Why a wallet asks for an account at all
There are ordinary product reasons. An account gives your collection somewhere to live that is not your phone, so the same list turns up on a second device or after a broken one is replaced. It also lets a developer refresh a shared catalog of store logos without shipping a release, and gives the company an identifier that survives a reinstall.
Every one of those is a real feature, and none of them is needed to put a barcode on a screen. Once the app holds the digits and the format, the phone redraws the code by itself, offline, for as long as you keep it. So the question is not whether a wallet works without an account. It is which of those features you actually use.
What pays for a free wallet
Building an app and keeping it working on two platforms costs money whether or not it carries a price tag. In this category the bill gets settled one of three ways.
01
Advertising
The app carries ad placements and earns per impression. Ad networks want an identifier to attribute and cap those impressions, which is how an ad-supported app ends up in the tracking conversation on iOS. Whatever you make of that trade, it is at least legible: you can see the ads.
02
Data about where you shop
A loyalty wallet sits right next to your purchases, which makes shopping habits the thing other companies would like to buy. Not a hypothetical market: the FTC banned a shopping rewards company from selling the precise location data it gathered through its own apps and through an SDK inside other people's. That says nothing about any wallet you have installed. It is why the category has buyers.
03
Paid features
The unglamorous one: the app is free, some functions cost money, and the people who want those pay for the rest. It puts the price in front of you instead of behind you. ScanKeeper works this way. Scanning, saving, naming, editing, and full-screen display are free with no limit on cards, while folders, search, CSV export, and the widget are Premium.
None of the three is dishonest on its own. They differ in how easily you can tell which one you are in.
Four checks that work on any app, including this one
You do not have to take anyone's word for this, ours included. Four checks, useful whichever app you end up keeping.
Read the privacy label on the listing
Before you installApp Privacy on the App Store and Data safety on Google Play both say what an app collects. Developers write those themselves, so read one as a statement rather than a measurement. A listing that says no details provided has not answered yet, which is not the same as nothing to declare.
Look at the permissions it asks for
In system settingsA card wallet obviously needs the camera and your photo library. Location, contacts, or notifications are worth a raised eyebrow in a list of barcodes. Both platforms let you review and revoke any of it later.
See how far you get before it asks who you are
The first minuteInstall it and try the one thing you downloaded it for: add a card. If a sign-up screen stands in the way, the account is a requirement rather than a convenience, and it is better to learn that at card one than at card twenty. Where a guest mode is offered, check what happens to guest data on reinstall.
Switch on airplane mode and open a saved card
Ten secondsThe fastest test of the lot. Save a card, cut the connection, open it. If the code appears, it lives on your phone. If you get a spinner, it was being fetched, which is also what a checkout with no reception will look like.
What the app asks for
| What to check | Account-based wallet | ScanKeeper |
|---|---|---|
| Account or sign-up | Required | None |
| Email address | Your login | Never asked |
| Location | Nearby offers | Not requested |
| Push notifications | Offers, reminders | None |
| Ads | Placements and SDKs | None |
| Analytics | Linked to you | Anonymous only |
| Works offline | Not guaranteed | Always |
| Where cards live | Company servers | Your device |
| Export to CSV | Via the account | Yes* |
* Premium
The middle column is how account-based wallets tend to be built, not a claim about any one app.
Free to install, and there is nothing to fill in.
What you give up without an account
There is no sync between arbitrary devices. With nothing of yours on a server, there is nothing to push your collection to a phone you have not set up yet, to someone else's tablet, or across the line between iOS and Android. On iPhone and iPad you can switch on iCloud sync, which uses your own iCloud rather than an account with us. Android has no equivalent.
Recovery runs through your backup, not a password reset. Lose the phone and the cards come back from the device backup, or from iCloud sync if it was on. There is no link that restores a collection from our side, because there is no collection on our side. If yours took real work, export it to CSV before you ever need to.
For a wallet you use at a checkout, on the phone already in your hand, that trade is usually the right one. It is still worth making on purpose.
Where to go from here
How it works in ScanKeeper App
Install and go straight to the cards
Nothing stands between the download and your first card: no registration form, no email field, no password.
Scan the card in your hand
Point the camera at the barcode on the card. Recognition runs on the device, so the app needs the camera and nothing else.
Name it yourself
A supermarket's identifier means nothing to you a month later. Give the card the name you actually use, plus a color or image so it stands out.
Show it at the till, online or not
Open the card and expand the code full screen at full brightness. It draws from data already on the phone, so a queue with no signal changes nothing.
Both routes have a guide of their own, with a screenshot for every step: Scan from an image · Bulk import
What to know before you start
Do I really not need an account to use ScanKeeper?
Correct. No sign-up screen, no password, no email field. You install the app and add a card.
What happens to my cards when I change phones?
They travel with your device backup. On iPhone and iPad you can also switch on iCloud sync, which restores the collection on a device signed in to the same Apple Account. Android has no equivalent sync.
How do I move cards over from another wallet app?
If they are already on your phone as photos or screenshots, use bulk import: up to 50 images in one pass, read on the device. Otherwise scan the physical cards.
What happens to my data if I delete the app?
The cards go with it, as with any app's local data. For a copy first, export to CSV, a Premium function, or check that your device backup has run.
Does ScanKeeper show ads?
No. The app contains no ads and no advertising SDKs.
Which permissions does the app ask for?
The camera, to scan a code, and the photo library, to read a code out of a picture. It does not ask for location and sends no push notifications.
Does the app collect analytics without an account?
Anonymous usage counters through TelemetryDeck, with no advertising identifiers, and crash reports through Sentry. Neither is attached to an account, because there is none.
Does a saved card work offline?
Yes. Scanning, saving, organizing, and displaying a saved code all work without a network, including in airplane mode.
What is free and what is paid?
Scanning, saving, editing, naming, and full-screen display are free, with no limit on cards. Premium adds folders, search, CSV export, and the home screen widget.