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    Design-tool review · Checked July 2026

    IPVM Design Calculator review (2026): functies, prijzen, alternatieven

    The IPVM Design Calculator costs $199 a year per person and is sold beside a research publication most of the industry already trusts. This is about the design tool only: what you get for the money, where a working integrator hits its edges, and when the money is better spent elsewhere.

    Published 7 min read

    How we checked the IPVM Design Calculator

    • The price, the 12-month billing cycle and the 7-day money-back window are read off IPVM's own plan page, checked in July 2026 — not quoted from a sales call or a forum post.
    • We keep the two IPVM products apart the whole way down: this is the Design Calculator, not the research publication, which is a different product on a different bill.
    • Claims about what the tool does are the ones IPVM publishes about it. Where we judge, we say so, and we say what the judgement rests on.
    • The CCTVplanner figures on the other side of each comparison come from our own public pricing and docs, so both halves are checkable.

    Where we stand: we build CCTVplanner, so we compete with the IPVM Design Calculator and we are not a neutral referee. That is exactly why every number on this page carries a source and a date — public pages re-read on 2026-07 — and why we describe what we did in the tool rather than asking you to take a verdict on trust. Find something that has changed since that date, or that we read wrong, and write to us: we correct the page and move the date.

    Kort samengevat:

    A browser-based CCTV layout app, sold as its own plan at $199 a year per person. First thing to get straight, because procurement gets it wrong constantly: this is the design tool, not the research portal. Different product, different bill.

    Uitspraak: What $199 a year buys is a 2D layout surface sitting on IPVM's own catalog and lab data — and that catalog is the reason to buy it. What it does not buy: a free tier to prove the tool on a real job before you commit, a 3D site view, a DXF your CAD contractor can open, or EU hosting for a tender that asks the question. We built the tool that has all four and starts free, paid from EUR 50 a year; judge the trade the way you would judge any supplier.

    Wat is de IPVM Design Calculator?

    IPVM is the security industry's best-known independent research publication — vendor reviews, vulnerability disclosures, market analysis — and it earned that standing honestly. The Design Calculator is their CCTV layout product, a separate plan at $199 a year per person: browser-based, large camera catalog, DORI per EN 62676-4, BOMs and PDFs out the end.

    Two products under one brand is where the confusion starts, and it costs real money. The research goes to the people writing tenders; the design tool goes to the people standing on the roof deciding where the camera bolts on. In most firms those are different desks, and one of them ends up paying for a subscription it opens twice a year. Work out which desk you are before you look at the price.

    Wat de ontwerptool van IPVM goed doet

    • Gekoppeld aan testgegevens van de fabrikant zelf.: Catalog entries link back to IPVM's own lab tests, and nobody else in this category has that. If you have ever specified a camera on the strength of an IPVM test report, having the report one click from the model in your plan is worth paying for — we will not pretend otherwise.
    • Browsergebaseerd, geen installatie nodig: It runs in a tab on any modern OS, where JVSG still wants a Windows machine and a licence tied to it. On the locked-down corporate laptops a lot of integrators are issued, that is the difference between working this afternoon and waiting on an IT ticket.
    • Geïntegreerd met trainingen en cursussen.: IPVM's paid training and certification courses teach the design work in this tool. If your team is going through that curriculum, the tool is the one the coursework assumes, and fighting that is a poor use of anyone's week.

    Waar de ontwerptool van IPVM tekortschiet

    • Prijs per persoon: $199 a year per person, so the bill scales with the crew: three people designing means $597 a year before anyone has drawn a cone. That is the number to take to your accountant, not the headline price. Ours is €50/yr Installer, €100/yr Business for the same design surface.
    • Amerikaanse gegevensresidentie: Hosting is in the United States. On EU government, defence, finance and critical-infrastructure work, the data-residency question now arrives in the questionnaire rather than at the end, and site plans with camera positions on them are exactly the material it is aimed at. If your tenders ask, an EU-hosted tool saves you the explanation.
    • Eentalige interface: English only. The design surface is the part of the toolchain the whole crew touches — the fitter checking a mounting height touches it too, not just the senior engineer — so a single-language UI shows up as slow adoption rather than as a complaint anyone files.
    • Jaarabonnement met een termijn van 7 dagen: The plan bills $199.00 USD every 12 months automatically and the money-back window is 7 days. Seven days is not a season of design work — if your jobs land in bursts, you are committing to a full year on the strength of one quiet week. There is no free tier to prove the tool on a live job first, which is the part we would push back on hardest.

