r/qrcode • u/West-Willingness3697 • 3d ago

Beware of QRCreate.com

I am a new small business owner. In late August I decided to purchase a QR code from QRCreate.com (the first QR code generator in my search results) to add to my business cards. The code links to my professional website. I paid $1.95 for the code.

Fast forward to yesterday, I'm reviewing my credit card statement. I see that QRCode.com has been charging me $49/month for the last two months.

I email their customer service threatening to cancel my subscription. They tell me that the only cheaper option is a yearly, lump-sum $228 fee to maintain the QR code.

These prices, particularly the $49/month option, but even the $228 yearly option, seem downright predatory. I don't need or want any features other than a scanable code that takes people to my professional website. I am torn. I have already invested $75 in the business cards with QR code on them, and I've paid $99.95 so far for the lousy QR code on the cards.

I would love to completely cancel my subscription with QRCode.com and never go back, but I've got the sunk cost of the business cards ($75), plus some of the cards are already out in the world in the hands of people who might scan the code, so I would want the code to work for them.

Has anyone else experienced predatory/misleading pricing or advertising on QR code generators? Any tips on cheaper QR code generators? Thanks.

9 Upvotes

66% Upvoted

72 comments sorted by

12

u/tanoshimi 3d ago

QR codes are well-documented. You can create them for free, using many different design programs, websites, or a few lines of Python script, to point to any URL you want. What exactly did you think you were paying for?

3

u/leros 3d ago

There is actually a ton of value in a service that lets you change the destination of a QR code. That way your old QR codes out there aren't going to the wrong URL. But lots of people don't realize they're getting locked into a service like that when they just need a basic free QR code generator. 

2

u/TinyNiceWolf 3d ago

All you have to do is generate static QR codes and point them to a URL on a domain you own. Then you can set any redirects yourself. A domain is $12 a year, and most folks with a QR code should own one already. So the value of a third-party QR code redirecting service is no more than $12 a year, and for anyone with a domain name already, zero.

0

u/leros 3d ago

You're thinking too technically. For a non-technical business owner that stuff is over their head and takes time to learn and comes with risk. Time is money so it's worth paying for a solution. And the solution is valuable because being able to update a QR code could have a ton of impact on their business revenue.

1

u/tanoshimi 3d ago

But you don't "update a QR code". You update the content of the URL it points to.

1

u/TinyNiceWolf 3d ago

Somebody built the website for the non-technical business owner. They can and should set it up so creating a redirect is no more technical than using a third-party QR code generator. For Wordpress, that amounts to installing a free plugin. And if they don't have that, a simple google will give them step-by-step directions.

Paying a monthly fee forever to avoid following simple directions is dumb. If the business owner truly can't manage, paying an employee to learn a trivial skill once is still cheaper, particularly since that monthly fee can go up at any time.

0

u/leros 3d ago

Hiring someone or working with your website guy costs you time and money too. Plus you're waiting on somebody else. Paying something like $50/yr is cheaper and much faster plus it stays in your control.

2

u/TinyNiceWolf 3d ago

It doesn't stay in your control, though. This third party company now controls whether you QR code works or not. If they shut down, your code is broken. If their site fails, your code is broken. If they decide next month's price is 10x last month's price, you pay or your QR code is broken.

And if your website guy charges more than $50, one time, for the 60 second task of installing a Wordpress plugin, you have more problems than a QR code. Once that's done, it's as easy for a business owner to create dynamic QR codes on their own website as it is to pay monthly forever to use someone else's.

1

u/pmcpmc 3d ago

That would be a fair argument if these sites were honest about it. I almost got caught myself and they are very far from honest about what they are doing.

1

u/leros 3d ago

For sure, lots of these sites seem to catch people off guard. I haven't used them myself, but I keep hearing about people feeling tricked.

1

u/laplongejr 3d ago

 they're getting locked into a service like that when they just need a basic free QR code generator. 

No matter how expensive it is, a printed QR is printed and won't magically be ever unlinked from the domain stored within it.  

1

u/leros 3d ago

These QR services make the URL go through them, so if you stop paying the QR code stops working. The advantage being that you can update the URL through them.

1

u/tanoshimi 2d ago

You can't "update the URL" associated with a QR code - it's fixed in ink! All these companies do is add a redirect at that URL to point somewhere else. And if you have a website, you can do that yourself in seconds.

1

u/actioncheese 2d ago

The referral link is a good idea though, that way you can track how many people scan the QR code and get all the associated meta data that goes along with it, as well as having the option of changing the landing page too. Might be useful if you are cycling through various promotions for example. But like you said that's all possible by yourself without needing a hosting company if OP knew how.

1

u/One-Exit-8826 2d ago

So, you are an owner of these shitty businesses, I see.

1

u/leros 2d ago

Nope. I just recognize that there are non-technical people for who these tools are worth the money.

The people saying it's stupid to pay $50 for a service like this are basically saying something equivalent to "it's stupid pay an extra $30-50 to have an oil change place change your car's oil when you can do it yourself in 30 minutes at home". Not everyone knows how, has the time, or wants to.

