Most explanations of memorial QR codes stop at "point your phone at it". That is not the part that matters. The part that matters is what happens in thirty years, and answering that requires understanding one technical distinction that almost no supplier explains.
What a QR code physically is
A QR code is a printed pattern that encodes text. That is all it is. It is not a link to a database, it does not contain photographs, and it has no memory of its own. It is a piece of writing in a form cameras read more reliably than they read letters.
The text it encodes is almost always a web address. Your phone's camera recognises the pattern, decodes it back into that address, and offers to open it. The plaque is a signpost. Everything else lives on the internet.
Three things follow that are worth knowing.
No app is needed. Native camera apps on iPhone and Android have read QR codes for years. Your aunt does not need to install anything.
The code is not tracking anybody. A plaque is a passive piece of metal. It does not know who scanned it, cannot know, and has no power source. Any information about visits is collected by the website afterwards, exactly as any website does, and is worth asking a supplier about.
The format is not owned by anyone. QR is a published international standard, ISO/IEC 18004, and the patents were released for open use decades ago. No single company controls it and no company can withdraw it. Cameras will read these codes for as long as cameras exist, which is a stronger guarantee than almost anything else in this industry offers.
The distinction that decides everything: static versus dynamic
This is the important part.
A static code encodes the final destination directly. The address of the memorial page is physically baked into the pattern on the metal. It cannot be changed, because changing it would mean re-cutting the plaque.
A dynamic code encodes a short intermediary address, which forwards to the memorial page. The plaque points at the signpost, and the signpost can be turned to point somewhere else at any time, without touching the plaque.
For a memorial, this is not a technical preference. It is the difference between an object that can survive change and one that cannot.
Consider what has to remain true, unbroken, for a static code to still work in 2060: the company must still exist, the website must still be at exactly the same address, the domain name must have been renewed every year without fail for thirty-five years by someone who cared, the page structure must never have been reorganised, and the family must never have wanted to move the memorial elsewhere.
Every one of those must hold. A single failure and the plaque becomes a decorative pattern.
With a dynamic code, all of that can go wrong and be repaired, because the destination is a setting rather than a physical fact. The memorial can be moved to a different provider, a different domain, or a family's own website, and the plaque on the headstone never needs to be touched.
Ask any supplier which they use. If the answer is static, or if they do not understand the question, you are buying a memorial with a hard expiry date that nobody has told you about.
Why the code still reads after twenty winters
QR codes store their data redundantly, using an error correction scheme that lets a reader reconstruct the whole message from a damaged copy. At the highest of the four levels, roughly thirty per cent of the code can be obscured by lichen, scratches, dirt or a water droplet and it will still scan correctly.
This is chosen when the code is generated, and it is why two codes that look identical can behave completely differently after five years outdoors. The full detail is in our guide to weather and durability.
The question every family should ask
Here it is, plainly: this company will probably not exist in fifty years. What happens to the memorial then?
It deserves a straight answer rather than reassurance, so here is one.
Most companies do not last fifty years. Most companies do not last ten. Any supplier who responds to that question with a promise about their longevity is either not being honest with you or has not thought about it. A memorial is measured in generations. No business plan is.
The right response is not a promise. It is an architecture that does not require the promise to be kept. There are four things that make a memorial survive its supplier, and you should check all four before buying from anyone, including us.
1. You can export everything, at any time. Not view it. Download it. Photographs as image files, writing as a document, audio as audio, on your own computer, in formats that are not proprietary. If you hold the files, a company failing costs you an inconvenience rather than the memorial itself. If the only copy is on their servers, their failure is your loss.
2. The code is dynamic. As above. A repointable code can be aimed at a new home. A static one cannot.
3. There is no subscription that can silently lapse. This is the most common real-world failure, and it is far more likely than the company collapsing. A memorial page on a recurring payment is one bereavement away from deletion, because the person paying is often the surviving spouse, and when they die the card stops, the reminder emails go to a dead inbox, and the page comes down without anyone ever being told. If a supplier charges recurringly, ask exactly what happens after a missed payment and how long the grace period is. There are worked figures in our cost guide.
4. There is a copy off the internet entirely. Print it. A printed book of the page needs no server, no domain, no company and no electricity. It is the version that will still be readable when every technology on this page is obsolete, and it is the only one with a genuinely proven multi-century track record.
Ask us those four questions before you buy. Ask our competitors too. The answers will tell you more than any amount of copy about respect and remembrance.
What we sell, plainly
Our memorial plaque with memory page is £79.99, in 50mm and 80mm, in brushed steel, matte black or antique brass. That price includes the page. You are welcome to hold us to every one of the four tests above before spending anything.
What we would tell you to do even if you buy nothing
Whatever you use, wherever you host it, keep your own copy of the photographs and the writing somewhere you control, and print the important version.
That is not a sales point. It is the opposite of one. But a memorial that depends entirely on a company you found on the internet is a memorial with a single point of failure, and the whole reason for making one is that you do not want the record to depend on anything so fragile.
The plaque is the durable part. The page is the rich part. The printed copy is the insurance. A family with all three has a memorial that survives more or less anything.