, an SSO integration, an uptime commitment, someone to call. Those are legitimate reasons to pay a platform and are not features we can hand-wave past.
The comparison is only interesting below that line — for the single site, the small chain, the one-person operation.
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 Uniqode’s live price sheet. Check its current plans before purchasing.
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The one-location version of the job
5 steps- 01
Use one dynamic code for the thing that changes and static codes for the things that do not.
A menu link changes with the season; the WiFi password on the wall card and the vCard on your business card do not. Static codes cost nothing, work forever with no server in the middle, and do not count against any plan.
- 02
Point the code at the page you already have, not a landing page owned by a QR vendor.
If the code goes to your own URL, you keep the analytics you already collect there, and moving QR providers later becomes a redirect change rather than a reprint.
- 03
Put the code where a phone can reach it.
Table tents beat posters across the room, and a code below waist height on a window is a code nobody scans. This sounds trivial and is the single most common reason a code underperforms.
- 04
Say what the scan gives them.
"Scan for the menu" outperforms a bare code by a wide margin, because a code with no promise is a code with no reason.
- 05
Check the scan chart after two weeks, then decide.
If the number is low, the placement is usually the problem, not the code — and a dynamic code lets you test a different destination without touching the print.
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 Uniqode, 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 team seats, roles or SSO.
One account owns everything, which does not survive contact with a real organisation.
No custom domain on the redirect.
No bulk deployment, folders or per-location roll-up reporting.
One dynamic code free; unlimited on Pro, still without the team features above.
Frequently asked questions
Moving off Uniqode, what happens to codes you have already printed, and what the free plan really covers.
01Is Uniqode the same as Beaconstac?
02We have several locations. Is this workable?
03Can a QR code be password protected?
04What does the scan data actually contain?
05Can we put the generator on our own website?
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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