Both turn cheap LoRa radios into an off-grid text network. They run on mostly the same hardware, but they move messages in very different ways, and they cannot talk to each other. Here is how to choose.
Every radio can rebroadcast what it hears, so a handful of people can form a working mesh anywhere, with no setup. Simple and resilient, but on a busy network all that rebroadcasting uses a lot of shared airtime.
Personal radios stay quiet and only fixed repeaters relay. Once a path to a contact is learned, messages follow it rather than flooding. It scales well across towns and regions, but it needs repeaters in place first.
| Meshtastic | MeshCore | |
|---|---|---|
| Who relays messages | Every node can relay by default (managed flooding). Roles such as CLIENT_MUTE stop a node relaying; ROUTER always relays. | Only nodes set up as repeaters relay. Your personal "companion" radio sends and receives but never relays. |
| Routing | Broadcasts flood the mesh. Direct messages switch to next-hop routing once a route is known (firmware 2.6+). | Channel messages flood through repeaters. The first direct message floods, then the learned path is written into every message after that. |
| Hop limit | 1 to 7 hops, default 3. | Up to 63 hops with 1-byte path IDs (fewer with longer IDs on 1.14+). |
| Node roles | CLIENT, CLIENT_MUTE, ROUTER, ROUTER_LATE and more. | Companion, Repeater, Room Server (a store-and-forward message board). |
| Apps | Fully open-source apps for Android, iPhone and web. Connect by Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or USB. | Free official app on Android, iPhone, desktop and web (not open source; MIT-licensed firmware). Community clients exist. |
| Encryption | AES channel keys, public-key direct messages (2.5+), signed broadcasts on newer firmware. | Ed25519 identities with signed adverts, AES-128 for direct and channel messages. |
| Best at | Small groups with no infrastructure: hiking, events, families, quick ad-hoc meshes. | Town and regional coverage built on repeaters on high points, busy meshes where airtime matters. |
| Maturity | Launched 2020. The largest community and widest hardware support. | Launched 2024 by Scott Powell. Growing fast, especially in the UK and Europe. |
They do not interoperate. Different packet formats, encryption and radio settings mean a Meshtastic node cannot hear a MeshCore node. Most boards can run either, so you can reflash later, but contacts and settings do not carry over.
A mesh is only useful if there are other people on it. Check the maps and local groups before you buy or flash anything. If nothing is nearby, use these rules of thumb.
Not really. Range comes from height, antenna and line of sight, not the protocol. Meshtastic's default LongFast preset has a little more link budget on paper; MeshCore's default narrow-band settings use less airtime per message. In practice a node on a hill with a decent antenna beats any setting change. See our off-grid and solar guide for how people get nodes up high.
Yes. Popular boards such as the Heltec V3/V4, LilyGo T-Beam, RAK4631 and SenseCAP T1000-E can be flashed with either firmware from a web browser. Plenty of people keep one radio on each. Our device guide lists what works with what.
In the UK and Europe both projects use the 868 MHz (EU868) band, which is licence-exempt within power and duty-cycle limits. Always buy the 868 MHz version of a device. US 915 MHz hardware is not legal to transmit with here.