Most virtual lock tools look identical on a landing page. The differences show up on the fourth experience you build, not the first: how the free tier is metered, whether links survive hitting a limit, whether the player interface speaks your audience's language, and whether the pricing model matches how often you run events.
This page describes Lock Challenge factually and gives you a checklist rather than a table of someone else's numbers. Vendor pricing changes; the questions do not.
| Criterion | Lock Challenge | What to check on Lockee |
|---|---|---|
| Lock formats | 15, all free, including a real GPS position check, a generated sudoku and a Wordle | How many mechanics, and whether any of them verify a physical location |
| Build before signing up | Yes. Build, test and preview with no account; the draft stays on your device | Whether you can reach a working preview without registering |
| Player accounts | Never required | Whether players are asked to register or install anything |
| Free tier metering | Players and attempts are unlimited; the free tier is bounded by what you build (3 basic locks, single or multi-step, of up to 3 steps each), and a basic lock never expires | Whether the free tier counts players, attempts, experiences or days |
| What happens at the limit | On the free plan, the limit only stops new creation, and every basic lock stays open to players for good. After a paid plan lapses, the premium locks it styled close to players until you renew it; nothing is deleted | Whether links break, content is deleted, or the experience simply stops |
| Paid options | Two ways to pay: the Event Pass, paid once for one event, at $7.90 for 15 days or $9.90 for 30 days, or Pro at $14.90 per month, cancellable at any time | Whether pricing is per event, per seat, per month, or one time |
| Commercial use | Included with Pro | Whether the licence permits paid events and client work |
| Reveal formats | Text, a link or a download, action button, image, audio, YouTube video, sanitised HTML, next clue, or several at once | Whether files, audio and video are supported, and at which tier |
| Languages | English, French, Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese, player interface included, in the language the creator picks | Whether the player interface is translated, not just the marketing site |
| Answer security | bcrypt hashes, server-side verification, per-IP rate limiting, noindex player pages | Whether the answer appears anywhere in the page source |
| Chains | Ordered multi-step trails with per-step briefs, hints and error messages | Whether multi-step routes exist and what they cost |
| Team features | Not yet. Studio is announced and deliberately not on sale until it is built | Whether team seats and workspaces exist today or are on a roadmap |
Per attempt, per experience, per day and per player are four very different promises, and a per-attempt cap runs out fastest exactly when a puzzle is engaging. Lock Challenge does not meter players or attempts at all: the free tier is bounded by how much you can build, and a basic lock never expires.
The worst outcome is a broken link, because the QR code is already printed. Lock Challenge never deletes anything and never changes a link. On the free plan, hitting a limit only stops new creation, and every basic lock stays open to players for good. When a paid plan ends, the premium locks it styled close to players and say so, and one payment reopens all of them at once, on the same links.
A translated marketing site with an English player interface helps nobody in the room. Lock Challenge translates the player interface into English, French, Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese, the creator picks the language per experience. The player opens the link in that language, with no switch to get lost in.
If the correct answer is anywhere in the page source, the lock is decoration. Discrete answers here are bcrypt hashes compared on the server, continuous ones are verified numerically against server-side parameters, and attempts are rate limited per IP.
If your requirement is a team of people managing client projects with white-label branding and a custom domain, none of the lock-first tools including this one is ready for you today. That is what Studio is for, and it is not on sale yet.
