Frequently asked questions

Can we run zplCloud on-premises or in our own cloud account?

Yes. The Enterprise plan ships the complete platform as containers for your own data center or your Azure, AWS or Google account - with a dedicated queue, custom API limits, SSO/SAML, custom ERP/SAP connectors and an SLA. Cloud and on-premises share the same API, so integrations move without changes.

Which printers and printer languages are supported?

Zebra ZPL printers natively - including Weblink, RFID and SGD tools. Any network printer that accepts raw TCP 9100 (CAB, Novexx, Avery and more) can be driven with ZPL, EPL2, EasyPlug or PCL, and the EPL2 / DPL / TSPL converters migrate legacy label code to ZPL.

How do we connect our ERP, WMS or databases?

Via the REST API (render a design by ID as ZPL, PDF or PNG, or, on the Pro plan, run batch jobs with up to 10,000 records that print directly), webhooks, CSV/JSON uploads and URLs, or the data hub: SQL Server and MongoDB datasources through outbound CLI agents (Pro plan) plus Kafka and Azure Service Bus streaming subscriptions that print automatically - on every plan: Developer and Starter for testing, Pro with 2 endpoints included.

How is access controlled across teams and sites?

API keys are scoped to a user, team or company; printers, designs and Print Views inherit that ownership. Roles (Admin, Member), per-host branding and revocable mTLS printer certificates keep every site isolated.

Can we automate zplCloud completely through the API?

Yes. On api.zplcloud.com you render saved designs as ZPL, PDF or PNG, call every ZPL tool of the website as its own endpoint (e.g. ZPL to PDF, PDF to ZPL, barcodes and GS1) and read your printers, agents and current label quota. On the Pro plan, batch jobs render up to 10,000 records, build pick lists and print straight to your printers, and label enrichment runs via the API too. Render (PDF/PNG), tool, enrichment, batch and account calls can report to one of your webhooks when they finish - with or without the result. The interactive reference is at api.zplcloud.com/scalar, the guides are in the docs.

How are API calls counted against our label quota?

API renders use the same monthly label counter as the platform - per account, per calendar month, plan limit plus purchased top-ups. Design renders (ZPL, PDF, PNG) and batch jobs count one render per label and stop with a clear error once the quota is used up. The ZPL tools and label enrichment are never rate-limited or blocked, but every call is counted too. GET /v1/quota shows limit, usage and remaining labels at any time.

Do I need a Zebra printer to use zplCloud?

No. You can design and preview labels as PNG, PDF and SVG in the browser without any hardware. Printing is available the moment you connect a printer - locally, via the Weblink relay or through a remote CLI agent.

How do remote printers work through a firewall?

A zplCloudCli agent runs on any machine in the printer's LAN (PC, Raspberry Pi, Synology, Docker) and opens a single outbound WebSocket connection to our backend - TeamViewer-style. No inbound ports, no port forwarding, no firewall changes on the customer side.

Which barcode symbologies are supported?

30+ verified symbologies including QRCode, DataMatrix, Pdf417, Aztec, MaxiCode, EAN/UPC, Code128/39/93, GS1-128, Postnet and Planet - all verified for correct ZPL output.

Does it support RFID / EPC labels?

Yes. The designer includes an RFID element for EPC Class 1 Gen 2 tags with the SGTIN-96 data structure - GTIN + serial are encoded to EPC hex with a full decode roundtrip, and output as ^RS / ^RB / ^RFW ZPL.

How does the Weblink relay keep connections alive?

The relay proactively probes every printer with ! U1 getvar "device.unique_id", tracks per-printer keepalive timestamps, cleans up duplicate connections and re-sends failed jobs from the queue.

In which languages is the platform available?

Ten languages: English, German, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic (right-to-left) and Hindi - website and platform alike. Light and dark themes follow your OS preference automatically; every UI string lives in one translation dictionary per language.