What is actually free
A QR code is a web address drawn as a pattern. Drawing it costs nothing. Any QR generator will make a static code, one with your address built directly into the squares, and that code works for as long as the address does. No account, no expiry, no company in the middle.
So a genuinely free QR code menu is three things you may already have:
- A menu page at an address you control, such as the menu page on your own website.
- A static code for that address, from any generator.
- A printer and some cardstock for the table tents.
If your website’s menu page is real text, reads well on a phone, and you can change it from your phone during service, stop here. You have a free QR code menu with no expiry, and you do not need us.
Two cautions before you print. First, make sure the address is one you own: a menu page on your own domain, not a page on someone else’s service that could move or close. Second, pick a generator that hands you the image file and nothing else. If the download asks you to create an account, or the code it makes starts with the generator’s own short link rather than your address, it is not a static code, whatever the page calls it. Scan it once and look at where the phone says it is going before you commit it to cardstock. Our free QR code menu generator makes static codes only, with nothing to sign up for.
The trap: free dynamic codes that expire
The codes that go dead are dynamic codes. Instead of your address, the pattern holds a short link owned by the generator company, which forwards each scan to your menu. That is useful when you want to re-point a code later. It also means the company decides whether your printed codes keep working.
Many generators hand out dynamic codes by default on a free trial. When the trial ends, or a later subscription lapses, the forwarding can stop, and every tent, window sign, and takeout sticker with that code opens an error page or the company’s sales page. The code looked free because the bill came later.
Before you print a code from any “free QR menu generator,” find out whether it is static or dynamic, and if dynamic, what happens when you stop paying. Our dynamic vs static guide has the three questions to ask.
A QR code menu, free, no expiry: what the free route asks of you
Free is real, but it moves the work to you. Be honest about who does each of these on a Friday:
| Job | Free route | With menu software |
|---|---|---|
| Make the code | Any generator, static code | Made for you, one per menu |
| Host the menu | Your website, if it has an editable menu page | A hosted page at an address that never changes |
| Change a price at 4:50 | Whoever can log into the website, if they are around | You, from your phone |
| Read on a phone | Depends on the site; a PDF means pinch and zoom | Real text, laid out for the phone |
| Match the paper menu | A second file, edited by hand | With Gaslamp, the print PDF comes from the same edit |
What Gaslamp costs, and what is free
Plainly, since that is what you searched for:
- There is no free plan. Gaslamp is $19 a month or $190 a year after the trial. Same product either way.
- The trial is 30 days and needs no card. It includes one published live menu with its QR code and printable pieces. PDF downloads and additional menus come with a paid plan.
- The demo is free and needs no account. Open the editor, change a price, switch off a dish, and see what the work looks like.
- The eight designs are free to look at. Every one is on the samples page as a full PDF, so you can see your kind of room before you start.
What the $19 pays for: a hosted menu you change from your phone that phones see about thirty seconds after you save, a code that never needs reprinting, eight designs, and a print-ready PDF from the same menu so the paper and the phone agree.
If you stop paying
We would rather you hear this from us. Gaslamp’s code is a plain static code pointing at your hosted menu page; there is no forwarding service to lapse. But the page itself lives on Gaslamp, and when an account closes, the page goes with it. That is true of every hosted menu, free or paid. If you ever move, point a new code at wherever the menu lives next and reprint once.
Which free option fits your place
- Your menu changes a few times a year: a static code to your website’s menu page is enough. See the how-to.
- Your menu is a PDF you rarely touch: fine, with care. Read QR codes for PDF menus first.
- Your menu changes weekly or nightly, as it does at many cafés and bars: that is where paying for an editor you can use from your phone makes sense. Try the free demo before you decide.