About HonestQR

HonestQR is a small, English-language site for people who are about to print something.

The problem it exists for is specific. A lot of free QR generators do not encode the URL, Wi-Fi password, or contact you typed. They encode their own short link, and the short link is what eventually points at your content. That is convenient for them, because they can count scans and edit the destination. It is a poor deal for a menu, a table tent, a sticker, or a business card, because the ink outlives the trial. Reporting that led to this project looked at 22 free generators and found 15 that default to that pattern. The printed object cannot tell that the subscription lapsed.

The promise on this site is the opposite. A code from the generator contains the payload itself. Wi-Fi codes contain the network record. Contact codes contain a vCard. Email and SMS codes contain mailto and sms links. URL codes contain the URL you entered. After you download the PNG or SVG, our servers are not involved in a scan. There is no account, because there is nothing for an account to store.

The check-up is for codes that already exist. It decodes an image in the browser. If the result is a web address, a single Cloudflare Worker follows the redirect chain and the page compares those hosts with a list of known dynamic-QR and short-link services. The three results are: direct, passes through a named third party and can expire, or the target is already dead. The worker is deliberately not an open proxy. It will not fetch private networks, odd ports, or page bodies.

What this version does not do: dynamic codes, accounts, payments, PDF export, batch creation, a public generation API, scan analytics, or any language other than English. A waitlist asks for an email if you want editable links or scan stats later. That list is how to decide whether those features are worth the support burden and the phishing risk. It is not the product.

HonestQR is a placeholder name. The domain is a placeholder too. Bring your own name and a domain you control before you point real print at it. The guides — Wi-Fi, vCard, restaurant menus, email, and SMS — are here so the promise is explained next to the tool, not only on a homepage.