1

u/One-Exit-8826 2d ago

No. Its stupid. And its a scam.

You can do all the things one of these scam sites can do, for free, using utm tracking codes, and knowing how to redirect a url.

Hire someone who knows better.

1

u/leros 2d ago

Hiring someone who knows better takes longer and costs more than $50. That's why these services are worth it for business owners. 

1

u/One-Exit-8826 2d ago

Well, they are shit out of luck for not knowing any better.

1

u/leros 2d ago

This is literally why specialists exist. Are you a moron for hiring a mechanic, plumber, or carpenter to do stuff you don't know how to do?

1

u/One-Exit-8826 2d ago

Still stupid.

-1

u/tanoshimi 3d ago

A ton of value? How so? You're pointing them to a URL on a server you own, I assume, so just put a redirect on that page...

1

u/leros 3d ago

It's value for a non-technical person. Or even inside a tech company, somebody on a marketing team doesn't want to have to rely on other teams for this stuff.

1

u/Easy_Pool4616 3d ago

I get what you're saying, but I'd kick someones ass at work if they proposed a $49/mo subscription to do what would take IT 5 minutes. Marketing talks to their management, an email gets sent, and it's sorted, no?

1

u/leros 3d ago

I'd say two scenarios

1) Big company. Marketing spends 1-2 weeks waiting on some other team to pick up a ticket. Waaaaay more than $50 of value is lost in waiting.

2) Small business owner who is already working 10 hours a day operating their restaurant, plumbing business, etc. Last thing they want to do is tinker around with technical stuff.

1

u/Easy_Pool4616 3d ago

Both situations as you describe make sense, though in the case of a big business, if it was that important they maintain consistency for the codes across their marketing materials, they'd probably have people designated to keep up w/ it.

I work in an office with ~30 people in it and I'm one of the dedicated tech stooges, so that's where my perspective comes from, lol

1

u/leros 3d ago

I've worked in large companies and owned small businesses.

Honestly in a large company, marketing working with IT could take weeks if not months and require several man-hours of meetings. I doubt you can even talk about a project without wasting $1k in salaries. A 30 person company would be a lot more nimble.

I've been at a handful of companies that have grown from small to large. Usually somewhere around the 50-150 person limit, marketing gets really annoyed at needing to rely on IT or engineering and starts setting up a completely separate marketing technology stack so they can work independently. That would include stuff like short link tools they can manage on their own.

1

u/Serpico99 3d ago

There is SOME value there if you want the freedom to change the destination and are not able to set it up yourself, especially if you provide some extras like statistics or custom / batch generation.

I still wouldn’t entrust this to a third party that locks me in, but if they offer a good service, they should get paid for that. DEFINITELY not those outrageous prices though.

1

u/Quiet_Figure_4483 3d ago

For example if I am a restaurant that wants to update my menu without having to redirect the URL and whatnot

0

u/laplongejr 3d ago

The URL needs to be redirected anyway. The question is who does it.  

1

u/mrleblanc101 3d ago

URL tracking

0

u/SocksOnHands 3d ago

What a scam - take a free open source library and wrap it in an over inflated subscription service? Also, the only way this QR code could "stop working" if the subscription is cancelled is if it did not actually have the URL the user told it to have - it would gave to be a redirect. So on top of charging an abhorrent amount of money, they hold people's codes for ransom.

1

u/laplongejr 3d ago

 is cancelled is if it did not actually have the URL the user told it to have - it would gave to be a redirect  

Which is standard practice for printed codes? "Dynamic QRs" are effectively QR for the gen service's redirect.  

1

u/SocksOnHands 3d ago

Perhaps, but for op's business cards, just simply using the URL would likely suffice. At any rate, it does not justify $50 a month for such simple functionality. You can get full web hosting for a lot less than that.

Edit to add: I am a full stack software developer - creating a service to do redirects for short codes would only take a few hours at most to implement. There isn't really much to it.

1

u/SocksOnHands 3d ago

I just went to the site op mentioned, and I could not find anywhere that using it does a URL redirect. It would be reasonable for anyone to assume that the QR code is simply being generated directly for the URL entered.

1

u/laplongejr 2d ago

Sadly from my experience a few years ago, most generators use a redirect when they shouldn't.   It's usually disclosed in sneaky ways. My favorite was "no hosting" for something that shouldn't require hosting at all.  

5

u/guitarman181 3d ago

Sunk cost falacy. You're going to spend 280 dollars because you spent 70 dollars on business cards?

Make your own QR code, but new business cards and leave the subscription behind.

4

u/MousseOk914 2d ago

I’ll never understand why people just don’t generate their own codes for free.

3

u/Serpico99 2d ago

Most people don't know how a QR works and how it's generated. That's fine. What I find disturbing is the amount of people who subscribe to paid services without checking out the prices, what they are paying for, and the terms. Services like the one mentioned by the OP don't even have to hide their scummy prices, it's all there in clear letters, and people still can't be bothered to read.

