Tinc VPN
Ranked 9 of 12 mesh VPNs by recommenders
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.
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.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Easy to configure and maintain
“Tinc is a fantastic piece of software. Very easy to use and configure, and it just works.”
Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: Vxlan over WireGuard or WireGuard over Vxlan?” “It's even easier to configure and maintain, and supports all platforms.”
Comment from 31 Mar 2026 in “I Traced My Traffic Through a Home Tailscale Exit Node” Set up once, runs unattended
“Tinc is a little annoying to set up, but once it's going I literally forget about it.”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “Netbird a German Tailscale alternative (P2P WireGuard-based overlay network)” “it's been solid for years”
Comment from 5 Jul 2026 in “Rayfish, Peer-to-peer mesh VPN with no server to trust” Mesh routing and multi-hop support
“it can do things Wireguard could never dream of such as user space mesh routing”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Why IPv6 is the only way forward” “Tinc makes adding hops and avoiding network outages much easier for me.”
Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Welcoming Discord users amidst the challenge of Age Verification” Used as a daily driver
“I use Tinc as a daily driver (for personal things)”
Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: Vxlan over WireGuard or WireGuard over Vxlan?” “I use my own VPN mesh running Tinc”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “Don't Use VPN Servces”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Initial setup is somewhat annoying
“Tinc is a little annoying to set up, but once it's going I literally forget about it.”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “Netbird a German Tailscale alternative (P2P WireGuard-based overlay network)” Showing its age
“I've always been a fan of Tinc for things like this, but it is showing its age.”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Moonshine: Lets you stream games from your PC to any device running Moonlight”
Other mesh VPNs people recommend
The four most recommended other mesh VPNs, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 12 mesh VPNs, rankedWhat people said
All 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I've always been a fan of Tinc for things like this, but it is showing its age.”
“it's been solid for years”
“I use my own VPN mesh running Tinc”
“it can do things Wireguard could never dream of such as user space mesh routing”
“It's even easier to configure and maintain, and supports all platforms.”
“tinc is cool. Keep using it.”
“Tinc makes adding hops and avoiding network outages much easier for me.”
“Tinc is a little annoying to set up, but once it's going I literally forget about it.”
“it may run on your router if you're running openwrt or similar”
“Tinc is a fantastic piece of software. Very easy to use and configure, and it just works.”
“I use Tinc as a daily driver (for personal things)”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.