The Life Behind vs Scan2Remember: Buying a UK Memorial From America

We are one of the two companies in this comparison. Everything below about Scan2Remember was taken from their own website on 28 August 2026.

They are cheaper than us and they have taken the right position on subscriptions. This article is mostly about a thing that has nothing to do with the product itself, which is what changes when a memorial is bought from another country.

The short version

Checked 28 August 2026.

Where they beat us

They are the cheapest here. $49.90 against our £70. Even allowing for exchange rates that is a meaningful gap, and if price is the deciding factor they win it.

The page is free to create. You can build the memorial before buying anything, which is precisely what we recommend people do, and we say so in are memorial QR codes worth it. A supplier who lets you find out whether you will actually fill a page before you pay for metal is doing the right thing.

No subscription. Stated plainly on their site. That puts them on the right side of the single most important question in this trade.

Anodised aluminium is a sound material. Laser marking burns through the anodised layer to bright metal beneath, so the code is part of the surface rather than a coating on it. It will not rust. It is a good choice and we have no criticism of it.

What changes when it ships from Delaware

None of this is a criticism of the company. It is what buying across a border does, and it is the part families do not think about until it is relevant.

Delivery is eight to thirteen business days. That is up to about three weeks in real time. If there is a date you are working towards, an anniversary or a stone-setting, that matters. Ours is dispatched within one working day and arrives in three to five.

There may be more to pay when it arrives. Goods entering the UK from outside can attract import VAT and a courier handling fee, and whether that happens depends on how the seller declares and ships it. Some overseas sellers collect it at checkout and some do not, in which case the first you know is a card through the door asking for money before the parcel is released. Ask them directly, before ordering, whether UK import charges are included. If the answer is unclear, budget for it.

Returns are a different proposition. Posting a plaque back to Delaware costs real money and takes weeks. Your rights on a purchase from an overseas trader are a more complicated question than most people want to research while arranging a memorial, and enforcing them across a border is harder again.

For comparison, ours is £70 all in, in pounds, free UK delivery, no import charges because it never crosses a border. Sixty days to send it back for a full refund if the backing is still sealed and the plaque unfitted, on top of your statutory right to cancel within fourteen days. Faulty or damaged in transit and we pay the postage and replace it. And if the cemetery refuses permission, we refund you in full.

There is a further practical point for UK buyers specifically. A memorial plaque going onto a headstone here usually needs a permit, and the burial authority or your mason may ask for dimensions and material specifications in writing. That is a straightforward request to make of a UK supplier and a slower one across five time zones. The process is in the UK headstone rules guide.

Unlimited, and lifetime

Two words that appear on their site and are worth reading carefully, as they are worth reading carefully anywhere.

Unlimited photographs and videos. Storage is not free to anybody. It is bought every year, forever, from somebody who charges for it. A one-off payment of $49.90 funding genuinely unlimited storage for a lifetime is not arithmetic that works, unless almost nobody uses very much, which is in fact usually true. It is not a lie so much as a bet on typical behaviour. We publish 1,000 photographs, 30 minutes of video and 30 minutes of voice for the same reason we will not write the word forever: we would rather be held to something we can actually do.

Lifetime hosting. Whose lifetime, funded from what? No company can promise beyond its own existence, and we do not claim to. What we say is that the page is included, with no subscription and no renewal fee, for as long as The Life Behind is trading. And our terms of service say what happens if that ends: at least 90 days' notice by email, and a full download of everything on the page, before anything goes offline.

We are not saying they will fail and we will not. Neither of us can promise 2056. What protects a family is being able to download everything as ordinary files, which you can do with us at any time and without asking, and having no subscription that can lapse. Of every supplier we have compared, not one says what becomes of your page if they stop trading. Ask them, and ask us, and there is a fuller version of the argument in how memorial QR codes work.

Which to buy

Buy from Scan2Remember if price is the deciding factor, you are not working to a date, and you are comfortable with the delivery time and with sorting out any import charges or returns yourself. If you are ordering from the United States rather than the UK, most of this article does not apply to you and they are the local option.

Buy from us if you are in the UK and want it in pounds, in under a week, with no border in the middle of it, UK returns, and a supplier your mason can ring.

Ours is the memorial plaque with memory page at £70. The full field is in memorial QR code companies compared.

Details about Scan2Remember were taken from their public website on 28 August 2026 and are quoted so that families can compare like with like. Prices, shipping terms and import rules change. If anything here is out of date or unfair, email support@thelifebehind.com and we will correct it.