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 | 12, including a map pin and a real GPS position check | 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 | 30 player sessions in total; retries within a session are free | Whether the free tier counts players, attempts, experiences or days |
| What happens at the limit | Experiences pause, links keep working, and a purchase reopens them instantly | Whether links break, content is deleted, or the experience simply stops |
| Paid options | $7 Event Pass for one experience for 30 days, or $29 Creator Lifetime, one time | Whether pricing is per event, per seat, per month, or one time |
| Commercial use | Included with Creator Lifetime | Whether the licence permits paid events and client work |
| Reveal formats | Text, link, image, file, PDF, sanitised HTML, audio, video, promo code, button, download, next clue, or several at once | Whether files, audio and video are supported, and at which tier |
| Languages | English, French and Spanish, player interface included and switchable | 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. A per-attempt cap runs out fastest exactly when a puzzle is engaging. Lock Challenge counts 30 player sessions in total, and a session is counted once, on the player's first answer.
The worst outcome is a broken link, because the QR code is already printed. Lock Challenge pauses the experience, keeps the link alive, shows the player an explanation rather than an error, and reopens everything the moment a plan is bought.
A translated marketing site with an English player interface helps nobody in the room. Lock Challenge translates the player interface into English, French and Spanish, the creator picks the language per experience, and the player can switch it.
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.