Elido vs QR Code Generator PRO: Trials, Limits, Price

QR Code Generator PRO, the paid side of qr-code-generator.com, is the QR maker most people meet first, because it ranks for "QR code generator" almost everywhere. It belongs to Bitly. Our product, Elido, is a link management tool hosted in the EU, where every short link doubles as a dynamic QR code. So Elido vs QR Code Generator PRO turns on one thing. Want a QR-first studio with 20-plus content types, hosted PDFs and EPS export? That's what QR Code Generator PRO is built for. Want dynamic codes for web pages without a trial clock, on your own domain, at a lower price? Then Elido fits better.

I'm on the Elido team, so read the verdict with that in mind. Every QR Code Generator fact here comes from its pricing page, homepage, solutions page, privacy policy and help centre, accessed 2026-11-11. Our side was checked against the product the same day.

The 14-Day Trial and the Code That Stops

This is the reason the query exists. Somebody signs up, makes a dynamic code, sends it to print, and two weeks later the code opens a QR Code Generator page instead of their menu.

That isn't a bug; it's the policy, and the company doesn't hide it. Its help centre says dynamic codes created during the free trial are deactivated at the end of the trial, and that people scanning them reach a service page rather than the original destination. Static codes keep working. Buying a plan reactivates the dynamic ones, however long ago the trial ended. The pattern on paper never changed, so they work again the moment the redirect does.

Fourteen days is shorter than many print jobs take from proof to delivery. That's the trap. If you're testing any tool, keep trial codes off anything that leaves the building.

There's no trial on Elido's Free plan. You get 50 short links, each with a QR code, and they keep redirecting without a countdown. The design is plain on Free: logo and colour styling start on Pro. The 14-day trial we do have is on the larger Pro plans, and it's a trial of the plan, not a clock on Free codes. The do QR codes expire guide lists the other ways a printed code goes dark.

QR Code Generator PRO and Elido Side by Side

For the background on dynamic and static codes, read our dynamic vs static QR codes guide. The cornerstone on URL shorteners for marketers maps the wider market.

Three rows go to QR Code Generator PRO: types, bulk and export. We take free codes and price, plus the domain row.

Neither one gives you PDF export.

Plans, Limits and Price per Dynamic Code

Prices on its pricing page are in euros, excluding VAT. The page loads its figures with JavaScript, so read them in your own browser; on 2026-11-11 the Starter plan read "from 8 EUR a month". Limits per plan, from the same page:

• Starter: 2 dynamic codes, 10,000 scans, one user. Billed monthly or yearly.
• Advanced: 50 dynamic codes, unlimited scans, two users, bulk creation of 100 at once. Billed yearly.
• Professional: 250 dynamic codes, unlimited scans, five users, bulk of 500. Billed yearly.

Enterprise adds white labelling and custom limits. Every dynamic code gets a customisable short URL.

We count links instead, and every link is a dynamic code. From our billing catalogue on 2026-11-11: Pro starts at 3.50 EUR a month for 250 links, one branded domain and three seats. Pro with 1,000 links costs 10 EUR, and Business starts at 70 EUR for 50,000 links. Even the cheapest Pro plan holds more dynamic codes than QR Code Generator's Professional tier.

There's a catch, and it's real. Pro 250 includes 2,500 clicks a month and bills extra clicks at 0.50 EUR per 1,000, where Advanced and Professional include unlimited scans. A code on a busy shop window can cost more with us than the headline suggests. Price it with your own traffic, then compare Elido's plans.

Design, Types and Export

This is a QR studio first. It lists dozens of solutions on its solutions page: website, vCard Plus, PDF, app store and social codes, per-network ones too, video, image gallery, event, MP3, coupon, feedback, menu, EPC payment and Wi-Fi among them. You can set colours and patterns, pick a frame, add a logo and save templates. With an account you download PNG, JPEG or SVG; EPS comes only in black and white, without the design.

Elido's QR studio is narrower and aimed at links. Here it is in a demo workspace.

It has square, rounded or dot modules, three eye styles with separate colours, a logo up to 512 KB, a frame with a label of up to 32 characters and error correction from L to H, saved as workspace templates. Exports are PNG up to 2,048 px and SVG, in full colour. There's no file hosting, so a PDF code needs the file stored somewhere first. For Wi-Fi or vCard, our free QR code generator makes static codes without an account.

Whichever studio you use, test before printing. A big logo needs a higher error correction level (here's how much), and low contrast kills more codes than bad design does (branded QR code design).

Analytics and Where the Data Goes

The PRO plans track when and where a dynamic code was scanned and on what device. Its privacy policy names Bitly, Inc. and Bitly Europe GmbH as joint controllers and says data may be transferred outside the European Union, including to the US, under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.

On our side a scan counts as a click on the short link, shown by country or device and by browser or referrer, kept 90 days on Free, a year on Pro and two years on Business. The data stays in an EU region. Two gaps: no GPS, and no split yet between a QR scan and a click on the same link from elsewhere. One link per placement works around that; how to track QR code scans has the steps.

When a Paid Plan Ends

Trials are only half of it. For a cancelled paid plan, QR Code Generator's help centre says benefits continue until the end of the billing cycle, and it covers reactivating an ended subscription. I found no page that spells out what scanners see in between, so ask before you sign a long contract.

Ours is plain. When a paid Elido subscription is cancelled or expires, links in that workspace stop redirecting and show a page saying the workspace isn't active; nothing is deleted, and resubscribing restores them. Moving down to a smaller paid plan keeps them working. The defence against any vendor is your own domain in the code, which Elido includes from Pro 250.

Verdict: Who Should Pick Which

Pick QR Code Generator PRO if QR codes are the deliverable: hosted PDFs, vCard Plus pages, menus, coupons, EPC payment codes, bulk runs of hundreds, and a studio your designers already know.

Buy the plan before you print, not after the trial.

Pick Elido if your codes lead to web pages and you want them to keep working without a trial deadline, with your own domain from 3.50 EUR a month and click data held in the EU. You give up file hosting and most QR content types, plus EPS.

The same questions for other tools: Elido vs QR Tiger, Elido vs Uniqode, and the broader QR Code Generator alternatives roundup. Making a first code? The how to create a QR code hub starts there.

Related on the Blog

• QR Code Generator alternatives
• Do QR codes expire?
• Dynamic vs static QR codes
• Are QR codes safe? Quishing explained
• What is a QR code