QR Tiger locks most tiers into annual billing and dynamic codes die when your plan expires. Here's how QR Code Maker compares — with real policy differences and cited user reviews.
QR Tiger is a freemium QR platform serving 850,000+ brands including Cartier, Red Bull, and KPMG. Most people looking for a QR Tiger alternative are either existing customers dealing with an auto-renew issue or a lapsed subscription, or prospects reading the pricing page wondering why only one of the four paid tiers supports monthly billing.
This covers what QR Tiger actually charges, what their FAQ says happens when your plan expires, and where QR Code Maker differs.
2026 update — current QR Tiger pricing
Re-verified June 2026 against QR Tiger's published pricing and third-party teardowns. Their four paid tiers are now: Regular $7/mo (annual), Advanced $16/mo annual or $26/mo monthly (a 38% premium for the monthly option, per the QR-Verse teardown), Premium $37/mo (annual), Professional $89/mo (annual). The free Freemium tier still caps at 3 dynamic codes with a 500-scan ceiling each and the "QR TIGER" logo popup. Paid tiers now have no scan cap. The structural facts in this comparison are unchanged: only Regular bills monthly, dynamic codes still stop working when your plan expires (per QR Tiger's own FAQ), and free-tier codes still do not transfer to paid.
Is QR Code Maker really cheaper than QR Tiger?
Yes, on a like-for-like monthly basis. QR Tiger's only monthly-billed paid tier (Regular) is $7/mo but caps at 6 dynamic codes and 2,000 scans/month. QR Code Maker's Starter is $9/mo for 50,000 scans/month and our Pro is $29/mo. To match QR Code Maker Pro's feature set on QR Tiger you need Advanced — $16/mo locked into 12 months ($192/year) or $26/mo monthly. We're $29/mo or $348/year, no annual lock-in, and your codes never expire if you cancel.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | QR Code Maker | QR Tiger |
|---|---|---|
| Billing | Monthly on all tiers | Annual-only except Regular |
| Entry paid price | $9/month | $7/month (Regular, annual billing) |
| Free trial of paid plans | 14-day Pro trial, no credit card | No paid-plan trial |
| Free tier limits | Unlimited static codes + 1 dynamic (kept on downgrade) | 3 dynamic codes, 500 scans each, "QR TIGER" logo popup |
| Free codes transfer to paid? | Yes | No (per QR Tiger support) |
| When plan expires | Oldest dynamic stays on free plan | "If your plan expires, it will stop working" (QR Tiger FAQ) |
| Static code portability | Works forever, no server needed | Works forever (static codes only) |
| Scan limits on paid | Pro/Team unlimited; Starter 50k/mo | Unlimited |
| Refunds | Prorated on monthly | Case-by-case, 7–10 business day processing |
The Billing Difference
QR Tiger's pricing shows four paid tiers: Regular ($7/mo), Advanced ($16/mo), Premium ($37/mo), Professional ($89/mo). Only Regular bills monthly. The other three are annual-only (QR Tiger plans and pricing).
That matters for programmatic access. Regular includes 500 API requests, but the 3,000-request tier starts at Advanced, which locks you into 12 months upfront. Same for bulk creation and most collaboration features.
QR Code Maker bills monthly on every tier. All plans include a Zapier integration today (CRUD endpoints, folders, analytics, HMAC-SHA256 signed webhooks); a public REST API is in development. Cancel in month 3, stop paying in month 3.
What Happens When Your Plan Expires
QR Tiger's FAQ answers this directly:
"If your plan expires, it will stop working" — for dynamic codes (QR Tiger FAQ)
QR Tiger retains your data for one year so you can resubscribe, but during that window every scan of a printed code hits an error page. A 2026 article titled "Your QR Code Stops Working the Moment You Stop Paying" (North Penn Now, April 2) calls out QR Tiger's 500-scan free-tier cap as one of the silent kill switches in the category.
QR Code Maker's Approach
Our fair cancellation policy keeps the oldest active dynamic code working on the free plan after downgrade or cancellation. Static codes have no server dependency — the URL or WiFi credentials live in the pattern.
The short version: codes don't stop working because you stopped paying.
Verify Before You Print
Before committing to any QR platform, search their help center for the word "expire" or "cancel." Read what their own documentation says. QR Tiger's FAQ is explicit. Our fair cancellation policy is also explicit. Read both before you print anything at scale.
Pricing Breakdown
QR Tiger (as of April 2026)
| Plan | Price | API Requests | Monthly Billing? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | None | N/A |
| Regular | $7/mo billed yearly | 500 | Yes (only tier with monthly) |
| Advanced | $16/mo billed yearly | 3,000 | Annual only |
| Premium | $37/mo billed yearly | 10,000 | Annual only |
| Professional | $89/mo billed yearly | Higher | Annual only |
QR Tiger's free tier limits each dynamic code to 500 scans. Once a code hits that cap, scans fail. Static codes don't have this problem because they don't go through a server.
QR Code Maker
| Plan | Monthly Cost | Dynamic QRs | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1 (kept on downgrade) | Unlimited static codes |
| Starter | $9 | 50 | True monthly, 50,000 scans/mo, Zapier |
| Pro | $29 | 500 | Unlimited scans, Zapier, 14-day trial, no credit card |
| Team | $79 | 2,000 | 20 team seats, role-based access, unlimited scans |
Feature Comparison
Customization and Design
Both platforms support custom colors, logos, eye shapes, and frame styles. QR Tiger's template library is larger and the design presets are polished, which is why Fortune 500 brands pick them for campaigns. If template variety is your top priority, QR Tiger is competitive.
