# Tinc VPN

6 Hacker News commenters recommended Tinc VPN and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend Tinc as a free mesh VPN that is easy to use and mostly forget about once running, with support for many platforms and mesh routing. One critic says it is showing its age.

## Why people recommend it

- Easy to configure and maintain (2 comments): "Tinc is a fantastic piece of software. Very easy to use and configure, and it just works." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46609763)) "It's even easier to configure and maintain, and supports all platforms." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47594635))
- Set up once, runs unattended (2 comments): "Tinc is a little annoying to set up, but once it's going I literally forget about it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46847891)) "it's been solid for years" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48796132))
- Mesh routing and multi-hop support (2 comments): "it can do things Wireguard could never dream of such as user space mesh routing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47693819)) "Tinc makes adding hops and avoiding network outages much easier for me." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46995712))
- Used as a daily driver (2 comments): "I use Tinc as a daily driver (for personal things)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46609560)) "I use my own VPN mesh running Tinc" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48711111))

## What people warn about

- Initial setup is somewhat annoying (1 comments): "Tinc is a little annoying to set up, but once it's going I literally forget about it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46847891))
- Showing its age (1 comments): "I've always been a fan of Tinc for things like this, but it is showing its age." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48981782))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [NetBird](https://hackerapproved.com/p/netbird.md): 79 recommend
- [Rayfish](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rayfish.md): 11 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Tinc VPN", https://hackerapproved.com/p/tinc/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).