@Edent

I did a talk for the U of Michigan Amateur Radio Club on #meshtastic and the slides are on the WE8CHZ "MiRATS" site here

https://www.we8chz.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Intro-to-Meshtastic-W8EMV.pdf

The fun you have with any mesh depends on the number of other people using the same tech locally.

Too few - frustration, talking to yourself
Acceptable -interesting local net with reliable paths
Too many - mesh network overload due to congestion

For actual emergency comms? Depends. Severe weather nets run on 2 meter / 70 cm ham repeaters.

@Edent my understanding is that meshtastic is older and possibly in more widespread use, but meshcore can probably do more?

I've used meshtastic a lot and found it to be servicible in my rural community. I am interested exploring meshcore, but chickens and eggs have to come first.

@Edent this is the best talk on Meshtastic I found

https://media.ccc.de/v/38c3-hacker-s-guide-to-meshtastic-off-grid-encrypted-lora-meshnets-for-cheap

Meshtastic very active in my area.

@Edent I prefer Meshtastic, but my local mesh switched to Meshcore. MC is not as good. It doesn't do as much. If you turn on a new node, it takes days to populated with the mesh nodes and half of them are unreliable links. I wasn't involved in the vote to switch.

Meshtastic has sensor integration and some simple stuff to get started. It's useful for IoT stuff. It quickly finds local nodes even factory fresh.

Both apps are quirky. Only one of them is open source.

@Edent
I saw a conférence about Reticulum (at CCC IIRC) and it looked very interesting, I don't know a lot about mesh so I have no adive but I would compare it to meshmatic

@Edent I'm on #meshcore because that looks to be more active in my area. (Netherlands)

I sarted with 25 euro investment for a helltec v3 (3.2 iirc) and I learned a ton about wireless signals already. I am planning to build a repeater to get the network more stable and put that out on the balcony where I live.

I'm having fun but it's still very new. It feels like proper emergency comms are still with the hams, but then I need to get a license.

Highly subjective takes, all of this. 😊Learning

@Edent I'd love to understand this too.

@Edent I've attended this seession a few days ago: https://techwerkers.nl/en/events/2026-01-15/

It was recorded.

They recommend MeshCore over Meshtastic.

@Edent I suspect that @alistairmacdonald may know a thing or two 😃

@Edent from my (limited) experience, Meshtastic is better for telemetry-sending, and messaging is a side effect that people have grabbed hold of. As a result short-range comms work well. Meshcore is designed to be more of a message relaying system. Meshcore also has much longer range because of the relays. The cluster I participate in reaches from Hull to Isle of Wight.

@Edent Neither are actually open source, I used Meshtastic for a year. Great for cities / festivals / mucking around.
Been using meshcore the last year or so.
Meshcore is MUCH more reliable for permanent setups, and usable for long range. We have like 200 meshcore nodes covering our whole state. Regularly messaging people hundreds of km away 12-14 hops.
This would be impossible on Meshtastic.

@Edent I would go with meshtastic because of the bigger reach in terms of community. Meshcore has cool functions, but it's not that big yet. BUT! Since they devices are pretty cheap, especially if ordered bare from china, why not both?

@Edent I'm much in the same boat with similar intentions so no real world experience yet.

I've got my eye on a couple of Heltec v4 devboards. v4 because they support gnss which is interesting for a few 'fun' use cases I have with friends and while it seems Meshcore is the way to go in NL as its more widely used, I understand incan switch to meshtastic pretty easily using same hardware.

Heltec appear to have decent shipping methods from their own site but I've seen similar if not exactly the same ones on usual suspect large online retail shopfronts.

@Edent I've so far stuck to meshtastic because it seems more, well, meshy. My use case doesn't include joining a wider local mesh so it's exactly what I need.

If you're usecase is joining a wider local mesh then you have to go with the (local) crowd, which you'll probably need a non-mesh network to find out about. Probably Facebook but who knows!

I'm currently using Sensecap and RAK card devices which work pretty well.

@Edent MC is good for a pretty much static infrastructure if you have reliable and stable repeaters and want to reach long distances. MT is better for ad-hoc networks for a limited area (a town or an event for example) where you can't rely on semi-permanent repeaters.

@Edent Keep in mind that many hardware devices could run #meshcore as well as #meshtastic. So you could try one mesh and still switch if you revise your decision.

@Edent This is nice example of situation where I'd like to have out-of-band comms: https://www.reddit.com/r/meshtastic/comments/1qd2z97/mestastic_on_family_cruise_worked_great_for/

@Edent Of course there are technical details that could be considered when chosing between #meshcore and #meshtastic. My opinion is: If you want to communicate or use it for emergency, check what the majority in your area is using.
Even if you chose the best technology, its not much worth if you're the only one 😀

@Edent @vaurora posted something good recently, apologies if you've already seen https://mstdn.social/@vaurora/115904345026660329

(and appears to be giving a talk, hope that one makes it online at some point https://mstdn.social/@vaurora/115915322997911336 )

@Edent my experience from the Berlin mesh. the berlin meshtastic network is overcrowded with badly positioned devices and the routing algorithm essentially passes messages into sinkholes. Reschability snd reliability are bad not despite but because of the many devices. Default forwarding off and limiting it to tower/rooftop locations would probably be better than every device meshing. 1/2

@Edent Someone more experienced than me will corroborate or correct me, I'm sure, but I also heard that Meshtastic also only sends and receives signals in one direction rather than 360° like Meshcore and radio.

@Edent For me it has been Meshtastic. I am not building city wide infrastructure. I need close proximity communication with self forming. And meshcore is not fully open.

@Edent I've been looking recently too, and found it confusing.
I wanted a device I could leave in my loft and control with a phone, but also take around to (hopefully) EMFCamp.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0F1CYWVLC?psc=1
I'm planning on getting this pair to split with my dad who lives a few miles away and see how it goes.
I found meshmap.net useful for seeing what was nearby.

@Edent In the UK I went with MeshCore as the network is busier and has more chatter. Mesttastic feels a bit dead (in my area).

I would hesitate to consider it for emergency use. I guess if there is nothing else, but it feels like there are other alternatives (e.g. just using a basic radio for voice) that would be better.

It is fun though.

@Edent Meshcore.
It actually works;
It is actually open, does not belong to branding fanatics.

@Edent meshcore -> better for highly congested city centres. Meshtastic -> better for long range rural

@Edent I’m still to work out the difference between meshtastic (the first one?) and meshcore.
Do they even speak to each other?