Meshtastic is described as 'Project that enables you to use inexpensive LoRa radios as a long range off-grid communication platform in areas without existing or reliable communications infrastructure. This project is 100% community driven and open source!' and is an app in the network & admin category. There are seven alternatives to Meshtastic for a variety of platforms, including Mac, Linux, Android, Windows and BSD apps. The best Meshtastic alternative is bitchat, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like Meshtastic are Briar, Yggdrasil, cjdns and Meshchat.
A secure, decentralized, peer-to-peer messaging app that works over Bluetooth mesh networks. No internet required, no servers, no phone numbers — just pure encrypted communication.
bitchat is the most popular Android, Mac, iPhone & iPad alternative to Meshtastic.
bitchat is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to Meshtastic.
An open-source decentralized and encrypted messaging app even without internet connection via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Messages are stored securely on your device, not in the cloud. Connect directly with nearby contacts - no Internet access is required.
Briar is the most popular Windows & Linux alternative to Meshtastic.
A proof-of-concept scalable IPv6 meshnet, featuring end-to-end encryption, a unique spanning tree routing algorithm and aiming to implement novel backpressure routing metrics.
Cjdns is a networking protocol and reference implementation, founded on the ideology that networks should be easy to set up, protocols should scale up smoothly, and security should be ubiquitous.
Decentralized messaging client for Android, Linux and macOS allowing you to communicate with people or LXMF-compatible systems over Reticulum networks using LoRa, Packet Radio, WiFi, I2P, or any other medium Reticulum supports.
dn42 is a big dynamic VPN, which employs Internet technologies (BGP, whois database, DNS, etc). Participants connect to each other using network tunnels (GRE, OpenVPN, Tinc, IPsec) and exchange routes thanks to the Border Gateway Protocol.
dn42 is the most popular Self-Hosted alternative to Meshtastic.
United States
I like Briar because it doesn't require external hardware and is more stable.