Bitly is the default QR generator for people who already use a link shortener. They market the QR feature as "free." Let's look at what that actually means in 2026.
Bitly's pricing, as of 2026
- Free tier: 5 dynamic QR codes per month with Bitly branding.
- Starter: $8/month (annual) — 50 QR codes, basic analytics.
- Growth: $35/month — 1,500 QR codes, branded short links, full analytics.
- Premium: $199/month — enterprise volume.
For "custom branded" QR codes (your domain in the short link), you need Growth or above. So $35-199/month for what most marketers actually want.
OneDollarQRcodes pricing
$1 per QR, one time, 3-year guarantee. Destination editable on request.
That's it.
Where Bitly wins
- High-volume operations (1,500+ QRs per month): Bitly Growth at $35/mo = $0.023 per QR if you fully use the quota. We can't beat that on volume.
- Click analytics dashboard: Bitly gives you geographic data, scanner type, time-of-day patterns, all in their UI. Useful for marketers running campaigns.
- Branded short links (
brand.co/abcinstead ofbit.ly/abc): if your CMO insists on seeing your domain in the short URL, that's a Bitly thing.
Where OneDollarQRcodes wins
- Low-volume operators: 1-50 QRs per year. A small business, a wedding, a real estate agent, a content creator. The math:
- 12 QRs/year with OneDollarQRcodes: $12 once.
- 12 QRs/year with Bitly Starter: $96/year, and you lose them all if you cancel.
- No recurring expense: budget once, not monthly.
- No vendor lock-in fear: pay-once means you're not nervous about the company raising prices.
- No signup: build, pay, get email. Done.
When to switch
If you're doing 50+ QRs/month with active analytics needs, Bitly or QR Tiger probably wins on per-QR cost. For everyone else — the cost of a Bitly subscription dwarfs the cost of just paying per QR.