Developer Tools · head to head
Cortex vs Hanwha Vision
Cortex
Developer Tools
Internal developer portal that scores service ownership and maturity rather than just cataloguing services
- From
- On request
- Free plan
- No
Hanwha Vision
Cybersecurity
Korean camera maker whose Wisenet WAVE VMS licences are perpetual per channel with no annual renewal
- From
- On request
- Free plan
- No
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Cortex pricing is quote only, so a platform team cannot build a business case or compare against the true cost of self-hosted Backstage without entering a sales cycle first.; Hanwha Vision nDAA compliance is confirmed per model and per bill of materials rather than across the brand, and TAA status depends on whether a specific unit was made in Korea or Vietnam, so a buyer with procurement obligations must get both stated on the quote rather than relying on a brand-level claim.
- They diverge on capability: Cortex covers Service catalogue, Hanwha Vision covers Wisenet WAVE VMS.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Cortex and Hanwha Vision actually diverge.
| Attribute | Cortex | Hanwha Vision |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | quote | One-time purchase |
| Platforms | Web, API | Windows, Linux, Web, iOS, Android |
| Category | Developer Tools | Cybersecurity |
Identical on both: starting price (On request), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Cortex
- Service catalogue
- Scorecards
- Initiatives
- Self-service templates
- Query language
- Eng intelligence
- Integrations layer
- On-call and ownership mapping
Only in Hanwha Vision
- Wisenet WAVE VMS
- On-camera AI
- NDAA and TAA positioning
- Multi-site management
- Open platform
- Wisenet cameras and recorders
- Cybersecurity hardening
- Integration licences
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Cortex
- A platform team that needs to prove to leadership how far a Kubernetes or framework migration has actually progressed across hundreds of servicesnot Hanwha Vision
- An organisation where ownership of production services is genuinely unknown after reorganisations or acquisitionsnot Hanwha Vision
- Enforcing production readiness standards on new services at creation time rather than at incident reviewnot Hanwha Vision
- Replacing a self-hosted Backstage that is consuming a full-time engineer or two just to stay upgradednot Hanwha Vision
Hanwha Vision
- A federal agency or federal contractor whose procurement rules exclude Section 889 covered manufacturersnot Cortex
- A school district that wants a fixed one-time software cost rather than a per-camera monthly subscriptionnot Cortex
- A site running 200 cameras for a decade where a cloud subscription would cost several times a perpetual licencenot Cortex
- An integrator standardising on one manufacturer for cameras, recorders and VMS to simplify supportnot Cortex
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Cortex
- Pricing is quote only, so a platform team cannot build a business case or compare against the true cost of self-hosted Backstage without entering a sales cycle first.
- The catalogue is only as accurate as the metadata you supply, so an organisation with inconsistent repository conventions spends its first quarter cleaning data before any scorecard means anything.
- Scorecards create political friction: publishing a per-team grade turns an engineering standard into a performance metric, and teams will game the rules rather than fix the underlying issue.
- It is closed source and hosted, so organisations with strict data residency or air-gap requirements have limited options compared with running Backstage themselves.
- Value scales with organisation size, so a company with fifty engineers and thirty services will find the catalogue tells them nothing they did not already know while still paying an enterprise contract.
Hanwha Vision
- NDAA compliance is confirmed per model and per bill of materials rather than across the brand, and TAA status depends on whether a specific unit was made in Korea or Vietnam, so a buyer with procurement obligations must get both stated on the quote rather than relying on a brand-level claim.
- Perpetual licences mean you own the servers, storage and patching, so the cost avoided on subscription reappears as IT labour and a hardware refresh every five to seven years.
- Hanwha publishes no list pricing and sells through distributors, so the perpetual-versus-subscription comparison it wins on paper still requires a distributor quote to verify.
- Wisenet WAVE is a solid mid-market VMS but does not match Genetec or Milestone on enterprise features such as federation across independently owned systems, scripted operator procedures or deep access control unification.
- Hanwha Vision is part of Hanwha Group, a large Korean conglomerate spanning defence, chemicals and finance, so the video business is one line among many and roadmap priority is set at a corporate level well above the security division.
Pricing, plan by plan
Cortex
On request- Cortex$undefined/year
- Service catalogue and ownership mapping
- Scorecards and initiatives
- Self-service templates
Hanwha Vision
On request- Wisenet WAVE channel licence$undefined/year
- Perpetual per-channel licence that does not expire once activated
- No annual renewal fee to keep the system running
- Sold singly and in 4, 8, 16, 24 and 48 channel bundles
Which should you pick?
Choose Cortex if
- You need service catalogue.
- You work on Web, API.
- You also want scorecards.
Choose Hanwha Vision if
- You need wisenet wave vms.
- You work on Windows, Linux, Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want on-camera ai.
Questions people ask
- Is Cortex or Hanwha Vision better?
- Neither clearly leads. Cortex starts at On request and Hanwha Vision at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Cortex or Hanwha Vision?
- Cortex starts at On request and Hanwha Vision at On request.
- Does Cortex or Hanwha Vision run on more platforms?
- Cortex runs on Web, API. Hanwha Vision runs on Windows, Linux, Web, iOS, Android.
- What is Cortex best used for?
- Cortex is most often used for a platform team that needs to prove to leadership how far a kubernetes or framework migration has actually progressed across hundreds of services, an organisation where ownership of production services is genuinely unknown after reorganisations or acquisitions, enforcing production readiness standards on new services at creation time rather than at incident review, replacing a self-hosted backstage that is consuming a full-time engineer or two just to stay upgraded. Of those, a platform team that needs to prove to leadership how far a kubernetes or framework migration has actually progressed across hundreds of services and an organisation where ownership of production services is genuinely unknown after reorganisations or acquisitions are not what Hanwha Vision is typically brought in for.
- What can Cortex do that Hanwha Vision cannot?
- Cortex covers Service catalogue, Scorecards, Initiatives, Self-service templates. Hanwha Vision covers Wisenet WAVE VMS, On-camera AI, NDAA and TAA positioning, Multi-site management.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Cortex: How is Cortex different from Backstage?
Backstage is an open source framework you build and staff. Cortex is a hosted product with scorecards and initiatives out of the box and no platform team required to keep it running.
Hanwha Vision: Is Hanwha Vision NDAA compliant?
Hanwha is a South Korean manufacturer and is not among the Section 889 covered entities, which are Hikvision, Dahua, Huawei, ZTE and Hytera, and its cameras do not use banned Chinese system-on-chip processors. Confirm compliance per model on the quote.
Cortex: Is pricing published?
No. Cortex requires a sales conversation and prepares a custom proposal.
Hanwha Vision: Are Wisenet WAVE licences subscriptions?
No. Channel licences are perpetual and do not expire once activated, with no annual renewal fee.
Cortex: Can it self-host?
It is offered as a hosted product; on-premise arrangements are handled through sales rather than published.
Hanwha Vision: Is Wisenet WAVE the same as Nx Witness?
It is built on the Network Optix platform, so the two share a common core, with Hanwha adding its own camera integration and support.
Cortex: What is the main adoption risk?
Bad or missing service metadata. The catalogue and every scorecard on top of it inherit whatever quality your repositories already have.
Hanwha Vision: Is Hanwha TAA compliant?
Many models are, manufactured in South Korea and Vietnam, but TAA is a per-unit question tied to manufacturing origin, so it must be verified model by model.
Related pages
More on Hanwha Vision
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