Both are QR codes. The difference is what the code is a name for, and it changes what the code can do after it is printed.
A plain dynamic QR code
A plain dynamic QR carries an opaque short link — a random string like rdro.in/ab12cd34. It points at one destination, and you can change that destination anytime without reprinting. That is the whole job, and for most marketing, packaging inserts, posters, and table tents it is exactly the right tool: simple, editable, and it needs nothing from you but a URL.
A GS1 Digital Link
A GS1 Digital Link is built from the product’s own identifier — the GTIN — expressed as a web address, for example https://brand.example/01/09506000134352. One code can then resolve to different information by purpose: a product page by default, instructions, certification info, a recycling page, and so on. A retail checkout can also read the GTIN straight out of it. In exchange for that power it asks for two things a plain QR does not: a GTIN you are licensed to use (issued by GS1), and a resolver on a domain you control.
How to choose
- Reach for a plain dynamic QR when the code represents a campaign, a link, a menu, a piece of content — anything that is not a catalogued retail product, or where you do not have (or need) a GTIN.
- Reach for a GS1 Digital Link when the code is on a product: you have a GTIN, you want one code to serve both the shelf/checkout and the shopper’s phone, or you are preparing for retail 2D at point of sale (Sunrise 2027) or a Digital Product Passport.
You do not have to pick a platform per code
redireo resolves both through the same model: a plain code is one code with one default link; a GS1 Digital Link is the same idea with the GTIN as the name and several link types behind it. Either way the printed image is permanent, the destinations are editable, and every scan is measured. Start with a plain dynamic QR today; move a product line to a GS1 Digital Link when you have the GTIN and the reason — without changing tools.