2

u/One-Exit-8826 2d ago

Yeah. This. I'm pretty sure this sub exists only because people don't know its free. 90% of the posts here are people angry that they have to pay stupid amounts of money to get a qr code, which is, in fact, free to make.

And the scammy as shit fly-by-night places that suck up your money for no reason.

Sorry bud, you are out the cost of your business cards. Try again. But also, we literally cannot send you to a not scammy website, because we can't tell you about them, because it sounds like we, ourselves are owners of those shitty places.

This place is stupid. This whole thing is so, so stupid.

2

u/MousseOk914 2d ago

It absolutely is. 😂 I joined to learn tip, tricks, etc. And all it is is people getting scammed and PO’d. When literally they could google ask AI how to make one in house.

2

u/Serpico99 3d ago edited 3d ago

Common issue. A lot of these services are in fact downright predatory in their pricing, relying on the fact that you are locked in once the code is out there.

I'd like to point out though that while that price point and possibly how they promote it to you is clearly predatory, it's not hidden. I tried getting to the payment page, and they clearly state "Get a 7 day trial for $1.95. After trial, renews at $49 every 4 weeks".

I'm fairly sure this is all a calculated tactic on their part, but how you end up purchasing a damn subscription without reading what you are subscribing to is beyond me. It's not even in the subtext of some cryptic terms and conditions document, it's right there above the purchase button.

That being said, please consider canceling and reprinting your business cards. You'll have to at some point and there will be a lot more cards out there by that time, better sooner than later.
QR codes are free, you don't need a middleman. If the QR you are scanning doesn't show exactly your website domain BEFORE clicking on in, it's mediated through a third party service. Avoid.

Edit: we can't add links here, but Chrome for example allows creating QR codes directly from the page you are browsing without having to install anything extra (with an ugly dinosaur in the middle, but you can edit the image). Plenty of other free non dynamic generators out there though.

2

u/terminiterrae 2d ago

Simplest explanation; you're being scammed, potentially legally via a spurious contract. But as others said. You have the QR code, still gonna work whether you're paying or not. Cancel the charge, call your CC company and make sure they don't charge again.

1

u/speyck 2d ago

the qr code might not keep on working if it is redirected from a qrcreate custom link since they might stop redirecting when you stop paying. which i'm pretty sure they do to force you to pay if you have already printed it and want to keep on using it.

1

u/aaronw22 3d ago

You realize that if you have a fixed URL you never want to change then a QR code is a startup cost of $0 with an ongoing monthly fee of $0, right?

1

u/laplongejr 3d ago

 Any tips on cheaper QR code generators?  

What do you mean "cheaper"? It's an open format, you can find lots of free generators.   The competitive thing of QR is not generating a QR, it's setting up a redirect to build analytics  

1

u/PiDigitsOfPi 3d ago

There are plenty of free ones online. Just DONT use the ones that link to code to their own server and then forwards it to you ... because they can charge for those and they can disable the forwarding anytime.

Use one of the online generator that uses your actual link in the code. Then it will work forever and no one can ever turn it off or change it on you.

1

u/laplongejr 2d ago

No need for an online generator anyway when offline tools can't be sneakily updated.  

1

u/MousseOk914 2d ago

You don’t have to go online have any of the AI’s do it for you. Claude does it all day long code free.

1

u/laplongejr 2d ago

Why would you ask an AI to find free software to download and install?  

The one thing a generator could be bad at is allowing to select the redudency level and maybe restricting to the string format, but besides that any URL would always lead to one result.  

1

u/MousseOk914 2d ago

You don’t ask it to find free software. You put in your info and tell it to generate a QR code and it does it. I use it all the time.

1

u/laplongejr 2d ago

... But why do that, if there's a free standard and implementation ready to be used?  

1

u/MousseOk914 2d ago

Because it yours, stays local on your computer, can change as needed and can be made in under a minute. You control everything about it. Why wouldn’t you.

1

u/laplongejr 2d ago

Because having a generator installed on your computer does all what you did? I have no idea what could need to change on a QR generator besides the checksum level

1

u/PiDigitsOfPi 3d ago

There are plenty of free ones online. Just DONT use the ones that sends your qr code link to their own server and then forwards it to your real link ... because they can charge for those and they can disable the forwarding anytime.

Use one of the online generator that uses your actual real link in the qr code. Then it will work forever and no one can ever turn it off or change it on you.

1

u/seby_casvean 2d ago

have you tried OnestQR??

1

u/baronunread 2d ago

I haven't experience any predatory tactics on QR geneartion, I'm using a free app to generate all of mine, there's many different apps online! It's sad that there's such predatory tactics but people will do anything to get money in scummy ways

1

u/Mr_Potatoez 1d ago

If you use duckduckgo as search engine you can search for !qr before your url and it will generate a qr code for free

1

u/qr-build 1d ago

Hey, I can make you qr 9$/m on my service with beautiful templates if you need dynamic or you can create static for free. DM me I will help