MeshCore vs. Meshtastic

Slides on Auburn Box

A brief history

Meshtastic, the OG

Launched in 2019 as a solo effort by Kevin Hester, who wanted a better way to do off-grid comms for outdoor activities.

• 2020: prototyping with T-Beam boards
• 2021: expansion to new hardware (RAK boards, T-Echo) and use in emergency communications
• 2022: many new features and improvements: better routing, encryption, MQTT, and a Python API
• 2025: version 2.6 ships a new routing algorithm, more similar to MeshCore’s

MeshCore, the new kid

MeshCore was developed most directly as a response to Cyclone Gabrielle in New Zealand, as a backup for when normal communication methods go down.

Its developers looked at Meshtastic and aimed to solve its most apparent problem: too many nodes in one area flood the network. 2025 saw rapid growth of the platform as people observed the superior routing in dense areas.

The routing solutions

Meshtastic: flood always

Every communication floods until the hop limit is hit. That allows many paths from sender to receiver, and it works great in small groups.

MeshCore: flood first, then route

MeshCore floods on the first message to find a route, saves the route it found, and then chooses that path going forward. It retries a flood after roughly four failed attempts. This cuts down on messages flooding the network every time.

Which to choose? Both

Choose Meshtastic when

• Only a few nodes are required to let everyone on the network communicate
• Hiking, concerts, field days, any outdoor activity with a small group of mobile people

Choose MeshCore when

• Planning a more permanent, city-wide network
• A large number of nodes need to be connected to the network
• Repeater infrastructure is set up

Diagrams on this page were made with Claude. Everything else is researched and written by club members.