If you're paying for an IPVM subscription mainly because of the System Design Tool, CCTVplanner is the free, browser-based, EU-hosted alternative integrators are switching to in 2026. Same DORI math, bigger camera catalog, modern UI, your data in the EU, and €50/yr instead of $999+.
Free tier · No credit card · Open in your browser
IPVM Research / news: the paywalled industry publication ($999+/yr) — vendor reviews, vulnerability disclosures, market intel. CCTVplanner is NOT an alternative to this. If that's what you need, IPVM remains the industry standard.
IPVM System Design Tool: the CCTV design software bundled with the research subscription. CCTVplanner replaces this — at a fraction of the cost, with a larger catalog, EU hosting and a permanent free tier.
IPVM's design tool is good — it's just bundled into a $999+/yr research subscription you may not need. Here is what shifts the moment you switch to a design-first tool.
IPVM's System Design Tool is bundled with an annual research subscription ($999+/yr per seat). CCTVplanner has a permanent Free tier — 1 project, 6 cameras, no card. Real installers using it for real projects today. Standard is €4.17/mo when you outgrow it.
IPVM's tool sits inside their research portal — primary design surface, secondary product. CCTVplanner is a design tool first. The whole codebase, UX and roadmap exist for one purpose: placing cameras and rendering coverage. Different focus, different polish.
Walk the site with the customer, drop a camera on the tablet canvas, agree on the tilt right there. CCTVplanner is mobile-aware from the ground up — touch gestures, on-screen pan/zoom, PWA install. IPVM SDT is desktop-first; mobile is a side effect.
DEFENSAR — 100% Engineered and Hosted in EU. GDPR-aligned by default with an auto-generated DPIA worksheet (Art. 35) inside every PDF export. IPVM is US-based — for EU government, defence, finance and critical-infrastructure tenders that matters in 2026.
English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese (BR/PT), Dutch, Czech, Ukrainian, Turkish, Arabic (RTL), Hindi, Indonesian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, Thai. IPVM is English-only. If your team or your tender lives outside that, this matters.
Even Premium (full DXF export, white-label PDF, unlimited offers) is €100/year — one-twentieth of an IPVM Research seat. If you only need the design tool and not the publication, the math is brutal.
| CCTVplanner | IPVM SDT | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost (full bundle) | Free tier · Standard €4.17/mo · Premium €8.33/mo | $999+/yr research subscription required |
| Design tool only (no research) | €50/yr Standard, no bundle required | Not sold separately from research |
| Free tier | Yes — 1 project, 6 cameras, permanent | No free design-tool tier |
| Origin / data residency | EU — DEFENSAR, GDPR-clean | United States |
| UI languages | 19 (incl. RTL Arabic) | English only |
Switching shouldn't mean downgrading. The design surface, the math, the exports — all present, in many cases broader.
Detect, Observe, Recognise, Identify thresholds at 25 / 62.5 / 125 / 250 px/m — same standard your AHJ expects, validated by 4,270 unit tests. Plus the newer OODPCVS ladder (7 levels) when you need it.
Hikvision, Dahua, Axis, Bosch, Hanwha, Pelco, Uniview, Vivotek, Avigilon, Honeywell — including 171 datasheet-verified flagship models with bitrate, lux, IP/IK, ONVIF, NDAA and environmental class metadata.
Stack multiple floor plans, route cabling between them, project the full topology graph (cameras, NVRs, switches, WAPs, multi-closet daisy-chains) into a single BOM.
Import the architect's DXF — full coverage including BLOCK, INSERT, SPLINE, ELLIPSE, HATCH and DIMENSION entities. Export your finished design as DXF for the electrical contractor.
Cover, floor plan, camera schedule, cable schedule, equipment list, elevation views, cost estimate and auto-generated GDPR DPIA worksheet (Art. 35). Hand it to the customer as-is.
EN 62676 series, EN 50130-4/5, EN 62305 lightning, IEC 60529/62262, ISO/IEC 11801, IEEE 802.3 PoE, ONVIF, NDAA §889, GDPR, BS 8418, AS/NZS 4806, Garante 2010 and more — cited and validated, not just mentioned.
