Sonoran CAD vs Melonly: Do You Need a CAD, a Staff Suite, or Both?
Sonoran CAD is a CAD/CMS platform with an official ERLC integration; Melonly is a staff-management suite. This comparison explains what each does well, what neither replaces, and when a community needs both.
- ERLC
- Sonoran CAD
- Melonly
- CAD
Research date: 10 November 2026. Verified against official sources on that date; both products change frequently, so re-check before deciding. Part of the ERLC platform comparison series.
Communities often ask whether they should replace their ERLC staff bot with Sonoran CAD — or run both. It's the wrong binary: Sonoran and Melonly solve different problems that overlap at exactly one point, the ER:LC integration. Here is what the official record actually shows.
What Sonoran CAD is
Sonoran CAD is a computer-aided dispatch platform built by Sonoran Software Systems LLC — an established multi-game vendor whose official Discord has 10,103 members. Its ER:LC integration is officially featured by ER:LC, and on the free CAD plan it includes: a live in-game 3D map with unit positions, 911 call handling, ID checks, vehicle registration, traffic stops, and plate-reader/ALPR features. Setup is a documented two-step (API key + webhook, "~60 seconds" per the vendor).
One caveat from Sonoran's own FAQ: the integration is free on the CAD free plan, but your ER:LC private server still needs the paid in-game "ERLC API" pack (or equivalent API expansion), and CAD plan limits apply.
Sonoran CMS is a separate product for applications, rosters, departments, ranks and permissions. Sonoran One bundles CAD Pro, CMS Pro, Radio Pro, Studio Premium and RocketNode FiveM hosting at $49.99/month (quarterly $37.50).
What Melonly is
Melonly is a staff-management suite built around a Discord bot and web dashboard: rosters and roles, shift and activity tracking, LOA, infractions with appeals, applications and quizzes, Discord moderation logging, native Roblox verification — plus live ER:LC integration (player lists, gamelogs, remote commands with a six-second cooldown) and a public server directory. Free tier; Plus at $5.99/month per server; Departments as a paid add-on.
The overlap — and the gap
| Capability | Sonoran CAD/CMS | Melonly |
|---|---|---|
| Live ER:LC map, dispatch, 911 calls | ✓ (free tier) | — |
| ALPR / traffic stops / records checks | ✓ | — |
| In-game moderation commands from a panel | — | ✓ |
| Discord moderation (warnings, kicks, bans, BOLOs) | — | ✓ |
| Shift tracking, activity quotas, leaderboards | — (CMS: rosters only) | ✓ |
| LOA workflows | — | ✓ |
| Staff infractions with appeals | — | ✓ |
| Applications | ✓ (CMS) | ✓ |
| Departments | ✓ (CMS) | ✓ (paid add-on) |
| Native Discord↔Roblox verification | ? (not documented in sources checked) | ✓ |
| Discord role sync | ◐ (Discord login/integration, not a staff-bot sync) | ✓ |
| Public server directory | — | ✓ |
| Published pricing | ✓ Free–$22.50/mo CAD; One $49.99/mo | ✓ Free + $5.99/mo + add-ons |
The columns barely intersect. Sonoran has no documented Discord staff-bot layer — no warnings, no LOA, no shift system, no verification flow (its CMS covers organisational structure, but the sources checked document no Discord moderation or role-sync bot). Melonly has no CAD: no dispatch map, no call handling, no ALPR.
Decision rules
- Roleplay community whose core activity is patrols and dispatch → Sonoran CAD is the purpose-built tool, and its ERLC integration is free.
- Community that needs staff organisation, moderation and verification → Melonly (or its closest rival Boomerang — see Melonly vs Boomerang).
- A large roleplay organisation that runs both dispatch and department rosters → the realistic stacks are "Sonoran CAD + Sonoran CMS" (one vendor, one bundle, $49.99/month at the top end) or "Sonoran CAD (free) + Melonly/Boomerang paid tier" — which, at $4.99–$5.99/month plus the free CAD, is typically the cheaper path for small-to-mid communities.
- Whichever you pick, your private server still needs the ER:LC API pack — that cost is upstream of both vendors.
Reliability and openness notes
Sonoran publishes a pricing page and documentation wiki and is an official ER:LC featured partner client. Melonly publishes docs and a changelog (V5.12.1, October 2026) but its status page resisted automated checks during research, and its scale figures are not published. Neither vendor publishes an SLA. For the ecosystem-wide picture — including what happened to platforms that stopped publishing — see the full comparison and what the ERM/Ducky shutdowns teach.