CDE CAD vs ImperialCAD
ImperialCAD sells four tiers, and each one caps how much your community can hold - members, characters, vehicles, reports, departments. CDE CAD sells one plan with no caps. This page sets out what each publishes, with a link to where it says it.
Checked against Imperial Solutions's own documentation on 2026-09-08.
What each one publishes
| CDE CAD | ImperialCAD | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest way in | $24.99 a month. There is no smaller plan. | Starter at $5.00/month - 100 members, 50 civilian characters, 50 vehicles, 50 reports, 4 departments. |
| Unlimited members and records | Included at $14.58 a month on a two-year term, or $24.99 month to month. | Premium, at $35.00/month. |
| What a tier limits | Nothing. No cap on members, characters, vehicles, reports, departments or businesses. | All of those, per tier: 100 to 300 members and 50 to 1,000 records of each kind before Premium. |
| Live map | Included. Real-time unit positions, geofencing and ALPR reads on one map. | Premium only - "We offer a LiveMap that is currently available to Premium plan holders." |
| Free tier | None. | "No, ImperialCAD is a paid asset." |
| Placement in the community directory | Not for sale. /communities orders by member count and nothing else; there is no boost to buy. | Sold as Discovery Boosts, bought from their Discovery page and reset at the start of each month. |
Sources: ImperialCAD pricing, ImperialCAD FAQ.
Looking for an ImperialCAD alternative?
It depends where their caps land on you. A community of 80 members filing a few reports a week fits inside their $5 Starter, and paying $24.99 for CDE CAD instead would be paying for headroom you are not using. The moment members, civilian characters, vehicles or reports run past a tier, the next one is $15, then $25, then $35 - and Premium at $35 a month is where the caps finally come off, which is more than CDE CAD charges for a plan that has none.
ImperialCAD's tiers, as they publish them
Monthly prices. They also bill quarterly and semi-yearly.
| Plan | Price | Members | Civilians / vehicles / reports | Departments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $5.00 | 100 | 50 / 50 / 50 | 4 |
| Standard | $15.00 | 150 | 500 / 500 / 500 | 8 |
| Advanced | $25.00 | 300 | 1,000 / 1,000 / 1,000 | 16 |
| Premium | $35.00 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Questions worth asking any CAD vendor
What happens to our data if we stop paying?
CDE CAD keeps it. There is no inactivity sweep and no deletion clock - if you come back in six months, your departments, records and civilians are where you left them.
Which features are not in the price?
None. Every plan has every feature, unlimited users, unlimited departments and unlimited connected FiveM and Discord servers. There is no seat count to grow into.
What does the cheapest plan stop you doing?
There is one plan, so nothing. Ask this of any tiered vendor before you pick a tier - the caps that matter are usually members and records, and you meet them mid-season.
Who does the hosting, and what happens when it breaks?
We do. It is a managed platform, not a resource you run: no VPS, no database to back up, and updates land without a migration weekend.
What does it do with the framework we already run?
ESX, QBCore, Qbox and vRP each have a native bridge that maps your existing identifiers, jobs, characters and vehicles. Standalone and custom frameworks go through the same REST API and WebSocket events.
Can we get our data back out?
Yes - the REST API reads everything the CAD holds, and it is the same API the in-game resource uses.
CDE CAD
From $14.58 a month per community, every feature in every plan, hosted by us. See the full feature comparison or what communities say.
Also compared: CDE CAD vs SonoranCAD.