EZQR vs Uniqode (formerly Beaconstac): Pricing, Features, and Who Each One Is Actually For

Uniqode is the QR and digital-business-card platform formerly known as Beaconstac, rebranded in 2024. The product line covers dynamic QR codes, Linkpages, QR-code forms, and digital business cards, sold in four published tiers plus a custom enterprise plan.

EZQR is a QR code generator built around one idea: the code you printed should outlive your relationship with the vendor. Static codes encode the destination directly into the pattern, so they resolve with or without us. Dynamic codes route through a redirect you can repoint, and those need an active plan the same way every dynamic code at every vendor does.

If you are researching Beaconstac specifically, the Beaconstac comparison covers the rebrand in more depth. Same product, same team, name changed.

The headline difference is not the number, it is the billing term. Uniqode confirms it in their own FAQ: "We currently only offer annual subscription plans," and, asked about switching, "We currently do not offer monthly plans." Every EZQR plan is billed monthly.

That changes what the entry price means. The $9/mo Uniqode entry plan is $108 charged up front for the year. EZQR Lite at $5/mo is $5, and if the project ends in March you stop paying in March.

One cost that belongs in any pricing comparison and rarely appears: Uniqode's FAQ prices a custom redirect domain at $2,000 per domain per year as a Plus plan add-on. EZQR does not currently offer custom redirect domains. Full breakdown of their ladder, scan limits and the plan-name confusion is in our Uniqode pricing guide.

Uniqode buys you integrations and governance. EZQR buys you output and portability. Neither list is a knock on the other product.

Uniqode's Core tier and above add advanced customizations, advanced analytics, GPS tracking, pre-built integrations, and the QR Code API. Business+ adds single sign-on, retargeting, white-label, and a dedicated customer success manager. Those are real enterprise requirements and we do not have equivalents for any of them.

What we do have is on the export and reliability side: SVG, PDF, and vector output for print work, bulk CSV import and a REST API on Max, and codes that do not expire.

If you need programmatic QR generation, this is the decision in one line: EZQR includes the REST API on Max at $20/mo billed monthly. Uniqode includes the QR Code API from Core at $49/mo billed yearly.

Over a year that is $240 against $588. The gap is $348, and the commitment shape differs too, because one is cancellable next month and the other is a year purchased in advance.

What you give up by choosing the less expensive path is the integration layer sitting next to Uniqode's API. If your requirement is "mint a code per record in our system," our API does that. If your requirement is "and then write the scan event into Salesforce without us building it," that is Uniqode's, and no amount of pricing arithmetic changes it.

Annual billing hides the commitment inside a monthly-looking number, so it helps to price the same requirement across both vendors over a realistic ownership period.

Take a small business that needs dynamic codes and nothing exotic. On our side that is Lite at $5/mo, which is $180 over three years and stoppable at any point. On theirs it is Essential at $9/mo billed yearly, which is $324 over three years, purchased in three annual blocks.

Now take a team that needs the API. Max is $20/mo, so $720 over three years. Core is $49/mo billed yearly, so $1,764. The difference is $1,044, and that is before anyone upgrades a tier.

None of this means Uniqode is overpriced. It means you are buying different things. The integration layer, the retention window, and the governance features are what the difference pays for, and if you use them the arithmetic reverses quickly. One avoided engineering week on a Salesforce sync costs more than the gap.

Static codes transfer perfectly. Dynamic codes do not transfer at all. That is true in both directions and at every vendor, and it is the single most important thing to understand before you move.

A static code encodes its destination inside the pattern. Regenerate it anywhere with the same content and you get a functionally identical code, so anything already printed keeps working and you are free to move vendors whenever you like.

A dynamic code encodes a short URL owned by the vendor that issued it. Scans resolve through their redirect. Nobody can hand that URL to a competitor, so a printed dynamic code stays with the vendor who issued it for as long as that print run is in the world. If you are carrying dynamic codes on signage or packaging, plan the switch around the next reprint rather than trying to migrate mid-flight.

The practical sequence is to export your destination list first, rebuild the codes that are not yet printed, and leave printed dynamic codes pointed at the old vendor until the material is replaced. Our bulk CSV import handles the rebuild in one upload if the list is long.

EZQR does not require an account to generate a static code. Open the generator, paste your content, download a PNG. That path exists because most people arrive needing one code, once.

Uniqode's flow starts with a free trial and an account, which is the normal shape for a platform selling seats and integrations. It is more setup, and in exchange the thing you set up is a workspace with roles rather than a single file.

The practical difference shows up on the tenth code rather than the first. If you are producing codes for one campaign, our path is faster. If you are administering codes across a team with permissions and audit requirements, theirs is built for that and ours is not.

Uniqode lists 24/7 support from the Essential tier and a dedicated customer success manager on Business+. For a team with a launch date and a procurement process, a named contact is worth real money.

EZQR is a small, bootstrapped team. Support is email, answered by people who work on the product. That is honest rather than impressive, and it is the right expectation to set before you buy: if your organization requires a signed support SLA and an account manager, we are not the right vendor and Uniqode plausibly is.

Choose Uniqode when the QR code is one node in a marketing stack. Multi-seat teams, CRM-attached campaigns, regulated environments needing SSO, agencies needing white-label, and anyone who needs scan analytics retained for years rather than months.

Choose EZQR when the QR code is the deliverable. A restaurant printing menu codes, a church putting a donation code on a bulletin, a photographer linking prints to galleries, a small team generating a few hundred codes from a spreadsheet. The common thread is that the code goes on something physical and needs to keep working, and nobody wants to renew a contract to keep it alive.

There is a middle case worth naming: you need an API and nothing else from the enterprise column. That is the one place where the price difference is doing real work rather than reflecting a feature gap, and it is why we put the API on a $20 tier.

Read down the left column and stop at the first row that describes you.

Plenty of shortlists that start with Uniqode should not end with either of us, so here is the honest map of the surrounding field.

QR Tiger is the closest direct substitute for Uniqode. It competes on the same enterprise ground, with comparable API depth, and it is usually the other name on the list when a mid-market team is evaluating annual contracts.

Flowcode sells design. If the code is going on a product, a stadium screen, or anything where the aesthetic of the pattern is part of the brief, that is where the category's best-looking output lives, and you pay for it.

QR Code Chimp sits at a lower price point with a large template library, with the tradeoff appearing at scan volume rather than at signup.

QRCode Monkey remains a reasonable answer for one-off static codes with no account at all, and we say that in our own generator roundup because it is true. If you need three codes for a flyer and will never touch them again, a free static generator is the correct amount of tooling and anything else is overhead.

The reason we can be relaxed about this is that these products are not interchangeable. A team that needs SSO will not be talked into a free static generator, and a photographer printing gallery cards will not be talked into an annual enterprise contract. Most of the frustration in this category comes from people ending up one or two tiers away from what they actually needed, usually because the pricing page was vague about what the entry plan excluded.

If your shortlist came down to these two, the question is not which product is better. It is whether you are buying a platform or buying codes.

Uniqode is a platform. The price reflects integrations, governance, and retention that a marketing organization needs and will use. If you recognize your requirements in that sentence, buy it, and the annual term will not bother you because you were going to use it for a year anyway.

EZQR is for the other case. Monthly billing, vector export, an API at $20, and static codes that survive us. If the phrase that stuck with you in this article was "cancel next month," you already know which one you are.

For the wider field, the full generator comparison ranks the main options, and the hidden costs breakdown covers the renewal traps worth checking at any vendor. QR Tiger is the other enterprise-leaning default, and Flowcode trades feature depth for design polish.