A service I would pay sats for. A simple website where you could connect a URL to a QR code. There only seems to be QR code services that charge a monthly subscription. Would it not be possible to make a QR code for a one off payment, or at least an annual renewal per QR? #asknostr
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You could do this as a page in your browser on your own desktop. Might even be able to do it just with vibecoding. Tell AI you want a standalone web page with a text box and a button that uses a QR generator library to turn the text in the box into a QR code.
Cool, but where is the data stored? Surely can't be that simple as no one has done it as far as I know. This is a frustration of mine. For my upcoming tour I used a free QR code generator for a ticket link that expired once the posters had already been made. It was then asking me to pay a monthly subscription to keep the QR code active where I would rather make a larger one off payment
A URL can be encoded directly into a QR code. Once it is created you could print it, upload it to any image sharing site, or include it in an email / on a Wordpress site, etc. 👍
But there still needs to be a directory where the data is stored. That's what was charging me
What data? The URL is encoded into the QR code.
Like a barcode, the numbers don't need storing externally. The bars *are* the numbers. The QR code image *is* the URL. When you scan the code, your phone decodes the image into the link and then takes you directly there, no third party needed.
What that service might have been doing is linking the QR code to their server, which then looked up your link and forwarded them to it (after collecting the visitor's statistics and cookies). The only real advantage that would provide is allowing you to update the target link after the fact.
OK, so that just applies to dymanic QR codes? How can these companies charge for static QR codes if people could just do it themselves?
I think this thread answers that question 🙂. I reckon it just sounds scary to make your own QR code, especially if you don't particularly understand the process, so folks just search for someone to do it for them. This is how all those QR codes you see at restaurants and on signs work, it only needs to be generated once and then the image can be put anywhere on the internet or in meatspace (though they probably often use some kind of dynamic link for stats, too).
Hope this helps!
Try the QRshare app for android.
Qrcodedynamic.com gives one url+QR connect for free / email
If you use Affinity 3, you can do it directly in the software. It allows you link your QR code to basically anything you want (website, email, etc). Not only is Affinity a quality product (I switched away from Adobe several years ago), but here comes the cool bonus... it's free.
Check this video: