Frequently asked questions

No. Carded runs on the phones and tablets you already have. There is no dock, no dongle, and no dedicated scanner to buy, which is exactly what keeps it far cheaper than traditional ID-scanning systems.

No. Carded runs in your phone's browser. Open the link, add it to your home screen, and it becomes a one-tap icon that opens full-screen, with no App Store, no updates, and no hardware.

Plans start at $15 a month for a single register, $29 a month for a venue with up to 5 devices, and $59 a month for up to 15 devices. Every plan includes every feature and unlimited scans, with a discount if you pay annually. Running several locations? Reach out for volume pricing.

Yes to both. Every plan comes with a 14-day free trial and you are not charged during it, so you can try Carded on a real shift first. There are no contracts, you can cancel anytime, and updates are free for life.

Open trycarded.app in Safari, tap the Share button (the square with an arrow pointing up), scroll down and tap 'Add to Home Screen,' then tap Add. Carded now opens full-screen from its own icon, just like a regular app.

Open trycarded.app in Chrome, tap the three-dot menu in the corner, and choose 'Add to Home screen' (or 'Install app'). Carded gets its own icon and opens full-screen.

Tap the big Scan ID button and hold the back of the ID flat inside the frame. The barcode is the wide striped block, usually near the bottom. Carded reads it in about a second and shows the age verdict, ID status, and details. If the light is bad, use 'Scan from a photo instead' or type the date of birth in manually.

Any US or Canadian driver's license or state ID with the standard PDF417 barcode on the back, which is essentially all of them. Carded decodes the AAMVA data encoded in that barcode.

Carded reads the data the barcode contains and shows the age and expiration, and it flags the tell-tale problems like expired, underage, or a date that does not add up. It does not judge whether an ID is a physical forgery, so that final call stays with your staff. It removes the math and the guesswork, not your judgment.

Yes. Flag any ID as 86'd and Carded shows a red DO NOT SERVE the next time it scans. It also warns you if the same ID was scanned twice in a short window, which catches an ID being passed back to an underage friend. You can mark your regulars as VIP too.

Yes. After the first time it loads, Carded scans with no internet connection at all, so a dead signal at the door or a packed venue never stops the line. You only need a connection to first set up a device or to export your data.

Yes, both, plus tablets and laptops. The audible chime works everywhere; the vibration buzz works on Android (Apple does not allow websites to trigger iPhone haptics).

It depends on your plan: 1 device on Single, up to 5 on Venue, and up to 15 on Multi-register. You activate each phone or tablet once, name it (like 'Front Door' or 'Register 2'), and it counts as one of your devices.

Your subscription covers multiple devices. On each new phone, open the app, tap 'I already have a subscription,' and enter the email your subscription is under, plus your access code if you have set one. That phone is now activated and counts as one of your devices. You only do this once per phone, and after that it works offline like any other.

Yes. On a shared phone or tablet, staff tap their name to sign in at the start of a shift, so every scan is tagged with who ran it. Signing in does not use a device slot, so any number of employees can share one device.

Open the Devices screen in the app and remove it. That frees the slot for a replacement right away, and the lost phone loses access the next time it connects to the internet. Because customer identities never sit on our servers, and the on-device scan log can be cleared or locked behind an access code, a lost phone is not a database risk. You can also set an access code so no new device can be added without it.

No customer identities are stored or sold. Scanning happens entirely on the device, and no names, dates of birth, or ID numbers ever leave it. The detailed scan log lives only in your browser until you export it. Only anonymous outcomes, a pass or fail, an age, and the issuing state, sync to your private dashboard, so there is no database of customer IDs on our servers to leak or sell.

They live only on the device. IDs on the 86'd and VIP watchlist are saved as a one-way hash, never the raw number, and the compliance report keeps outcomes only (pass, decline, expired, device, and staff name), with no names, dates of birth, or ID numbers. Only anonymous outcomes sync to your dashboard; no customer identities are uploaded to us.

Yes. Carded keeps an on-device log of every scan and lets you export a CSV or a printable compliance report showing scans, declines, and expired IDs by device and staff member. It is built to help you prove your diligence to a regulator or your insurer.