Alternatives to Reticulum
Cryptography-based networking stack that spans radio and IP links. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Reticulum
Cryptography-based networking stack that spans radio and IP links.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Reticulum.
Yggdrasil
An experimental, end-to-end encrypted IPv6 mesh network run as a lightweight userspace software router.
Yggdrasil is an end-to-end encrypted, decentralised IPv6 mesh run as a userspace router over IP links, not radio, and is still alpha software.
GNUnet
A GNU network protocol stack for building secure, decentralised and privacy-preserving peer-to-peer applications.
GNUnet is a GNU peer-to-peer protocol stack focused on metadata protection, Linux only and technical to install, without Reticulum's radio link support.
Meshtastic
Off-grid text messaging over a LoRa radio mesh.
Meshtastic is an application for off-grid text messaging over LoRa radio meshes rather than a general networking stack, and needs LoRa hardware for every participant.
MeshCore
Lightweight hybrid routing mesh firmware for packet radios.
MeshCore is packet radio mesh firmware with hybrid routing, tied to compatible radio hardware and its own companion ecosystem rather than spanning IP links.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
EasyTier
A decentralized mesh VPN written in Rust that links devices into one private network, with WireGuard support.
n2n
A lightweight peer-to-peer layer-2 VPN for linking machines into a virtual network.
tinc
A VPN daemon that builds an encrypted mesh network between hosts over the internet.
OpenZiti
An open-source zero trust networking platform that connects services by identity instead of IP address.
