Dahua and Hikvision side by side — an installer's guide

Both brands do essentially the same things and call them different names. If you know one, you can read the other in five minutes — this page is those five minutes. Dahua on the left, Hikvision on the right, and every model shown here is from our own catalogue.

1. Technology equivalents at a glance

The names change, the physics does not: the image depends on sensor size, aperture and lens — not on the badge on the side of the camera.

2. Series and tiers

Both brands have three practical tiers. Different names, same logic: the higher the series, the bigger the sensor, the better the optics and the more analytics running at once.

3. Light and night view — three different things

This is where most of the confusion happens, because three different technologies are sold under the same words: "night vision".

4. Model pairs from our range

Six typical tasks and one model from each brand. The figures come from our own product data — microphone, white light, sensor size and AI level are what is actually worth comparing.

A house's main camera: 4 MP bullet with hybrid light

Under the eaves: 4 MP turret

Dome for a ceiling or a canopy

Active deterrence: a camera that intervenes

180° panorama from one camera

Long view: 80 m IR, no white light

5. Recorders: what goes with what

The channel count is the most visible number, but three things actually decide: bandwidth (how many megabits the recorder takes in at once), the number of disks and the number and power of PoE ports. Typical matches from our range:

6. Coax: HDCVI and Turbo HD

If coaxial cable is already in the building, it does not have to be replaced. Dahua calls its HD-over-coax technology HDCVI (recorder = XVR), Hikvision calls it Turbo HD (recorder = DVR). Both carry up to 4K video and audio over the same cable, and the recorders of both support four formats: CVI, TVI, AHD and legacy CVBS.

7. Software, apps and integration

Both apps work over P2P: no fixed IP address and no port forwarding. If a site already uses one app and the customer does not want a second one, that is a perfectly good reason to pick a brand — in practice we hear that argument more often than technical ones.

8. How to choose — seven steps

1. Start from the question, not the model. "Who came into the yard" needs a different camera than "who took goods from the till" or "which plate drove in".
2. Measure the distance and pick the lens from it. The further away the target, the narrower the angle (the longer the focal length) it needs: recognising a face takes dense pixels on the target, reading a plate takes denser still. Adding megapixels does not bring the subject closer — distance is won by the lens, not by resolution.
3. Decide about light. Is colour needed at night (full colour), may light come on (hybrid), or must it stay invisible (IR only)?
4. Does the camera have to intervene? If so, pick a deterrence model — Dahua TiOC or Hikvision /SL — and decide whether you need speech (speaker) or a siren is enough.
5. Choose the AI level. Perimeter protection and person/vehicle classification are the minimum today. Faces, counting and plate recognition are a separate class and a separate price.
6. Size the recorder. Channels + bandwidth + disks + PoE budget. Archive length depends on frame rate and scene more than on disk size.
7. Stay with one brand. Cameras and recorder from the same maker — otherwise you lose the AI you just paid for.

9. Reading a model code

The code tells you the housing, the resolution and the extras. What follows holds consistently across our catalogue — but suffix meanings change between generations, so the datasheet always has the final word.

10. Six places where people most often go wrong

• 4 MP does not equal 4 MP. Our catalogue has 4 MP cameras with 1/3", 1/2.9" and 1/1.8" sensors. In the dark the gap between the largest and the smallest is wider than the gap between two megapixel counts.
• IR range is a promise under ideal conditions. 80 m means something is visible — not that a face is recognisable. Recognition distance is typically a fraction of it.
• White light does not suit everywhere. A lamp burning opposite a neighbour's bedroom window is a nuisance, not security. Hybrid light (which only comes on for a target) or IR only is the right choice there.
• A microphone is not a speaker. Hikvision's U means a microphone; you can only talk through models with a speaker. Dahua's -PV and Hikvision's /SL are different things — the first talks, the second shouts.
• PoE budget. Deterrence and zoom cameras may require 802.3at (for example DS-2CD2043G2-LI2U/SL up to 16 W). Eight of those on an 8-port recorder may not fit the budget.
• A black housing is a different product code. Both brands sell the black variant under its own code (-BLACK); you cannot turn a white one black by picking a colour. Check the end of the code when ordering.

Not sure which option fits the site?

Tell us what the site is and what the goal is — we will put the option from each brand side by side with price and delivery time. For installers we give technical help even when the project is still on paper.

Get in touchSee IP cameras

Olari and Kaido from our sales team are happy to help — call +372 671 5042 or write to us on any working day.

Sources: Dahua and Hikvision product pages and datasheets (read 09/2026) and our own product data. Technical figures come from the manufacturers' measurements — on a real site the result depends on mounting, lighting and lens.