    Voor wie is de ontwerptool van IPVM bedoeld?

    Buy it if you want IPVM's catalog and lab data sitting under the drawing, and if someone on your team already reads their research. Specifiers, tender-writers, larger integrators with a research budget — that is the audience, and for them it is a sound purchase.

    If you are a one-van operation or a small crew, $199 per head for the drawing surface is a lot of money for something you can get elsewhere: the same DORI maths, EU hosting, a UI your fitters read, and a free tier you can prove on a real job first. Spend the $199 on the research subscription instead, if that is what you actually wanted.

    Het gratis alternatief: CCTVplanner

    CCTVplanner is een browsergebaseerde, in de EU gehoste CCTV-ontwerptool met een permanente gratis versie (2 projecten, 6 camera's), een Installer-abonnement voor € 4,17/mnd en Business voor € 8,33/mnd. Het dekt dezelfde DORI-berekeningen (EN 62676-4), dezelfde topologie met meerdere verdiepingen en dezelfde DXF-roundtrip — met een catalogus van 65.000 camera's en 24 UI-talen, waaronder RTL-Arabisch.

    To be plain about the boundary: we do not compete with IPVM's research publication and we would not try. For vendor reviews, vulnerability disclosures and market analysis, IPVM is still the standard and we read it ourselves. What we replace is the drawing surface, at €50 a year.

    Lees meer: Alternatief voor IPVM — Volledige vergelijking naast elkaar · CCTVplanner vs IPVM — Source-Cited Comparison

    Veelgestelde vragen

    Hoeveel kost de IPVM Design Calculator?

    $199.00 USD every 12 months, per person, with a 7-day money-back window — the Design Calculator is its own plan. News is listed separately at $299 a year per person, and no price is published for research or reporting access, so budget for the plan you actually need rather than the brand. Read off ipvm.com, checked July 2026.

    Hoe verhoudt de ontwerptool van IPVM zich tot die JVSG?

    Both are paid, and both cost several times what a browser tool has to cost. The IPVM Design Calculator is browser-based at $199 per year per person. JVSG is a Windows-only desktop install, licensed per machine, with an interface that has not been redrawn in years. Neither has a free tier you can test on a real job, and neither ships DXF export, EU hosting or a full standards report suite. CCTVplanner does, from EUR 50 a year.

    Bestaat er een gratis alternatief voor de IPVM Design Calculator?

    Ja — CCTVplanner is browsergebaseerd, wordt gehost in de EU, heeft een permanente gratis versie (2 projecten, 6 camera's) en een Installer-abonnement voor € 4,17/mnd. Het dekt dezelfde DORI-berekeningen (EN 62676-4), dezelfde topologie met meerdere verdiepingen en dezelfde DXF-roundtrip, met een catalogus van 65.000 camera's. Ter verduidelijking: CCTVplanner is GEEN alternatief voor de onderzoekspublicatie van IPVM, alleen voor hun ontwerptool.

    Kan ik een project uit de IPVM Design Calculator in een ander programma importeren?

    Not directly — the project format is proprietary, as it is in most of this category. The path that works: get the floor plan out as DXF, PDF or PNG, bring it into the new tool, then re-place the cameras from the new catalog. It is a re-draw, not a migration, and on a 20-camera site it is an evening's work rather than a project.

    Voldoet IPVM GDPR in de EU?

    IPVM is US-based, and that is a hosting fact rather than a compliance verdict — GDPR does not forbid US hosting, it asks you to account for it. What we see in 2026 is EU public-sector, defence, finance and critical-infrastructure tenders asking the question up front. If yours do, an EU-hosted tool (ours is CCTVplanner via DEFENSAR, engineered and hosted in the EU) removes a conversation you would otherwise have to win.

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