Axis-only catalog
AXIS Site Designer renders only AXIS hardware. The moment a tender requires a Hikvision, Dahua, Bosch, Hanwha or Uniview camera in the same project, you switch tools mid-design and lose continuity.
Multi-vendor alternative
AXIS Site Designer alternative — design any vendor on one canvas
AXIS Site Designer is a beautiful tool — when the project is 100% Axis. The moment a tender requires Hikvision, Dahua, Bosch, Hanwha or Uniview cameras alongside the Axis ones, the design splits across two tools and the BOM goes out of sync. CCTVplanner runs every brand on the same canvas with the same FOV math (EN 62676-4), the same DORI overlay, and one consolidated BOM.
Free tier · No credit card · Browser-based
Where AXIS Site Designer falls short
Four pain points the Axis tool does not solve
~2 000 cameras vs 65 000
AXIS lists roughly 2 000 product variants. Most real-world projects mix at least two brands. CCTVplanner ships 65,000+ verified models across 113 brands — Axis included — so the project never has to leave the canvas.
Limited interface languages
AXIS Site Designer ships in roughly 10 European languages. CCTVplanner runs in 33 — adds Arabic (RTL), Hindi, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Thai, Filipino, Korean, Japanese, Turkish — for installer teams outside the AXIS sales footprint.
Designed around AXIS Camera Station
Storage and bandwidth math assumes ACS, with Genetec and Milestone as second-class exports. If your client uses Avigilon, Hanwha WAVE, BriefCam, NX Witness or anything else, the export is a generic spec dump.
What CCTVplanner does instead
True multi-vendor design
Drop an Axis P3265 next to a Hikvision DS-2CD2T87 next to a Dahua IPC-HFW3849 — same canvas, same FOV math (EN 62676-4), same DORI overlay. The BOM aggregates lens, mount, PoE class and cable length across all brands.
Multi-floor and obstacle-aware
Stack unlimited floors, place walls and obstacles, and the FOV cone clips with shadow polygons in real time. AXIS Site Designer treats each floor in isolation; we route cabling between floors and roll up to one BOM.
DXF in and out, branded PDF
Import the architect's DXF floor plan with full BLOCK/INSERT/SPLINE/HATCH coverage, calibrate scale with two clicks, and export DXF or branded PDF for the customer. Works with any VMS, no vendor lock.
EU-hosted, GDPR-clean
Frontend on EU infrastructure, Supabase EU-West backend, Polish sole proprietorship (DEFENSAR Aleksander Kubiak, VAT PL5562789202). Site survey data, customer floor plans and BOMs never leave the EU. No US Cloud Act exposure.
Side-by-side: CCTVplanner vs AXIS Site Designer
| CCTVplanner | AXIS Site Designer | |
|---|---|---|
| Camera catalog | 65,000+ models · 113 brands | ~2 000 models · Axis only |
| Multi-floor topology | Yes — unlimited floors, daisy-chain cabling | One floor at a time |
| Obstacle-aware FOV | Yes — shadow polygons in real time | Flat 2D cone, no occlusion |
| Languages | 33 (incl. Arabic RTL, Hindi, Vietnamese) | ~10 European languages |
| DXF import/export | Yes — BLOCK/INSERT/SPLINE/HATCH/DIMENSION | PDF export only |
| Hosting | EU (Poland frontend, EU-West backend) | Sweden + AWS US |
| Cost | Free tier · Installer €5/mo | Free (but Axis-locked) |
Shipping today
The engineering behind the drawing
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 Axis Site Designer on a job you already know.
A full 3D site, in the browser
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.
Coverage solved in 3D, not drawn on a flat plan
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.
22 site objects that genuinely block the view
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.
Interiors: stacked floors, walls, rooms
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.
Wi-Fi and radio links designed with the cameras
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.
Cabling engineered, not estimated
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.
67 automatic design checks
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.
Deliverables a contractor can hand over
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.
66,489
camera models
113
manufacturers
33
interface languages
5,600+
automated tests
100% EU
hosted and operated
Frequently asked questions
Can I still design Axis-only systems on CCTVplanner?
Yes. The Axis catalog inside CCTVplanner is a superset of the AXIS Site Designer catalog — every fixed bullet, dome, PTZ, panoramic and thermal model. Sensor active widths, lens focal-length ranges, IR, IP and IK ratings come from Axis datasheets. Designing an Axis-only project on CCTVplanner is identical to AXIS Site Designer — except you can switch to a different vendor halfway through if a tender forces it.
Does CCTVplanner export to AXIS Camera Station?
We export branded PDF, DXF, and CSV BOM — accepted by every major VMS workflow including ACS, Genetec, Milestone, Hanwha WAVE and Avigilon. ACS-specific quote import (the bill of materials hand-off) is on the roadmap. For now, the CSV BOM lists Axis SKU + accessories which you paste into ACS quote tooling in seconds.
Is the lens math the same as AXIS Site Designer?
CCTVplanner uses EN 62676-4:2015 with the IEC 62676-4:2025 OODPCVS refresh — the same standard AXIS Site Designer references. We model rectilinear and equidistant projections (so fisheye geometry is correct), tilt-corrected ground footprints, and DORI ranges at 25/62.5/125/250 px/m. The FOV cone you see in CCTVplanner matches the AXIS one within the standard's published tolerance.
Why a separate tool when AXIS Site Designer is free?
AXIS Site Designer is free because it sells Axis cameras. The moment your tender accepts mixed brands — which is most public-sector and EU procurement — Site Designer becomes blind to half the project. CCTVplanner stays free for small projects (2 projects, 6 cameras) and unlocks unlimited at €5/mo. The economic choice is: pay €60/year for tool independence, or stay locked to one vendor's catalog forever.
Continue reading
JVSG Alternative →
Browser-based replacement for the Windows-only design tool.
CCTVplanner vs CCTV Design Tool →
Honest comparison with our closest browser-based competitor.
FOV Calculator →
Lens-aware angular coverage for any sensor format.
EN 62676-4 Calculator →
Same standard the Axis tool uses, with corridor mode and OODPCVS update.
Stop switching tools mid-project
One canvas, every brand. Free tier covers 2 projects and 6 cameras, enough to evaluate. No credit card.