MeshCore vs Meshtastic: Why One Actually Works When You NEED It To Work

October 21, 2025

LORA Mesh Nodes You know what REALLY grinds my gears? And I mean REALLY makes me want to throw a radio into the ocean? It’s when people ask me, “Hey, what’s the difference between MeshCore and Meshtastic?”

OH, WHERE DO I BEGIN?!

It’s like asking what’s the difference between a surgeon and a guy with a chainsaw! Sure, they BOTH make cuts, but ONE of them knows when to STOP CUTTING!

Let me paint you a picture. You’re in the middle of a disaster. Hurricane just took out every cell tower within 200 miles. Your neighbor’s house is on fire. You need to communicate. Do you want the mesh network that’s sitting there going “HELLO! HELLO! I’M HERE! DID YOU GET MY HELLO? HERE’S ANOTHER HELLO! AND ANOTHER! OH WAIT, LET ME TELL YOU MY POSITION AGAIN!” like some kind of radio-powered narcissist at a cocktail party?

OR… do you want the one that SHUTS UP and DELIVERS YOUR MESSAGE when you actually NEED IT?

The Fundamental Problem: Flooding (Or: How Meshtastic Turned Your Emergency Network Into a Digital Traffic Jam)

Meshtastic’s Approach: FLOOD EVERYTHING!

Here’s what Meshtastic does, and I want you to really appreciate the GENIUS of this strategy. When you send a message, EVERY. SINGLE. NODE. rebroadcasts it. EVERY. ONE.

It’s called “managed flood routing,” which is like calling a house fire a “managed thermal event.” Yeah, it’s MANAGED. You know what else is MANAGED? A landfill! Doesn’t mean I want to live there!

The Meshtastic algorithm goes like this:

Node receives packet
Node waits a little bit (ooh, how sophisticated!)
Node listens to see if someone else is rebroadcasting
Node PROBABLY rebroadcasts anyway because it’s a ROUTER or REPEATER
Repeat until the entire network is screaming the same message like a pack of hyperactive parrots!

And they call this “efficiency.” I call it what it is: RADIO SPAM!

You know what happens in Europe? They have these things called “duty cycle limits.” It’s a REGULATION that says you can’t just blast the airwaves like you’re running a pirate radio station from your mom’s basement. You get 10% per hour. That’s IT.

And guess what? Meshtastic users in Europe are hitting this limit! They’re getting BLOCKED by their own devices because the network won’t SHUT UP! Your radio is literally telling you, “I can’t send your message because I’ve been talking too much!” IT’S LIKE BEING GROUNDED BY YOUR OWN HARDWARE!

MeshCore’s Approach: Use Your Brain (What a Concept!)

Now, MeshCore… MeshCore actually thought about this. They sat down and said, “You know what? Maybe we DON’T need to rebroadcast EVERY. SINGLE. PACKET.”

Mind. Blown.

MeshCore uses what I like to call “intelligent routing,” which in the tech world means “NOT BEING A COMPLETE IDIOT.” Here’s how it works:

Manual Advertising: You don’t broadcast your existence every five minutes like an attention-seeking teenager. You advertise MANUALLY. When YOU want to. What a concept! It’s called CONTROL!
Smart Repeaters: MeshCore repeaters don’t forward EVERY packet they see. They forward packets TO THE DESTINATION. I know, I know, this sounds CRAZY – actually thinking about where a message needs to GO before spamming the entire network with it!
Path Discovery: When MeshCore needs to send a message, it LEARNS the path. It REMEMBERS it. It doesn’t have amnesia like some drunk college student stumbling through a maze. Future messages use that path! EFFICIENCY! Remember that word?

You know what this means? It means when you’re in an ACTUAL EMERGENCY and you need to tell someone “THE LEVEE BROKE, GET TO HIGH GROUND,” your message doesn’t get lost in a traffic jam of “Hey everyone, I’m still here!” broadcasts!

Use Cases: When You ACTUALLY NEED This (Not Just When You Want to Play Radio)

Emergency Response & Disaster Recovery: The Big Kahuna

Let’s talk about WHY this matters. Let’s talk about emergencies. REAL emergencies. Not “oh no, I’m hiking and I want to chat” emergencies. I’m talking hurricanes, earthquakes, floods – the stuff that makes you remember why your grandmother kept canned goods in the basement!

Hurricane Scenario

Hurricane comes through. Cell towers? GONE. Internet? HA! That’s cute. Power grid? More like power GRIDLOCK because it’s NOT THERE ANYMORE!

So you set up your mesh network. Here’s what happens:

With Meshtastic:

Every node is broadcasting its position every few minutes
Every node is sending nodeinfo updates
Telemetry is flooding the network
Your emergency message competes with 47 other packets
Duty cycle limits kick in (if you’re in Europe)
Messages get dropped
You retry
More flooding
Network congestion
You’re basically trying to have a conversation at a heavy metal concert

With MeshCore:

Repeaters are positioned strategically
Nodes advertise ONLY when needed
Messages find their path
That path is USED for subsequent messages
No unnecessary chatter
When you send “NEED MEDICAL SUPPLIES AT COORDINATES X,Y,” it GETS THERE
The network isn’t choking on its own traffic like a competitive eater at a hot dog contest

This isn’t THEORETICAL. This is the difference between life and death! And Meshtastic is over there playing “flood the network” like it’s some kind of GAME!

Off-Grid Communication: Because Sometimes You Want to Actually Be Unreachable

You’re camping. You’re hiking. You’re in the wilderness. Cell coverage? What’s that? Your carrier’s coverage map was always a LIE anyway – we all know this!

But here’s the thing – you still might need to communicate. Maybe your hiking buddy took the wrong trail. Maybe you need to coordinate a camp setup. Maybe you just want to tell someone you’re alive without broadcasting your GPS coordinates to every device within 50 miles!

With Meshtastic, everyone on the default “LongFast” channel knows where you are. ALL THE TIME. It’s like having a stalker, except you PAID for the privilege!

MeshCore? You control when you advertise. You control what you share. It’s called PRIVACY. Remember privacy? That thing we used to have before we all decided to live-stream our lives?

IoT & Sensor Networks: For When You Need Data, Not Drama

Here’s a use case that really shows the difference: IoT sensor networks. Maybe you’ve got weather sensors scattered across your property. Maybe you’re monitoring soil moisture for agriculture. Maybe you’re tracking wildlife.

You need this data to get BACK to you. You don’t need the sensors to have a CONVERSATION about it!

Meshtastic in this scenario:

Sensor broadcasts data
Every node hears it
Every node considers rebroadcasting
Your simple data reading becomes a network-wide event
Battery life? What battery life? You’re replacing batteries like you’re running a Energizer franchise!

MeshCore in this scenario:

Sensor sends data to repeater
Repeater forwards to you
Done
Battery lasts FOREVER (okay, not forever, but you’re not replacing it every other Tuesday)
Solar-powered nodes actually work because they’re not screaming into the void 24/7

Privacy Enthusiasts: For People Who Are Tired of Being the Product

You know what Meshtastic does by default? It broadcasts your node info. Your position (if you have GPS). Your telemetry. TO EVERYONE.

And sure, you can turn this stuff off, but the CULTURE of Meshtastic is about sharing everything. It’s like Facebook, but with radios! “Look at me! I’m here! I moved 50 feet! Here’s my battery level! VALIDATE ME!”

MeshCore says, “You know what? Maybe we DON’T need to tell everyone everything all the time.”

No metadata harvesting? Check.
No “targeted ads” based on your conversations? Check. (Okay, there were never ads, but you get my point!)
No government backdoors? Probably check. I mean, I’m not the NSA, but I’m PRETTY SURE they have better things to do than intercept your “nice weather today” messages.
Just you, your friends, and encrypted radio waves? CHECK!

It’s the difference between shouting your business in the town square versus having an actual CONVERSATION.

Technical Deep Dive: For the Nerds (You Know Who You Are)

The Flooding Problem Explained

Let me explain why flooding is such a disaster, using math. Because MATH DOESN’T LIE, unlike those cellular coverage maps!

Say you have a network with 10 nodes. Someone sends ONE message. With naive flooding:

The originating node sends it: 1 transmission
9 nodes receive it
All 9 rebroadcast: 9 transmissions
Some nodes might receive multiple copies
Total transmissions for ONE message: Potentially 10+

Now say you have 10 people sending messages every few minutes. Plus position updates. Plus telemetry. Plus node info. You do the MATH! The network is drowning in its own success!

And Meshtastic’s answer to this? “Oh, we’ll add a little delay, and nodes will listen before rebroadcasting.” That’s not a SOLUTION, that’s a BAND-AID on a BULLET WOUND!

MeshCore’s Intelligent Approach

MeshCore says, “What if – and I know this sounds CRAZY – what if we only forward packets that actually NEED forwarding?”

When you send a message in MeshCore:

The message goes out
Repeaters forward it TOWARD THE DESTINATION
The path is discovered and REMEMBERED
Future messages use this path
The network learns and ADAPTS

It’s almost like they thought about this! It’s almost like they said, “Hey, maybe we should design this for ACTUAL USE rather than just to watch pretty dots on a map!”

Developer-Focused Design: Building What You Need

Here’s another beautiful thing about MeshCore: It’s DESIGNED for developers. It’s a lightweight C++ library. You can BUILD what you need!

Want a simple chat app? They’ve got an example. Want a repeater? They’ve got an example. Want a BBS server (yes, like it’s 1985, and yes, it’s AWESOME)? They’ve got an example. Want to integrate it into your own project? GO FOR IT!

Meshtastic is designed for END USERS who want things to Just Work™. Which is FINE for playing around, but when you need to build a CUSTOM SOLUTION for an actual EMERGENCY RESPONSE SCENARIO, you want the toolkit, not the toy!

Real-World Scenarios: When the Rubber Meets the Road (Or When the Hurricane Meets the Coast)

Scenario 1: The Search and Rescue Operation

You’re coordinating a search and rescue. Multiple teams in the field. A command center. You need RELIABLE communication.

With Meshtastic:

Teams send position updates automatically
Every node rebroadcasts these
When Team A tries to report “FOUND THE MISSING HIKER,” the message competes with 15 position updates
Message gets delayed
They retry
More flooding
Command center might get the message… eventually… maybe…

With MeshCore:

Teams advert their position when they want to
Repeaters are strategically placed on high ground
When Team A sends “FOUND THE HIKER,” it gets routed DIRECTLY through the most efficient path
Command center gets it IMMEDIATELY
Lives are saved
Everyone goes home
Nobody has to explain to a grieving family why the network was too busy broadcasting telemetry to deliver the message that mattered

Scenario 2: The Wildfire Evacuation

There’s a wildfire. Cell towers are down (fire tends to do that). You need to coordinate an evacuation.

With Meshtastic:

Default channel is full of random traffic
You try to set up a private channel
Everyone needs to get the QR code
People keep accidentally broadcasting on LongFast
Critical evacuation messages get mixed with “hey, is anyone else seeing the smoke?”
Mass confusion
People don’t know where to evacuate to
It’s like trying to organize a flash mob in the middle of an actual emergency

With MeshCore:

You set up room servers at evacuation points
Repeaters create a clear path from danger zones to safe zones
Messages about evacuation routes get through RELIABLY
No random chatter because people aren’t constantly advertising
You can even remotely administer repeaters to adjust the network as the fire moves
It’s organized. It’s efficient. It WORKS.

Scenario 3: The “Just Want to Camp Without My Phone” Weekend

Not every scenario is life-or-death. Sometimes you just want to go camping with friends and not be tethered to your smartphone like some kind of digital umbilical cord.

With Meshtastic:

You’re on the default channel
You see everyone else in a 50-mile radius
Random “testing 1-2-3” messages all night
Your friends’ messages are mixed in with strangers
You learn more than you ever wanted to know about Bob’s battery level three counties over

With MeshCore:

You set up your own network
Just your friends
Manual adverts mean you choose when to share your location
Quiet when you want it quiet
Messages when you want them
It’s like having a walkie-talkie that doesn’t suck and actually has range

The Emergency Preparedness Argument: Why MeshCore Wins When It Counts

Let’s get SERIOUS for a minute. (I know, I know, it’s not my style, but stay with me.)

Emergency preparedness isn’t about having the COOLEST toy. It’s not about who has the most nodes on their map. It’s about RELIABILITY when the infrastructure FAILS.

What You Need in an Emergency:

Reliable Message Delivery: Your message MUST get through. Not “probably.” Not “eventually.” IT MUST GET THROUGH.
Efficient Bandwidth Usage: When everyone is trying to communicate, you can’t have the network choking on its own traffic.
Flexible Deployment: You need to set up quickly and adapt to changing situations.
Privacy and Security: In a disaster, you don’t want to broadcast your location and situation to everyone within radio range.
Battery Life: Your devices need to LAST. You can’t be replacing batteries every few hours.

How MeshCore Delivers:

Reliable Delivery: MeshCore’s path-based routing means messages get to their destination efficiently. They’re not competing with a flood of unnecessary rebroadcasts.

Efficient Bandwidth: Only necessary traffic. No constant position broadcasts. No telemetry spam. Just the messages that MATTER.

Flexible Deployment: Developer-focused design means you can build EXACTLY what you need. Need a custom application? Build it! Need to integrate with existing systems? Do it!

Privacy: Manual adverts. You control what you share and when.

Battery Life: Less traffic means less transmitting. Less transmitting means longer battery life. Solar-powered nodes are actually PRACTICAL.

How Meshtastic Falls Short:

Look, I’m not saying Meshtastic is USELESS. For hobbyists playing around? Sure! Fine! Have fun! But for SERIOUS emergency preparedness?

Flooding algorithm creates network congestion when you NEED efficiency
Automatic broadcasts drain batteries when you NEED them to last
Limited customization when you NEED to build for specific scenarios
Default behaviors that prioritize community “sharing” over emergency reliability

When the disaster hits, you don’t want “good enough for playing around.” You want “THIS WILL WORK OR I’M GOING TO BE VERY UNHAPPY.”

Common Objections Addressed (Or: What Meshtastic Fans Will Say)

“But Meshtastic is easier to use!”

You know what else is easy to use? A toy phone! Doesn’t mean I’m calling 911 on it!

Yes, Meshtastic has pretty apps and easy setup. That’s GREAT for getting started. But “easy” doesn’t mean “best.” Sometimes you need to do the work to get the result you NEED.

MeshCore requires more setup. You need to understand what you’re building. But you know what you GET? A system that WORKS the way YOU need it to!

“But Meshtastic has a bigger community!”

You know what else has a big community? Facebook! Doesn’t mean it’s good for emergency communication!

Community size doesn’t equal quality. MeshCore’s community is growing, and it’s full of people who actually UNDERSTAND mesh networking, not just people who want to see dots on a map!

“But Meshtastic is constantly improving!”

And I’m constantly eating! Doesn’t mean I’m getting healthier!

Yes, Meshtastic is updating their firmware. They even added this “next-hop routing” for direct messages in version 2.6! Know what that is? It’s them ADMITTING that flooding every message was a BAD IDEA and trying to fix it!

Meanwhile, MeshCore STARTED with intelligent routing because they thought about it FROM THE BEGINNING!

“But Meshtastic has [insert feature here]!”

You know what Meshtastic also has? The fundamental design flaw of FLOODING EVERYTHING! It’s like having a car with great cup holders but no brakes! Sure, your coffee is secure, but you’re GOING TO CRASH!

The Bottom Line (Finally, Right?)

Look. Here’s what it comes down to.

Do you want a mesh network for:

Playing around ✓ (Either works, honestly)
Seeing pretty dots on a map ✓ (Meshtastic wins)
Actually connecting with random people in your area ✓ (Meshtastic wins)
RELIABLE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION when infrastructure fails ✓ (MeshCore wins)
Custom applications built for specific needs ✓ (MeshCore wins)
Not drowning your network in unnecessary traffic ✓ (MeshCore wins)
Actually understanding how your network works ✓ (MeshCore wins)
Being prepared for when things go WRONG ✓ (MeshCore wins)

I’m not saying throw your Meshtastic devices in the trash. (Well, I mean, I KIND OF am, but let’s be diplomatic here.) What I’m saying is: if you’re serious about emergency preparedness, if you’re planning for disaster response, if you NEED a network that works when everything else has failed…

MeshCore is the answer. Period. End of story. Mic drop. I’m done.

Well, I’m not REALLY done, but you get the idea.

Conclusion: Choose Wisely, People

In the end, it’s about understanding what you NEED versus what looks cool.

Meshtastic looks cool. It’s got maps! It’s got apps! It’s got a big community sharing position updates like they’re posting on Instagram!

MeshCore works. It WORKS when you need it. It doesn’t waste bandwidth. It doesn’t flood your network. It doesn’t drain your batteries bragging about itself to every node in range.

When that hurricane hits, when that earthquake strikes, when you NEED to communicate and everything else has failed, you’re going to want the network that WORKS, not the one that’s busy having a conversation with itself!

And THAT is why MeshCore is better for emergencies.

Thank you. I’m exhausted. This took more energy than explaining to my nephew that YouTube isn’t a career path.

Additional Resources (For When You Want to Fact-Check My Rant)

MeshCore GitHub: https://github.com/meshcore-dev/MeshCore
MeshCore Website: https://meshcore.co.uk
MeshCore FAQ: Where all your questions are answered without the screaming
Meshtastic Website: https://meshtastic.org (I mean, at least check out the competition)

Disclaimer: This rant represents the opinions of someone who has thought WAY too much about mesh networking and emergency preparedness. Your mileage may vary. Consult with actual emergency management professionals. Don’t sue me. I’m just a guy who’s passionate about networks that WORK.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to drink a scotch and go lie down. All this thinking about flooding algorithms has given me a headache.

End of rant. For now. MAYBE.

Sal

W6SAL