Most free QR code generators are not really giving you a QR code. They give you a code that points at their server, and their server points at your link. It works until you stop paying, or until they decide it does not. Your printed menu, your window sticker, your thousand business cards — all of it depends on a company you have no contract with.
This one works differently. The code is drawn in your browser and your link is encoded into the image itself. There is no middle step, no redirect, nothing on our side that can be switched off. Once you have downloaded the file, it is yours and it works forever.
Nine QR code types, one tool
Pick the type and the fields change to match it. URL for a web page, Text for plain notes, Email and Phone and SMS for prefilled messages, WiFi for a network, vCard for contact details, Location for map coordinates, and WhatsApp for opening a chat.
Each type writes its data into the code in the standard format phones expect, so a scan does the right thing without an app in the middle.
A QR code that never expires
The codes here are static. That word matters more than it sounds like it should.
A static code holds your data inside the pattern. A dynamic code holds a short link to somebody's server, which then forwards the scan on. Dynamic codes can be edited after printing, which is genuinely useful — but the trade is that the code stops working the moment the subscription lapses or the service shuts down. If your code is going on something you cannot easily reprint, static is the safer choice.
There is no scan limit here either, because there is nothing counting scans.
Add your logo without breaking the code
Drop a PNG, JPG or SVG in the middle of the code and it stays scannable. A logo covers part of the pattern, so error correction is raised automatically when you add one — that redundancy is what lets a scanner rebuild the missing area. The logo is kept within what the redundancy can absorb, so you cannot accidentally cover too much.
You can also set the foreground and background colours, choose square, rounded, circle or leaf corners, and pick square, dots, rounded or classy for the body of the code.
WiFi QR code for guests
A WiFi code carries the network name, the password and the security type. Scanning it joins the network — no reading a password out loud, no guests squinting at a card behind the till.
This is one place where browser-only generation genuinely matters. Your WiFi password is typed into this page and never leaves your device, because nothing is sent to a server at any point.
vCard QR code for business cards
A vCard code holds your name, title, company, phone, email and website in the format phones use for contacts. One scan and you are in their address book, spelled correctly.
Because it is static, it works with no signal — useful at trade stands, in basements, and anywhere the venue WiFi has given up.
WhatsApp QR code for shops and flyers
Point a code at a WhatsApp chat with your number, and optionally write the first message for them. Someone scanning a shop window or a flyer lands in a conversation already started, instead of copying a number into their keypad and getting a digit wrong.
QR code for a restaurant menu
Put your menu on a page, point a code at it, print it small and stand it on the table. Nobody handles a shared laminated card, and updating the menu means editing the page rather than reprinting the stands.
If your menu URL might change, host it at a stable address you control and update what sits behind it — that gives you the flexibility of a dynamic code without depending on anyone's subscription.
PNG, SVG or PDF — which to download
PNG for screens, messaging and most print jobs. Choose 1024px unless you are going large.
SVG when a print shop asks for vector, or when the code is going on something big. It is drawn from maths rather than pixels, so it stays sharp at any size.
PDF when you want a single page ready to hand to a printer or attach to an email.
All three are free, none carry a watermark, and what you see in the preview is exactly what lands in your downloads folder.
Will a coloured QR code still scan?
Usually, if it is dark on light. Scanners work on contrast, so a light code on a dark background fails on plenty of phones even though it looks fine on screen. The tool warns you when a combination is risky.
Two habits worth keeping: test the actual printed code with a real phone before ordering in bulk, and leave the quiet border around the code alone — that white margin is part of how a scanner finds the pattern.
How to make a QR code
1. Choose what it points at. A link, a WiFi network, a contact card, a WhatsApp chat, a location. The fields change to match the type you pick.
2. Make it yours. Set the colours, corners and dot style, and add a logo if you want one. Error correction adjusts on its own.
3. Download it. PNG, SVG or PDF. No watermark, no account, nothing to install.
Nothing is uploaded
Everything here runs in your browser. The code is drawn on your device and saved straight to it. Nothing you type is sent to a server, and neither is any logo you upload — which is why a WiFi password or a private phone number in a code stays on your machine.
Need something else? There is a stamp maker, an invoice maker and a signature maker, all free and all working the same way.