HiTools Designer is Hikvision's free browser-based tool for planning camera placement, a separate product from iVMS-4200, which only manages already-installed devices. CCTVplanner is a vendor-neutral alternative to HiTools Designer that works with any camera brand and generates professional proposals.
| Feature | CCTVplanner | Hikvision HiTools Designer |
|---|---|---|
| Data Residency | EU (AWS eu-west, Ireland) | Chinese-owned (HQ Hangzhou) |
| Camera Vendor Support | Any camera brand | Hikvision only |
| Price | Free plan available | Free but locked to Hikvision |
| Platform | Browser-based (any device) | Browser-based, Hikvision devices only |
| Camera Placement | Drag & drop on satellite maps | Drag & drop on floor plans |
| Field of View | Real-time FOV visualization | Not publicly documented |
| Satellite Maps | Yes, built-in | Yes, Google Maps import (HiTools Designer) |
| Floor Plan Upload | Yes | Yes |
| PDF Export | Professional proposals | Not publicly documented |
| Camera Database | 65,000+ models, multi-vendor | Hikvision catalog only |
| Storage Calculator | Built-in, any camera | Not publicly documented |
| Collaboration | Cloud sharing & team access | File-based sharing |
| Mobile Support | Fully responsive | Not publicly documented |
Design with any camera brand — Hikvision, Dahua, Axis, Hanwha, or any other. No vendor lock-in means you always recommend the best camera for the job.
No software to install, no Windows requirement. Open CCTVplanner on any device — laptop, tablet, or phone — and start designing immediately.
Place cameras on satellite maps, visualize FOV in real time, and generate professional PDF proposals in minutes — not hours.
Your projects are saved in the cloud. Share designs with clients or team members via a link — no file transfers needed.
Everything below is in the product today, on the free tier, and none of it needs an install. Open it in a browser and check it against HiTools Designer on a job you already know.
No install and no workstation. Walk the site from any camera point of view, with DORI silhouettes standing at the Detect, Observe, Recognize and Identify distances so the customer sees what the camera sees. Sun and shadow study for the time of day that matters, and one-click 3D PDF export for the people who will never open a design tool.
Every cone is computed from the sensor, resolution and focal length at the mounting height (1 to 20 m) and tilt you set, then clipped by buildings, fences and real ground elevation on satellite imagery. On a flat indoor floor a 2D tool agrees with us. On a sloped yard or a sunken loading dock it does not, and that gap is exactly where the blind spots are.
Racking, containers, concrete blocks, scaffolding, solar panels, trees, and the machinery a live construction site actually parks in the shot: excavators, cranes, concrete mixers, bulldozers, vans and pickups. Each one carries real dimensions and a vertical range, and the field of view clips against it with the shadow drawn on the plan.
Stack ground floor, mezzanine, plant room and roof as separate levels. Draw walls, close rooms and read the floor area back in square metres. Cabling routes between levels, the topology graph carries across them, and each floor exports as its own DXF sheet and PDF page.
Predictive coverage for access points using ITU-R P.2040 wall transmission and a P.1238 margin, drawn as a heatmap over the same plan the cameras sit on. Point-to-point links are checked for line of sight against the buildings and terrain, so the wireless leg of the design fails on screen rather than on site.
51 specified cable types with PoE budget from loop resistance, DC voltage drop, fibre loss budget with splice and connector allowances, coax attenuation per format, speaker line loading and conduit fill. Route length is measured on the drawn route and carries straight into the bill of materials, the cable schedule and the customer offer.
The plan is validated while you draw it: DORI shortfall, blind spots, perimeter gaps, PoE budget and class escalation, cable length and category headroom, conduit bundling, fibre loss, thermal lens and pairing, EMC and environmental class, lightning protection zones, ONVIF profile mixing, NDAA compliance, bandwidth headroom and switch port capacity.
CAD-grade DXF (AutoCAD R2018 / AC1021) on named layers with BLOCK, INSERT, SPLINE, ELLIPSE, HATCH and DIMENSION preserved, inside an ISO 5457 sheet frame with an ISO 7200 title block. Multi-page PDF with bill of materials, cable schedule, equipment list, elevation views, coverage analysis, acceptance test protocol, maintenance schedule and the GDPR Article 35 DPIA worksheet.
CCTVplanner replaces HiTools Designer, Hikvision's free browser-based tool for placing devices on maps and floor plans. (Hikvision also offers iVMS-4200, a separate free tool for managing already-installed devices and live viewing: a device manager, not a design tool, so it isn't part of this comparison.) HiTools Designer is locked to Hikvision hardware; CCTVplanner covers the same design workflow with any camera brand.
Absolutely! CCTVplanner includes Hikvision cameras in its database along with 65,000+ models from other brands. You get accurate FOV calculations and specifications for any Hikvision model.
Yes! CCTVplanner offers a generous free tier with camera placement, FOV visualization, satellite maps, and basic PDF export. Paid plans start at €4.17/month for advanced features like unlimited projects and priority support.
The main advantage is working with any camera brand instead of only Hikvision, plus cloud-based project storage and professional proposal generation built into the same tool you design in. You're not limited to one manufacturer's ecosystem.
Design professional CCTV layouts with any camera brand. No downloads, no vendor lock-in.
Also explore: CCTV Design Tool · CCTVplanner vs JVSG · CCTVplanner + Milestone XProtect · CCTVplanner vs Genetec · Hikvision vs Dahua · Dome vs Bullet · Free JVSG Alternative · Best free CCTV design software 2026 · NDAA §889 compliance