Not everything is a CCTVplanner win. Three areas where IPVM remains the better tool. If these matter most to you, the subscription is worth keeping.
IPVM is the gold standard for video surveillance industry analysis — vendor reviews, vulnerability disclosures, market intel. We do not compete on research; we are a design tool. If that is what you need, the research subscription remains the right product.
IPVM runs paid training courses and offers IPVM-branded certificates which carry weight in some procurement contexts. CCTVplanner publishes free guides at /docs and /blog but does not yet certify integrators.
IPVM operates a physical testing lab, publishes independent vendor comparisons. Our datasheet metadata is sourced from manufacturer spec sheets — we trust the OEM data, we don't test in-house. For empirical comparison data, IPVM is the source.
Most installers redo a 20-camera site in 15-30 minutes. The math is the same; the muscle memory is the only thing you have to rebuild.
From your IPVM project, export the floor plan as DXF, PDF or PNG. If you only have the source CAD or a printed plan, that works too — skip to step 2.
Open CCTVplanner in your browser, click New Project, drop the DXF / PDF / PNG / JPG. Full DXF geometry import — BLOCK, INSERT, SPLINE, ELLIPSE, HATCH and DIMENSION preserved. Set scale once and you are ready.
Pick the same models from our 23,025-camera catalog, drop them on the plan, set mounting height and tilt. DORI rings, FOV cones and obstacle shadows render in real time. Typical 20-camera site: 15-30 minutes.
Generate a multi-page PDF with floor plan, BOM, cable schedule, equipment list, elevation views and DPIA worksheet. Export DXF for the electrical contractor. Send to the customer.
Once your next project is in CCTVplanner and your team is comfortable, drop the IPVM subscription (or downgrade to research-only if you still want the publication). Reinvest the saved licence cost — €100/yr of Premium is one-tenth of a research seat.
No, and we want to be upfront about it. IPVM is two products: the research publication and the System Design Tool. CCTVplanner replaces the design tool only. For independent vendor research, IPVM remains the industry standard. If you previously paid for IPVM mostly because of the design tool and the research was a bonus — switching to CCTVplanner makes the math work. If you're paying for the research and use the tool casually, you may want to keep the research subscription.
Really free. The Free tier is permanent — 1 project and 6 cameras, no credit card, no expiry. Enough to design a small site, render a real PDF and verify the DORI math against your own datasheets. When you need more projects or cameras, Standard is €4.17/mo. That's the entire pricing model.
There is no direct project-file import — IPVM SDT's project format is closed and proprietary. What works in practice: export the floor plan from IPVM as DXF, PDF or PNG, import that into CCTVplanner, then re-place the cameras using our 23,025-camera catalog. For a typical 20-camera site, plan on 15-30 minutes. The five-step migration guide above covers it.
No. CCTVplanner is a pure web app. Open the URL in any modern browser — Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge — on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS or Android. No installer, no admin password, no licence key. After first load, the PWA caches the app so it also works offline.
Inside the European Union. CCTVplanner is operated by DEFENSAR — 100% Engineered and Hosted in EU. No third-country transfers in the default stack, GDPR-aligned by default. IPVM is US-based; for EU public-sector and critical-infrastructure tenders that matters.
Not in IPVM's form. We publish design guides at /blog and /docs and a glossary at /glossary — free, indexed by Google. What we don't do is vendor reviews, vulnerability disclosures or paid courses. Those remain IPVM's domain.
Once the app has loaded once, the PWA caches it for offline use — useful in basements, remote sites, on flights. Cloud sync resumes automatically when you reconnect.
We pull manufacturer datasheets and update specs on a rolling basis. 171 flagship models carry full datasheet-verified metadata (bitrate, lux, IP/IK, ONVIF, NDAA, environmental class). The remaining 22,854 carry the core specs needed for DORI / FOV / range calculations. New models land within weeks of public datasheet release.
Open the browser. Drop a floor plan. Place a camera. See your first DORI ring in under 60 seconds — for free, no card, no install.
