Short answers.
The questions that arrive most often, answered briefly and pointed somewhere fuller. Including the ones where the answer is “no”.
The basics
Is it free?
Yes. The whole thing is AGPL-3.0 and there is no feature held back for a paid tier today. A Business tier is planned — multi-user inside one node, directory integration, a fleet view — and the open build stays open when it arrives.
Do I need a server?
No. A node is one binary and it runs on whatever you have: a NAS, an old laptop, a mini PC, a VPS, or a router. Two machines make a mesh; one machine is still useful.
Is there a hosted version I can just sign up for?
No, and there is not going to be one. The point of MeshHold is that the data is on hardware you control. If you want somebody else to run it, there are good products that do that and this is not one.
Can I use it commercially?
Yes. AGPL-3.0 permits commercial use, including deploying it for customers. The obligation it carries is about distributing modifications, not about who may run it.
Data and privacy
Does my data pass through your servers?
No. Nodes talk to each other directly, or via a relay you run. On a default install a node makes exactly two requests to us — an update check and a public-IP lookup, both every six hours, both switchable off in config.yaml. The security page lists every outbound call there is.
Do you collect analytics or telemetry?
Not any more, anywhere. The node used to send an anonymous daily beat and the website used Google Analytics; both were removed in September 2026. Visits to this website are counted on this server in daily totals, with no cookie and no identifier stored on your machine.
Is my data encrypted?
Between nodes, yes — and peers without your swarm key cannot complete a handshake at all. On disk, a node created from scratch is encrypted at rest by default; an older node asks before converting rather than doing it behind your back.
What happens if I lose the key?
You lose the data. There is no recovery path, because a recovery path we could operate would be a way in that we control. Back up whatever your master key derives from alongside the data.
Compared with what you already use
How is this different from Nextcloud or ownCloud?
They are servers with clients; MeshHold is a mesh of equal nodes with no server in the middle. The comparison pages answer this row by row, including the rows MeshHold loses.
How is it different from Syncthing?
Syncthing keeps folders identical on machines that all hold everything. MeshHold stores a vault across nodes with a replication factor, so a phone can see a library it does not have room for. Where you genuinely want folder-for-folder mirroring, Syncthing is twelve years more mature at it.
Is it a Tailscale replacement?
Partly. The mesh VPN and tunnels cover a lot of the same ground with no coordination server, which is the trade: no control plane to trust, and also no control plane to manage. The mesh-VPN comparison is honest about where a hosted control plane wins.
Running it
What hardware does it need?
Less than you would guess for storage and chat, more than you would guess for transcoding and local models. There is a page with measured numbers and a calculator that turns a workload into a VPS size.
Does it work with no internet at all?
Yes. