Custom-domain QR codes: the actual price comparison
Custom domains are the single most asked-for feature in QR-platform procurement and the single most consistently up-tiered one. Here's who actually ships it on their entry-paid plan.
Custom domain ("can my QR's short link live on qr.mybrand.com instead of bit.ly/abc123?") is the single most asked-for feature in QR-platform procurement. It's also the single most consistently up-tiered one — vendors know it triggers the upgrade, so they put it just out of reach of the entry tier.
We pulled the current pricing pages from the major incumbents. Here's the comparison.
The data (May 2026)
| Vendor | Entry paid plan | Custom domain on entry tier? | Where it shows up |
|---|---|---|---|
| qrlia | €12/mo Pro | ✅ Yes | Pro tier, no upsell |
| Bitly | $10/mo Core | ❌ No | $29/mo Growth |
| Uniqode | $5/mo Starter | ❌ No | $99/mo Plus |
| QR Tiger | $7/mo Starter | ❌ No | $37/mo Advanced |
| QRCodeChimp | €6.50/mo Starter | ❌ No | €32/mo Ultima |
| Flowcode | $5/mo Pro | ❌ No | $25/mo Pro+ |
| Linktree | $5/mo Starter | ❌ No | $9/mo Pro |
Linktree's worth a footnote — it's the only competitor where custom domain is reasonably-priced ($9 Pro). But Linktree's bio-link product isn't a QR platform; if you want QR-first design depth you're paying $9 Pro for the domain plus losing on every other feature.
Why the price gap
Custom domain isn't a complex feature to ship. The pieces are:
- A DNS CNAME from the customer's domain to the vendor's hosting.
- A TLS cert minted automatically (Let's Encrypt or AWS ACM, both free).
- A reverse-proxy rule that maps the inbound
qr.customer.comto the right tenant.
That's it. Engineering time per platform: ~1-2 weeks at most, mostly billing-system plumbing.
The price gap exists because incumbents discovered customers will pay 3-7x more for it. It's a textbook anchor: free QR generators set the floor at $0, the "professional" QR tools set the ceiling at $99/mo, and the customer feels reasonable paying the middle even though the marginal cost is near zero.
Where qrlia draws the line
We picked €12 because it's near the price floor most independent SaaS users are willing to pay for any tool. At €12 we cover infrastructure, support, and the three things we think actually justify the spend:
- The MCP gateway (Claude / Cursor / Zed integration, no other QR vendor ships this)
- The silhouette mask (logo-shaped QR codes)
- Custom subdomain on
.qrlia.com
If a customer outgrows Pro, Team is €39 — not 4× the entry price. The pricing escalation is linear, not exponential.
What you give up at €12
Honest answer: SOC 2 Type 2 attestation (Uniqode has it, we don't yet — Type 1 in progress). HIPAA BAA availability (Uniqode has it, we don't). Native iOS + Android apps (Linktree + Flowcode have these, we're PWA-first). Brand recognition (we launched in 2026; the rest have a 5-15 year head start).
For most SMBs the SOC 2 / HIPAA gap doesn't matter — those are enterprise procurement requirements. The brand-recognition gap is real and we're working on it through the comparison + launch + content surfaces (you're reading one).
Try qrlia
If custom domain at the entry tier is the feature that triggered your QR-vendor evaluation, qrlia ships it at €12. Start free → (1 QR with our centre mark on the free tier; upgrade to Pro to lift the cap and add custom domain).
*Pricing data as of 2026-05-06. Vendors re-tier annually — the table above will go stale; we'll update it on each major comparison-page refresh.*