difference between meshcore and meshtastic

does anyone understand the difference?

what i understand is:

both use lora as hardware.

i guess firmware can be flashed to the same devices? but not always?

heltec can be flashed with both meshtastic and meshcore? but t-deck not?

i have read somewhere that meshcore is a routing protocol separated from the app, but i don't understand, in videos they just install a meshcore android app and stact using it with the ui i think very similar to meshtastic.

i want to be able to use the protocol myself, without the app and perhaps not for chat?

we could host gemini capsules over meshcore if it is a network? or at least spartan, if meshcore takes care of encryption?

Posted in: s/LoRa

🐙 norayr

2025-08-19 · 9 months ago

3 Comments ↓

👻 darkghost · 2025-08-19 at 12:39:

So the major differences are in the routing code as far as I can tell. The practical effect of this is meshtastic is good for tracking. Meshcore is better for messaging, even though Meshtastic is capable of it. Each supports different hardware but there is overlap. Meshtastic is open source and Meshcore isn't with some more advanced firmware being pay to acquire. I have seen someone use Meshtastic for SSH but they used the short range high bandwidth mode. (Long range is limited to about 1KBps vs 21KBps for short range.)

Gemini might be possible over it but I am still confused as to how the SSH experiment worked. Might be better to use something like Reticulum for this, but I am also confused by that.

In the case of flashing firmware, you can get hardware that is compatible with Meshtastic and Meshcore, flashing between the two firmwares and just connecting via different apps.

🐙 norayr [OP] · 2025-08-19 at 16:14:

wow. thank you.

no, meshcore being closed source rules that out.

ssh over meshtastic? that is cool. so tcp/ip is possible to route over it.

i thought it is not possible.

i guess if meshtastic takes care of encryption then telnet is enough.

👻 darkghost · 2025-08-19 at 23:27:

I am pretty hazy on how SSH over mesh was done and I am not sure I could easily replicate it.