Static QR code
A QR code with the destination encoded directly in the pattern.
A static QR code contains its destination as data inside the black-and-white pattern.
Scanning https://example.com as a static code means those 19 characters are
physically encoded in the modules; no server is consulted.
Consequences. It cannot expire, cannot be switched off by anyone, and needs no account or subscription. It also cannot be edited after printing and cannot be tracked. These are the same property stated twice: there is no intermediary, so there is nothing to control and nothing to count.
Density. Longer content produces a denser pattern. A 20-character URL might produce a version 2 code with 25×25 modules; a 200-character URL with tracking parameters pushes it past version 9 and 53×53 modules, which needs to be printed considerably larger to scan reliably.
When to use it. Wi-Fi credentials, contact cards, and anything engraved, cast or embroidered where the medium will outlive any subscription. Also good for a URL on a domain you control, since you can change the redirect server-side without reprinting.
In practice
A dental practice prints a static code on appointment cards pointing at
https://smiledental.example/book. Three years later they move from one
booking system to another. Because the code points at their own domain, they add a
redirect on their own web server and every card already in circulation keeps working.
Had they pointed the static code directly at the booking vendor's URL, every one of those cards would now be dead. The lesson is not "avoid static codes" — it is point static codes at a domain you control.
Questions
Can a static code be tracked at all?
Not by the code itself. You can get partial data by pointing it at a URL with a campaign parameter and reading your own web analytics — but you cannot distinguish a scan from someone typing the URL, and you see nothing if the destination is offline.
Is a static code less secure?
It is more predictable: what you see is what it does, and nobody can change it remotely. The risk is losing the destination domain, since whoever acquires it inherits your printed traffic.