Quick answer
Yes — Scantrail is a one-time-purchase alternative to QR Tiger. It costs $69 once, while QR Tiger runs $15/mo — about $180 per year, every year. Self-hosted dynamic QR codes with scan analytics, a design studio and batch CSV generation. It is for people who want the job done on their own hardware without a renewal date — not for teams that live inside QR Tiger's ecosystem.
The verdict
Switch to Scantrail if you are an individual or small team paying QR Tiger $15/mo for work your own machine can do. Under five months of QR Tiger pays for Scantrail — and your printed codes can never be held hostage again.
Stay with QR Tiger if your workflow depends on its integrations, you need enterprise features (SSO, admin controls, SLAs), or your team is large enough that per-seat collaboration tooling is worth the bill. Scantrail does not try to replicate those.
Head to head
| Scantrail | QR Tiger | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $69 once | $15/month, forever |
| Dynamic (editable) QR codes | Unlimited | Capped by plan |
| Codes if you stop paying | Always work — you host them | Die with your plan |
| Scan analytics | Included | Included |
| Custom colors, dot styles, logo | Included | Included |
| Batch CSV generation | Included | Higher tiers |
| Redirect domain | Yours | Theirs (qrco.de) |
| Scan data | Your SQLite file | Their cloud |
| 5-year cost | $69 | $900 |
Where QR Tiger still wins
- Ecosystem and integrations. Established tools accumulate years of third-party integrations, templates and add-ons. If your workflow is wired into QR Tiger's ecosystem, switching means rebuilding that plumbing — a real cost.
- Team and enterprise features. Shared workspaces, granular permissions, SSO, audit logs and a vendor to call when something breaks — that is what the higher subscription tiers actually buy, and a pay-once app does not come with it.
- Familiarity and hiring. QR Tiger is the name people already know. Onboarding a team onto a tool nobody has used before takes time the subscription never charges for.
Where Scantrail wins
- Price, permanently. $69 once versus $180/yr for as long as you use it. There is no renewal, no seat count and no tier gate.
- Dynamic codes. The QR encodes /q/your-slug on your domain and 302-redirects to an editable destination. Reprint nothing, ever.
- Scan analytics. Total + unique scans, scans-over-time chart, device/OS/browser breakdown, country, hour-of-day heatstrip and a recent-scan log.
- Every QR type you need. URL (dynamic + tracked), vCard (serves a .vcf download, also tracked), WiFi, plain text, email and phone.
The math
Under five months of QR Tiger pays for Scantrail — and your printed codes can never be held hostage again.
- After 1 year: Scantrail has cost you $69 total — QR Tiger has cost $180.
- After 3 years: Scantrail is still $69 — the subscription is at $540.
- After 5 years: Scantrail is still $69 — the subscription is at $900.
Common questions
Is it really free on GitHub?
Yes — MIT source at github.com/bensblueprints/qr-tracker-mvp. $69 buys the signed installer, 1-click setup and updates.
Why do dynamic codes need a server?
Because the QR encodes a URL on your domain that redirects to the real destination — that's what makes it editable after printing. A $5 VPS covers it; desktop mode is fine for designing, testing and static codes.
What happens to my codes if I stop using Scantrail?
Nothing — they point at your domain, not ours. As long as your server answers, every printed code keeps working. That's the whole difference from hosted services, where codes die with your plan.
How does country tracking work?
It reads Cloudflare's free CF-IPCountry header — put free Cloudflare in front of your VPS and country analytics appear. Without it, country data degrades gracefully to unknown. No paid geo API.
Try Scantrail — $69, one time
Or get Scantrail plus every other app in the suite: the OneTimeSuite bundle is currently $97, one time.