Dynamic vs. static QR codes

Static QR codes

A static QR code has its content encoded directly into the black-and-white pattern itself — a URL, a Wi-Fi password, a contact card. Once it's generated, that content can never change, and scanning it never involves a server: your phone reads the pattern and acts on it, full stop. That makes static codes free to generate in unlimited quantity (ours, for example, runs entirely in your browser — see the free QR code generator), permanent, and completely private, since nothing you encode is ever transmitted anywhere.

The trade-off: once printed, a static code's destination is frozen. Fix a typo in the URL, and every code you've already printed still points to the old, broken link.

Dynamic QR codes

A dynamic QR code instead encodes a short link to a live service. Every scan calls that service, which decides what happens next — redirect somewhere, show a result, log the scan, or run a real check against a database. Because the logic lives on a server instead of in the printed pattern, the same physical code can behave differently over time: the destination can be updated after printing, each scan can be counted and analyzed, and — critically for anti-counterfeiting — the service can verify whether the code is genuine instead of just handing back whatever text was baked in.

This is exactly what Qrauthix's Simple and Secure QR tiers are: every code is issued against a real product record and checked live at scan time, with Secure QR additionally requiring the Qrauthix mobile app and a one-time challenge, so the code never verifies in a plain browser and repeated scans of a copied code get flagged. See Features and How It Works for the full picture.

Which one do you need?