QR Code Maker's approach is programmatic: direct control over colors and logos without preset constraints. Better fit if you'd rather write the design from scratch than start from a template.
Analytics
QR Tiger provides real-time scan analytics including geographic location, device breakdown, and time-series data. QR Code Maker offers the same on Pro tier — scans by time, location, device, and browser. Analytics quality is comparable at equivalent price points.
Integrations
QR Tiger has mature integrations with HubSpot, Zapier, Canva, Google Analytics 4, and Monday.com. They also offer SSO on their Enterprise tier. If you need a specific marketing-stack integration, QR Tiger's native connector count is higher.
QR Code Maker supports Zapier and is building out more integrations. If your stack is Zapier-driven, both work.
Customer Support
QR Tiger's Trustpilot rating is 4.5/5 across 158 reviews as of April 2026, and reviewers praise email response speed. Lower-rated reviews mention two issues: inability to reach support by phone ("I was only able to correspond with QR Tiger staff via email") and dashboard reliability ("clunky, often offline and unreliable") [Trustpilot].
A pattern worth flagging: multiple reviewers report auto-renewal not firing, then being told to enable it manually, then finding no auto-renew option visible.
User Complaints Worth Knowing
From published reviews (Trustpilot aggregate: 4.5/5 across 158 reviews):
-
Free-tier codes don't transfer to paid accounts. "QR-codes created on a free account does not transfer to your paid account, if you sign up after creating it" (G2). Don't create free codes you plan to keep after upgrading.
-
Dashboard reliability. "Clunky, often offline and unreliable… Loyalty is not Rewarded" (Trustpilot 1-star).
-
Email-only support. No phone channel. "I was only able to correspond with QR Tiger staff via email" (Trustpilot).
-
500-scan free-tier cap kills codes silently. A widely-scanned free-tier code hits the cap and stops working with no warning (QR Tiger FAQ).
Choose QR Tiger If:
- You accept annual billing commitments
- Design templates and preset aesthetics are your top priority
- You want the larger native integration library (HubSpot, Monday.com, GA4)
- You're an Enterprise customer needing SSO, with Fortune 500 references as a procurement signal
Choose QR Code Maker If:
- You want to pay monthly on every tier, not just the entry plan
- You want to try Pro features before committing (14-day trial, no credit card)
- You're printing codes on materials that will outlast your subscription — static codes work forever regardless
- You want your free-tier codes to keep working after upgrade or downgrade
- You've been burned by auto-renewal or expiration issues and want a policy stated in plain English
Migration: Moving from QR Tiger to QR Code Maker
- For static codes: export the PNG/SVG from QR Tiger. Static codes are just images — they work forever, independent of any platform. Keep them, use them anywhere.
- For dynamic codes: recreate them in QR Code Maker. Your QR Tiger dynamic codes use QR Tiger's short domain, so the new codes will have a different URL. Plan the cutover around your next print cycle.
- Long-lifespan materials (signage, product packaging): strongly prefer static codes going forward. Anything printed once and expected to last years is a bad candidate for any dynamic provider, including us.
FAQ
Does QR Tiger offer a free trial of its paid plans?
As of April 2026, no. QR Tiger's model is freemium — you use the free tier or pay upfront for a paid plan. There is no credit-card-gated trial of Advanced, Premium, or Professional tiers.
Do QR Tiger free codes have a watermark or logo?
Yes. QR Tiger's free-tier dynamic codes include a "QR TIGER" logo popup on scan, per their pricing page as of April 2026.
What happens to QR Tiger dynamic codes if I stop paying?
Per QR Tiger's FAQ: "If your plan expires, it will stop working." Data is retained for one year so you can resubscribe, but scans to printed codes fail during that time.
Can I get a refund from QR Tiger if I cancel mid-year?
QR Tiger handles refunds on a case-by-case basis with a 7–10 business day processing window. This is documented on their subscription management page.
Does QR Code Maker have a free tier?
Yes. Unlimited static codes of any type, plus one dynamic code. Static codes work forever without our servers. The free dynamic code continues to work as your "oldest active code" even if you upgrade and later downgrade.
Are static QR codes really permanent regardless of which platform created them?
Yes. A static QR code encodes the destination (URL, WiFi credentials, vCard data) directly in the pattern. Once you have the image, it works without any server. This is true regardless of which generator you used — QR Tiger's static codes work forever, and ours do too. The permanence question only matters for dynamic codes.
Want to try a QR platform without annual lock-in or expiring codes? Start a 14-day Pro trial — no credit card required — or read our fair cancellation policy to see exactly what happens to your codes when you cancel.
Related Comparisons
- Uniqode alternative — annual-only billing and dynamic codes that stop resolving on cancellation, per Uniqode's own docs
- Beaconstac alternative — what the January 2024 rebrand to Uniqode changed for existing customers
- Flowcode alternative — ~2.4× monthly vs annual markup and edit lockout on downgrade
- Free QR code generator with no expiration — the pillar guide to permanent, free QR codes
Ready to create your QR code?
Free forever for static codes. Pro features with 14-day trial, no credit card required.
Irina Aguiar
·Content LeadIrina Aguiar leads content strategy at QR Code Maker, where she has written extensively on QR code technology, marketing, and business operations. Her work ranges from technical explainers on how QR codes are generated and how error correction works to practical guides on QR marketing, automation, and scan analytics — plus hands-on tutorials covering Python, Google Sheets, and Zapier integrations. She also publishes honest competitor comparisons and industry-specific playbooks for retail, real estate, hospitality, healthcare, and events.
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