Lynkarr vs Canva
Canva is the right place to make the poster. It is not where the code on it should live for the next two years — and everything that makes a code useful there is on a plan above the one most people have.
A design tool with QR code generation built in, where the useful parts of a code sit on its higher plans.
The short version
“We already have Canva, so it is free.”
The code is free; the parts that make it worth having are not. Their own comparison puts scan analytics, custom logo uploads, expiry dates and collaborator editing on Business, Enterprise and Nonprofit plans.
The factAll four are included on every Lynkarr plan, including the free one.
“It is easier to make the code inside the design.”
It is, once. Then the poster is finished and the code is scanned for two years, and every question after that — where does it point now, how often is it scanned, which of these forty is on which product — is asked long after anybody opens that design again.
The factA design tool organises by document. We organise by code, with folders, campaigns and tags across codes, links, pages, cards and forms.
“We need the analytics eventually.”
Eventually is the day after the campaign starts. Ours are on from the first scan on every plan, and they answer how many, from where and on what — without cookies and without storing an IP address, which is a compliance answer as well as a feature.
The factEleven reports behind one filter, exports, and scheduled email reports, on the paid plans; scan reporting on the free one.
Side by side
| Canva | Lynkarr | |
|---|---|---|
| Static codes | Their help centre: not editable, no trackable analytics. | The same — a static code is a static code. Ours are unlimited and free. |
| Scan analytics on a dynamic code | Listed as requiring Canva Business, Enterprise or Nonprofit. | Included on every plan, including the free one. |
| Custom logo on a code | Listed as Business, Enterprise or Nonprofit. | Included on every plan. |
| Expiry dates on a code | Listed as Business, Enterprise or Nonprofit. | Included on every plan. |
| Where the code lives afterwards | Inside the design, in the design tool. | In a library organised by code, with folders, campaigns, tags and reporting across everything. |
| Contacts, from a scanned badge or business card | Not part of the product. | A badge or a personal business card is read by AI into a contact record, deduplicated against your existing pool, and tagged with the event it came from. |
Figures for Canva read from canva.com — Create and manage QR codes on 31 August 2026. Ours were checked against the running product on the same day. Prices change — if you find one of these out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
The design is finished in an afternoon; the code works for years
That is the whole difference in shape. A design tool is organised by document, which is exactly right for making the poster and exactly wrong for managing the forty codes on forty products a year later.
We organise by code: folders, campaigns and tags that span codes, links, pages, cards and forms, with reporting across the lot. Make the artwork wherever you like — including Canva — and keep the codes somewhere built to outlive it.
The useful parts should not be a plan above
Canva's own comparison table puts analytics, custom logos, expiry dates and collaborator editing on Business, Enterprise and Nonprofit. That is entirely reasonable for a design tool where QR codes are one feature among hundreds.
Here they are the product, so they are on every plan including the free one — and the scan check that proves a logo has not broken the code is on every plan too, because a code that will not scan is worse than no code at all.
Why Lynkarr
Choose Lynkarr for the code and use whatever you like for the artwork. You get analytics, a custom logo, expiry dates and collaboration on every plan — including the free one — and a place to manage the codes long after the design is finished.
One more thing, and it is a strength rather than a footnote: our analytics identify nobody. Country, region, hour, device and which code — no cookies on a scan, no IP address stored, nothing sold. For anybody in healthcare, legal, education or the public sector, that is the answer that gets a tool approved rather than the one that starts a review. The detail is here.