Does a FiveM anti-cheat cause lag? (Performance, honestly)
"Will an anti-cheat tank my server's performance or my players' FPS?" is a fair question — and the honest answer depends entirely on where the anti-cheat runs. The short version: a server-side design puts nothing on your players' machines (so it can't drop their framerate), keeps a light footprint on the server, and doesn't drag in a database/dependency chain. Here's the real breakdown — no "zero impact" fairy tales.
Why client-side anti-cheats can cost performance
A client-side anti-cheat runs code on every player's PC — scanning memory, watching processes, sometimes a kernel driver. That work competes with the game for CPU, and on lower-end machines it can cost frames. It also asks every player to run trust-heavy software locally. That's the trade for its strength (seeing things the server can't), but the performance and trust cost lands on the player.
Server-side: nothing on the player's machine
A server-side anti-cheat — BlackGuard's design — runs entirely on your server. It judges what each player actually does (position, velocity, weapon damage, economy) from the server's own authoritative state. Because no code runs on the player's PC, there is nothing client-side to drop their FPS or fight the game for resources. For your players, installing it changes nothing about how their game performs. (More on the architecture in server-side vs client-side.)
What BlackGuard actually costs your server (honestly)
We won't claim "zero impact" — any real anti-cheat uses some resources. What BlackGuard does is keep the work on your game server light: the sensor samples movement on a tuned interval and relays compact signals to its backend, where the heavy analysis (behavioral models, vision) happens off your game server. The sample intervals and thresholds are live-tunable, so you can dial the footprint to your hardware without a restart. The result is a light background task, not a per-player client load.
Install footprint: no MySQL, no ox_lib, quick setup
BlackGuard doesn't depend on MySQL, oxmysql, or ox_lib. It won't add database queries to your server or pull in a dependency chain that tangles with your existing resources — it talks to its own backend over HTTP and stays self-contained. That's part of why setup is quick: drop in the resource, set your license convar, and it runs. See how BlackGuard works or pricing — every detection is on every plan, from $20/mo.
FAQ
Does a FiveM anti-cheat cause lag?
It depends on where it runs. A client-side anti-cheat runs code on every player's PC — scanning memory and processes — which can cost frames on lower-end machines and competes with the game for resources. A server-side anti-cheat runs on your server instead, so there's nothing on the player's machine to slow their game down. The cost moves to the server, where it's a light, tunable background task rather than a per-player client load.
Does BlackGuard run anything on my players' computers?
No — no kernel driver, no separate client to install, nothing running on a player's PC. Detection and ban decisions happen on your server from authoritative game state (position, velocity, damage, economy). For your players, installing BlackGuard changes nothing about their game's performance, because there's nothing client-side to run.
How much server performance does BlackGuard use?
It's designed to be light, not zero. The sensor samples player movement on a tuned interval and relays compact signals to the backend, which does the heavy analysis off your game server. We don't publish a fabricated 'zero impact' number — any honest anti-cheat uses some resources — but the work is intentionally minimal on the game server, and thresholds/intervals are live-tunable so you can dial it for your hardware.
Does BlackGuard need MySQL, oxmysql, or ox_lib?
No. BlackGuard doesn't depend on MySQL, oxmysql, or ox_lib, so it won't add database load to your server or pull in a dependency chain. It talks to its own backend over HTTP and keeps its footprint self-contained — one of the reasons install is quick and it doesn't tangle with your existing resource stack.
Is server-side anti-cheat better for performance than client-side?
For the player experience, yes — server-side puts nothing on the player's machine, so it can't drop their FPS or fight the game for CPU. Client-side gets you visibility into things the server can't see (external/DMA cheats, some ESP), but at a per-player performance and trust cost. If keeping players' machines untouched and their framerate clean matters to you, server-side is the lighter choice.
Clean framerate for players, light footprint on the server
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