Top 3 Free Barcode Generators to Simplify Your Inventory Management

Key takeaways

• There are a number of free barcode generators online that support a range of symbologies.
• These barcode generators are only suitable for internal use. If you need barcodes that will be recognized outside of your organization, you will need to purchase them through GS1.
• Barcode TEC-IT is our top recommended free barcode generator. It supports a wide range of symbologies, including UPC, EAN, CODE39, and CODE128.
• Barcode-generator.org offers a cleaner interface and enables users to download barcodes in various formats, such as JPG, EPS, and SVG. It does require generating barcodes one at a time, but it provides immediate downloads without the need for email registration.
• Morovia is the least user-friendly due to the manual process of saving barcodes; Morovia allows customization of barcode dimensions and the option to include or exclude text.
• Inventory management software, like inFlow, offers a much more integrated solution for users that offers built-in barcode generation, printing, and scanning.

If you’d like to get started with barcoding at no charge, you’ll want to use a good free barcode generator. There are a lot of options out there, but only a few of them are actually good free options. Most of them will generate one barcode at a time for you, but if you’re trying to label your shelves or products, those tools will waste a lot of your precious time.

But don’t worry—we had a look at the first few pages of Google results for free barcode generator and we’ve cut them down to the top three. For most instances, we’d recommend our first pick, Barcode Tec-IT, but there are good reasons to try the others on this list. 

For a more in-depth look at how to get started barcoding your small business, check out our Ultimate Barcoding Guide. It covers barcode generation and everything else barcode-related.

Before we get into it we want to mention that generating barcodes is only an option if you’re only using your barcodes internally. If you want your barcodes to be recognized outside of your organization you’ll need to buy registered barcodes from GS1. You can do that by visiting the inFlow GTIN Barcode Shop, where you can purchase single barcodes for $30 with no renewal fee. However, if you need more than ten barcodes we would recommend you invest in a company prefix with GS1.

The criteria for a good free barcode generator

Before we get into our recommendations, here’s a quick summary of what features you should look for: 

• Generate multiple types of barcodes (i.e. symbologies)
• Generate one or more barcodes simultaneously
• Offer an easy way to download the resulting barcode images

That’s a pretty simple list, but you’d be surprised how many tools would rather market first and help afterward. A free barcode generator should save you time, so we’ve left out anything that slows down the process. This list is laser-focused on just the good stuff we feel is worth your time.

#1 Barcode TEC-IT

Barcode TEC-IT is the top free barcode generator on Google. The page looks busy, but don’t be fooled. This is a great tool for generating barcode numbers and images that are ready for use on labels. It covers basically all of the common symbologies you might want to use, including UPC, EAN, CODE39, and CODE128. They also offer specialized options, like Pharmacode and Telepen Alpha. 

Most barcode generators require you to already have a set of numbers that you’d like to turn into barcodes. This page goes a step above and lets you generate a series of barcode numbers with your own prefixes and suffixes (which is something our barcode software does too). This is great because you might want one category of products to have “RED” as a prefix, while another category of products could use “BLUE”. 

Barcode TEC-IT’s page also lets you download a single .zip file that contains multiple barcode images. This allows you to generate all of the barcodes in one sitting and download them with a single click. This saves a lot of time compared to other free barcode generators.

The only caveat is that it might not be as easy for you to print multiple image files in one batch. If you’d like your barcodes generated into a single printable file, we’d suggest trying our software, inFlow Inventory. We generate barcode numbers with suffixes, but also place them onto a single printable PDF that’s easy to print and cut out. 

However, if you need to generate a lot of barcodes for free with zero setup, this page is great. All you really need to know is the number of barcodes you want to generate, and this tool takes care of the rest.

#2 OnlineLabels.com

This free barcode generator OnlineLabels.com, is a clean and straightforward tool. The interface is slick, with less clutter than many other free barcode generators out there. It makes it pretty easy to pick a code type, enter your data, and instantly see your barcode preview. It’s geared toward small businesses and DIY users who need barcodes they can drop right onto labels.

OnlineLabels.com supports the most common barcode symbologies, including UPC, EAN, Code 39, Code 128, QR Codes, and more. While its spread is impressive, it doesn’t go as deep as Barcode TEC-IT with niche options like Pharmacode. However, it does cover just about everything most small to medium-sized businesses would ever need.

Once you generate a barcode, you can download it as a PNG, SVG, or PDF. We should mention that while this generator is free, you’ll need to provide your email once you’re ready to download your barcode. Overall, this is a great tool for generating a single barcode, but if you want a whole sheet of consistent, scannable barcodes, you’ll need to take it into Word or Photoshop and create the sheet yourself.

One nice touch is that you can customize the text displayed under the barcode or choose to hide it entirely. This matters if you’re producing barcodes for internal use (like location or batch tracking) where human-readable numbers aren’t necessary.

The biggest caveat is that OnlineLabels.com doesn’t let you bulk-generate sequences with prefixes or suffixes the way Barcode TEC-IT does. You’ll need to enter each code manually if you want unique sets. For one-off or small batch barcodes, though, this isn’t a problem.

If your main goal is to get ready-to-print barcodes onto actual labels, OnlineLabels.com is one of the most user-friendly free tools out there. It keeps things simple, while still giving you enough flexibility to choose from the major barcode types and export them in printer-friendly formats. 

#3 Morovia

Morovia’s tool isn’t the easiest to use because the barcodes don’t download automatically. You have to drag and drop them out of your browser or right-click on the images to save them. 

However, Morovia is worth a mention if you want to tweak the dimensions of your barcode (like making it taller for easier scanning). You can also choose between including or excluding text. Although we’d generally recommend including text so that it’s easier to tell one barcode from another without scanning. 

Why inFlow is better than a free barcode generator

Using a free barcode generator or barcode font is a great way to get your foot in the door with barcodes at no cost. The reality is if you’re looking for a free barcode generator, you’re probably looking to improve your inventory situation—and that’s exactly what our software can help you with. Our software inFlow is a complete barcode system with a built-in barcode generator that supports prefixes and suffixes.

If you need a more flexible label printing solution for the warehouse, the inFlow Portable Printer is a great option. It’s wireless, compact, and built to handle warehouse conditions. Perfect for printing barcode labels on the go without needing to run back to a workstation.

Watch this quick video to see just how easy it is to generate and print barcode labels with inFlow:

If you’d like to give inFlow a try, you can start a free trial here: