In short
The printed pattern holds no date. What can stop is the short link inside a dynamic code: it works only while the company that runs it forwards it, and on a subscription service, QRVane included, that forwarding stops when the payments do. With QRVane, a code forwards for its first 14 days, and after that only while its workspace has a plan with room for it.
The pattern itself holds no date
A QR code is a pattern of squares that spells out some text, usually a web address. Nothing in the pattern counts the days, so a printed code scans the same in ten years as it does today. Whether anything useful opens is another matter, and it depends on what address the pattern holds.
If the pattern holds the full address of a page on your own website, the code depends on that page alone. If the website moves or deletes the page, the code scans as before but opens a “page not found”, and the fix is on the website: put the page back, or forward the old address to the new one. The printed code cannot be changed.
A dynamic code depends on the service behind it
A dynamic code holds a short link instead, such as go.qrvane.com/7KX2M9P. The company that runs the short link forwards each scan to your page, which is what lets you change the destination after printing and count the scans. It is also why a dynamic code can stop: the day the company stops forwarding, every printed copy stops with it. That happens when an account it belongs to stops paying, and it would happen if the company closed.
Every code is a dynamic code: a short go.qrvane.com link, or a hosted page behind one, that you can point somewhere new after printing.
When QRVane codes stop
QRVane sells subscriptions, so a code forwards for its own first 14 days and after that only while its workspace has a plan with room for it. In full:
- The first 14 days. Every code works for 14 days from the moment it is made. After that, unless its workspace has a plan with room for it, people who scan it see a QRVane page instead of the destination.
- A subscription. While the workspace subscribes, its plan keeps codes live past their first 14 days: Starter 10, Pro 50 and Business 250. When a subscription ends, because a payment fails, a payment is refunded or a cancelled plan reaches the end of its paid period, the codes it kept live keep working for 14 more days; then people who scan them see a QRVane page instead, unless the workspace subscribes again.
- Reminders. After a subscription ends we email its owner when the 14-day grace period starts, and again 7 days and 1 day before those codes stop.
- After codes stop. Once a code stops, a scan shows a plain QRVane page that says the code's 14-day free period has ended, or that its owner's plan has ended, with a line for its owner to sign in and subscribe. There is no fake error and no advert. Subscribing brings back, at once, every code the plan keeps live.
- Your data. A code's scans can be exported as CSV at every stage: in its first 14 days, in a grace period and after it stops.
- If QRVane closes. If QRVane ever closes, customers get 12 months' notice and a full export of their codes and scan history. When the service ends, codes that hold a go.qrvane.com link stop working, so the notice is time to reprint.
Every state a code can be in, and what the scanner sees in each, is listed on the pricing page, with the prices.
How to tell which kind you have
Point your phone’s camera at the code and read the address it offers before you open it. If it is a short link on a QR code company’s domain, the code is dynamic and depends on that company. If it is the full address of a page on your own website, it depends on that page alone. Some services let a dynamic code use a short link on a domain you own, such as menu.yourcafe.com/x: a short address on your domain that you did not create as a page is a dynamic code too, and the company that forwards it is the one to ask. QRVane does not offer that: every QRVane code holds a go.qrvane.com link. A code that counts its scans is always dynamic, because only a short link the company runs can see each scan.
Before you print a dynamic code
- Find the service’s written rule for what happens when you stop paying, and the date your code would stop. Keep a copy.
- Check how long any grace period is, and whether you are told before a code stops.
- Check that scan data can be exported, in case you ever need to move.
- For codes printed to last years, work out the running cost first: a dynamic code is a subscription, not a one-off.
- Print one copy and scan it with two phones before printing the batch.