A DEHN Risk Tool alternative
DEHN publishes two different things people call the risk tool: the Risk Tool module inside the desktop DEHNsupport Toolbox, and DEHNrisk, a newer browser based subscription. They sit on different editions of the standard, so knowing which one you mean decides the whole comparison.
DEHN publishes two products people call the risk tool, and they sit on different editions of the standard. Which one you have decides everything else.
The DEHN Risk Tool is a module inside the DEHNsupport Toolbox, DEHN's desktop Windows suite, which DEHN states is based on Edition 1 and Edition 2 of IEC 62305-2. DEHNrisk is a separate and newer browser based product whose page lists IEC 62305-2:2024, the third edition. They are not the same thing, and a comparison that treats them as one gets the answer wrong.
We should say something up front that a comparison page is not usually keen to say: on the two points we most often lead with, being browser based and being built on the 2024 edition, DEHNrisk matches us. It also has a published price, which most tools in this field do not. That is a real product, and this page treats it as one. Everything below about DEHN comes from DEHN's own pages.
What DEHN publishes about each
Both are current. They are aimed at different editions of the standard and delivered in different ways.
DEHNsupport Toolbox
Desktop Windows software, distributed as a downloadable executable and licensed on request with no price published. Four modules: the Risk Tool for the IEC 62305-2 assessment, the Distance Tool for separation distance, the Air-Termination Tool and the Earthing Tool. DEHN states that the standards available in the Toolbox are based on Edition 1 and Edition 2 of IEC 62305-2, so it is a second edition product with more design scope than a risk tool alone.
DEHNrisk
Browser based, reached through a customer portal, which DEHN describes as being available without installation effort. Its page lists IEC 62305-2:2024 and EN IEC 62305-2:2024 along with national adoptions, so it is a third edition product. DEHN publishes the price: EUR 99 per year, with a 50 percent first year discount for existing Toolbox licence holders. A 60 day demo gives full functionality except that results cannot be printed.
If you are on the Toolbox today and your next project is specified to the 2024 edition, the first thing worth doing is not reading further down this page. It is checking whether DEHNrisk covers what you need, since DEHN offers existing Toolbox licence holders a discounted first year and you already know the vendor.
Why Edition 1 and 2 versus 2024 matters
The third edition changed the method rather than tidying the text. It replaced lightning flash density with ground strike point density, brought injury to people and loss from fire together into a single risk R, added a separate frequency of damage F for the availability of internal systems, and gave formal recognition to thunderstorm warning systems. The same building with the same inputs can produce a different verdict on each edition.
So a Toolbox result is not a 2024 result, and DEHN does not claim it is. The reverse holds too: where a project is specified to a second edition national standard, a second edition tool is the correct one and moving to a third edition tool would work against you. Match the tool to the standard the specification names. The full list of what moved is in what changed in IEC 62305:2024.
What Lumex adds, stated as our own claims
These are things we do. We have not tested DEHNrisk, so nothing here should be read as a statement that it lacks them.
Full coefficient trace
Any number in the calculation can be opened to show the clause, equation or table behind it, so a reviewer questioning one coefficient gets an answer rather than a final figure. See traceable, not AI-generated.
Assessment and inspection record
A branded report for the assessment, plus a periodic inspection record under IEC 62305-3, so the maintenance cycle after installation is covered by the same tool as the assessment before it.
Jurisdiction rules applied
National departures recorded in the standard are applied rather than left to the engineer. Germany holds rp at 1, Greece holds PTWS at 1, and Italy compares differently. See IEC 62305 around the world.
Independent of hardware
Webority makes no lightning protection products, so nothing we sell depends on what an assessment recommends. DEHN manufactures lightning protection equipment; we are not suggesting that shapes its software, only noting that some specifiers prefer a supplier with nothing on the other side of the recommendation.
When DEHN is the better answer
On price the two are not close, and it is worth being blunt about it. DEHNrisk is EUR 99 per year. Lumex is 49 US dollars per seat per month for Professional, and Enterprise is 79 per seat per month with a ten seat minimum, so Enterprise starts at 790 US dollars per month. Both carry a 14 day free trial. Annually that is roughly 588 US dollars for one Professional seat against 99 euros for DEHNrisk. For a single engineer who wants the cheapest route to a third edition tool, DEHNrisk is far cheaper and you should buy DEHNrisk. We are built for a different buyer: a team that needs several seats and a coefficient trace it can put in front of a reviewer.
If you want the risk assessment alongside separation distance, air-termination and earthing calculations in one product, the DEHNsupport Toolbox covers ground that Lumex does not, and we have no plans to pretend otherwise. If your work is specified to a second edition standard, the Toolbox targets it directly. And if you already work with DEHN, the first year discount for existing Toolbox holders is real money that a new supplier cannot match.
Where we would put ourselves forward is a firm whose deliverable is the assessment itself, where a reviewer or an auditor is going to ask where a number came from, and where the periodic inspection record matters as much as the initial report.
Ask every vendor about the tolerable risk
Whichever tool you shortlist, ask whether you can set the tolerable risk RT yourself and whether the report records the value used. Clause 7.3 NOTE 1 of IEC 62305-2:2024 gives RT = 1×10-5 per year as a representative value of tolerable risk and allows another value once the case has been investigated in detail. Printed p.12 goes further, letting national or local regulation fix RT, the tolerable frequency of damage FT, and the Annex A, B, C and E calculation rules and parameter values.
A tool that treats the representative figure as a hardcoded constant will give the wrong verdict wherever a regulator or specification names another value. We have not tested how DEHN's tools behave here, so this is a question for every vendor on your list, ourselves included.
For the method, see the IEC 62305-2 risk method. For the wider field, see lightning risk assessment software compared, or Furse StrikeRisk. Designing the physical system rather than choosing a tool? See lightning protection system design.
Questions answered
What is the DEHN Risk Tool?
What is the difference between DEHNsupport Toolbox and DEHNrisk?
Does DEHNrisk support IEC 62305-2:2024?
How much does DEHNrisk cost?
Is there a free trial of DEHNrisk?
Why look for a DEHN Risk Tool alternative?
How does Lumex differ from DEHNrisk?
Lumex computes the IEC 62305-2 method and shows the working. It does not certify a structure. You may not issue or submit a Lumex output until a competent person, qualified where the structure is located, has reviewed the inputs and the result and signed it.
The tolerable risk in IEC 62305-2 is not a fixed constant. Clause 7.3 NOTE 1 gives RT = 1×10-5 per year as a representative value of tolerable risk and adds that another value may be set once the case has been investigated in detail. Printed p.12 then lets national or local regulations fix RT, the tolerable frequency of damage FT, and the Annex A, B, C and E calculation rules and parameter values. Every Lumex assessment states the jurisdiction it was computed under and the values that applied.