THE THING WE BUILT:

Create Your Own QR Code Service

When I was in college, I’d read whatever Shaun Inman wrote. He was an early mover-shaker-doer in all things product design (I don’t know if we even had that term at the time). Beautiful designs, all built by him. I loved following along his web apps like Mint and Fever. And we went to the same college, so he was a big early inspiration for me.

Back then, digital product business models were simple. You’d buy the thing, download it, and host it yourself. No SaaS, no cloud, no subscriptions. Just… software.

This wave of nostalgia hit me while I was scouring the web for a dynamic QR code service. (We needed one for a top-secret project.) But everything out there either felt like old-school web clutter, cost $29/month, or had a bloated UI full of features I didn’t need. I couldn’t bring myself to sign up for any of it. What happened to simple?

So we built a thing.

Try it yourself!

How It Works

• Add your URLs to a simple TypeScript config file

• Drop your logo (PNG/SVG) into the project

• Set an admin password with one environment variable

• Your QR codes auto-generate with your logo in the center

• Deploy to Vercel (or any similar host)

• Visit your site, log into the admin, and see a list of all your custom QR codes pointing to your dynamic URLs

  
  

And I know what you’re thinking… “Cool for Township, but what about me?”

Keep reading.

Notes from Building

This app is pretty simple. That was the whole point.

We needed a dynamic QR setup for a super top secret project, and everything out there wanted twenty bucks (or more) a month forever for something that felt tiny. So we built our own.

It is basically: a Next.js front end, a little config file of slugs and URLs, a small admin page, and a logo-aware QR generator. Nothing wild.

It seemed so simple, in fact, that anyone could make their own. So we decided to share it. But the world does not need another QR code SaaS app, and that is not how I want to spend my days. So instead of logins and billing, we just give you the instructions.

Go to qr.twsp.app/create-your-own, or scan the QR code above, copy the text, and paste it into your LLM of choice. Tell it: “Build this for me.”

The prompt includes the stack, file structure, config format, and hosting ideas. The LLM wires it up. You end up with your own QR service, on your own domain, with your own logo, and no endless SaaS fee.

Fire it up and make your own.

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