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thisran
thisran

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Why are we paying $40/month for a 1994 barcode? (How I killed the QR extortion funnel with client-side JS)

#javascript #webdev

There is a special circle in tech hell reserved for founders of "Free QR Code Generators".

You know the playbook:

  1. Rank #1 on Google for "Free QR Code Generator".
  2. Offer "Dynamic QR codes" with custom colors.
  3. User generates it and prints it on 500 wedding invitations or 50 acrylic restaurant stands.
  4. Exactly 14 days later, every scan redirects to: "YOUR TRIAL HAS EXPIRED. PAY $39.99/MONTH TO UNLOCK YOUR CODE."

It's essentially ransomware disguised as a web utility.

A QR code is ISO/IEC 18004. It was invented in 1994 by Masahiro Hara at Denso Wave, who generously released the patent into the public domain. It is literally just 2-dimensional Reed-Solomon error correction and binary matrix math.

Charging a recurring SaaS subscription to calculate black and white squares should be a crime.

So I built CreateMeQR out of pure spite:

  • 100% Client-Side: QR matrix generation runs directly on the user's browser using HTML5 Canvas & WebAssembly.
  • Permanent Static URLs: The destination URL is hardcoded into the matrix. There is NO redirect server in the middle to hijack your traffic later.
  • Zero Tracking: Your WiFi passwords, vCards, and private links never touch my server.
  • Production Exports: True vector SVG (for infinite-resolution physical print) and high-DPI PNG.

Try it here (and stop letting shady SaaS sites extort you):

👉 https://createmy-qr.com/

Would love to hear thoughts, feature requests, or technical roasts from the dev community!

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