How to Verify Your EZQR Codes Survive Cancellation (Before You Print 500 Pieces)

Run this before committing any campaign to print. Takes 35 days and costs $5–7 depending on the vendor's entry tier.

Step 1: Sign up for the cheapest paid plan. Ours is Lite at $5/mo on monthly billing. For QR Tiger that is the entry tier at $7/mo annual ($7 for the first month if you pay annually; verify the monthly-equivalent breakdown). For Flowcode that is the entry tier at $10/mo annual. Use a payment method you can also use to cancel cleanly.

Step 2: Generate one dynamic QR pointing at a test URL. A test URL on your own domain works best so you can detect any redirect behavior. Use a unique path like yourdomain.com/test-qr-cancel-verify-{date} so the test URL is unambiguously associated with the verification. Save the QR image and document the date.

Step 3: Cancel the subscription immediately. Within the same hour as generating the QR. Capture screenshots of the cancellation confirmation page and any post-cancellation email. Note the exact cancellation date.

Step 4: Scan the QR 35+ days after cancellation. The 35-day window covers the 30-day deactivation policies plus a 5-day buffer. Use your phone to scan; verify it routes to your test URL. Check your server logs for the redirect hit.

Pass criteria: the QR scans, decodes, and redirects to your test URL. The vendor passes the cancellation verification.

Fail criteria: the QR scans but redirects to a vendor error page, a dead page, or a vendor-controlled landing page. The vendor fails the cancellation verification — do not use them for printed campaigns.

The verification is reproducible. Capture the screenshots and the server logs; the documentation matters if you ever need to defend the vendor selection to a procurement, compliance, or legal review.

Our policy on dynamic-code survival after cancellation:

• Static QR codes: unaffected by subscription status at any point. Static codes encode data directly into the QR pattern and have no dependency on our servers; they work forever regardless of whether you have an account, ever had an account, or your account is active.
• Dynamic QR codes generated on any paid tier: keep redirecting indefinitely after subscription cancellation. The redirect infrastructure is funded by active subscribers, not by holding past customers' codes hostage. You can downgrade to the free tier or cancel entirely; the dynamic codes you previously generated continue to work.
• Dynamic QR codes generated on the free tier (the 3 free dynamic slots): keep redirecting indefinitely whether or not you ever upgrade.
• The dynamic-code cap: applies only to creating new dynamic codes. If you have 80 dynamic codes on Pro and downgrade to Lite (25-code cap), the 80 existing codes keep redirecting; you just cannot create new dynamic codes until you delete some or upgrade back.
• Editing the destination URL after cancellation: requires re-subscription. The destination URL on cancelled accounts is frozen at the last-saved state. You can resubscribe to edit; the codes themselves never die.

The practical implication: every dynamic QR you generate on our platform is safe to print at any volume, on any service life, with no vendor-side time bomb. The retention model is based on adding new value (analytics, automation, team features) rather than threatening loss.

The policy is published in our terms of service and on the pricing page. The free plan walkthrough covers the structural reason we can afford to make this commitment.

If you are committing to a high-volume printed campaign and need a written policy confirmation for procurement, compliance, or risk management, here is the workflow:

Step 1: Email support and ask the specific question. The recommended phrasing: "What is your dynamic QR code policy after subscription cancellation? Do dynamic codes generated during my paid subscription continue to redirect indefinitely after I cancel?"

Step 2: Save the support response. Our standard response language confirms indefinite redirect survival for dynamic codes and indefinite static-code survival. The response will reference our published ToS.

Step 3: For enterprise procurement, request a signed addendum. We can provide a written confirmation on company letterhead referencing the specific policy and the subscription tier. Reasonable for any single-customer commitment exceeding $5,000 in printed material spend.

Step 4: For ongoing campaigns, request the policy notification clause. Our standard customer agreements include a clause requiring 90-day notice for any material change to the cancellation policy. The clause does not restrict our ability to change the policy; it commits us to advance notice so you can transition if needed.

The verification cost (the 35-day $5 test from the previous section) is independent of this written-policy step. The two together — empirical test plus written confirmation — give procurement and risk management enough documentation to approve large printed deployments.

For competitor verification (Flowcode, QR Code Generator, etc.) the same workflow applies: ask the specific question in writing, save the response, then run the 35-day empirical test. The written policy and the actual behavior should match; when they do not, the empirical result wins.

The vendors that have failed the 35-day verification in our testing or are documented to fail per their public ToS:

Flowcode: deactivates dynamic codes 30 days after subscription cancellation. The deactivation is automated; codes that were redirecting on day 29 redirect to a Flowcode error page on day 31. Verified by published ToS and empirical test. Avoid for any printed deployment exceeding 50 pieces.

QR Code Generator (qr-code-generator.com — note: this is the .com domain, not to be confused with the multiple other QR generators using similar names): deactivates dynamic codes on cancellation per their published ToS. Functionally identical to the Flowcode pattern, except deactivation is at cancellation rather than 30 days after.

Bitly QR Generator: the policy is ambiguous and has changed multiple times. Free-tier QR codes have different retention rules from paid-tier QR codes; cancelled paid accounts apply yet a third retention pattern. The ambiguity is itself a risk — even if codes survive today, the policy can change without warning.

Visualead, Skanz, and various "free trial that converts to paid" generators: deactivate codes when the trial expires or when subscriptions are not converted. Functionally a cancellation policy disguised as a trial structure.

Some white-label QR plugins for WordPress, Shopify, and Squarespace: tied to the underlying SaaS subscription. If the website's hosting subscription lapses, the dynamic QR plugin can also lapse, deactivating codes.

For each of these vendors, the cancellation policy is the dominant risk. The permanent QR code guide covers the full landscape with verification dates; the Flowcode comparison covers the specific Flowcode trap.

The vendors that have passed the 35-day verification or are documented to keep codes active per their public ToS:

EZQR: published policy and verified empirical behavior. Dynamic codes redirect indefinitely after cancellation; static codes are independent of subscription status entirely.

QR Tiger: published ToS commits to keeping dynamic codes active after cancellation. The empirical test passes. Annual-billing-only on every paid tier is the trade-off — you pay for 12 months upfront, which is the actual retention mechanism (not deactivation, but lock-in).

Uniqode (formerly Beaconstac): current published policy commits to keeping codes active after cancellation. Verify in writing for high-volume commitments because the Beaconstac → Uniqode rebrand broke other policies for legacy customers, and the policy could change again with another rebrand or acquisition.

QRCode Monkey, GoQR.me, and other static-only generators: trivially pass because static codes have no vendor dependency. There is no cancellation policy to verify because there is no subscription.

For each of these vendors, the cancellation policy is documented and the empirical test passes. The remaining trade-offs are pricing, feature set, billing structure (monthly vs annual), and feature gating.

The pattern: vendors that compete on monthly billing and ongoing-value features (us, QR Tiger free tier, QRCode Monkey, GoQR.me) tend to keep codes active because their retention model does not require it. Vendors that compete on annual billing (Uniqode, Bitly) or freemium-with-deactivation (Flowcode) have stronger structural incentives to retain via deactivation.

"Indefinitely" is a strong commitment. It is also a commitment about future behavior, and future behavior depends on the company continuing to exist and continuing to honor its policy. Here is the honest expansion:

The technical guarantee: for as long as our redirect infrastructure runs, every dynamic code we have ever generated will continue redirecting to its current destination. The infrastructure cost per redirect is low; the marginal cost of keeping past customers' codes alive is negligible compared to the trust cost of deactivating them.

The business guarantee: we have committed in writing that the cancellation policy will not change without 90 days' advance notice. The clause is in our standard customer agreement. The notice gives you time to transition codes or print new ones with a different vendor if you decide to.

The failure modes that could end "indefinitely":
- Acquisition by a vendor with a different policy: if we are acquired by Flowcode or another vendor with deactivation policies, the acquiring vendor inherits our customer commitments but could change them with notice. Mitigation: the 90-day clause applies to any policy change, including post-acquisition.
- Company shutdown without a successor: if we go out of business and no one acquires the infrastructure, the redirects would eventually stop working when the servers go offline. Mitigation: we can publish the redirect destinations as a static export at shutdown so codes can be archived; in practice the infrastructure cost is low enough that shutdown without continuation is unlikely.
- Major regulatory or legal change: changes to internet infrastructure, domain registration, or content liability law could affect redirect behavior. Mitigation: same as for any QR vendor; this is not specific to us.

The practical commitment: we have structured the business to make indefinite redirect survival the default. Static QRs are independent of us entirely. Dynamic QRs depend on our continued operation, which is funded by active subscribers paying for new features rather than retention pressure on past customers.

The permanent QR code guide covers the broader pattern of "how to print a QR that survives the vendor's lifecycle."

The cancellation policy is the dominant risk in any printed QR deployment. Verify it before you commit to print. The four-step test (subscribe, generate, cancel, scan 35 days later) takes a month and costs $5. The math is asymmetric — a $5 test prevents a $500–5,000 reprint disaster.

We pass the test by published policy and empirical behavior. Static codes work forever regardless of subscription status. Dynamic codes keep redirecting indefinitely after cancellation. The infrastructure is funded by active subscribers, not by holding past customers hostage.

For competitor verification, run the same four-step test. Flowcode, QR Code Generator, and a handful of others fail by deactivating codes after cancellation. QR Tiger, Uniqode, and EZQR pass. Static-only generators (QRCode Monkey, GoQR.me) trivially pass because there is no subscription to cancel.

For high-volume printed campaigns, supplement the empirical test with a written policy confirmation from vendor support. The two together give procurement and risk management enough documentation to approve the deployment.

For the broader vendor landscape, see the permanent QR code guide, the Flowcode comparison, and the subscription traps guide.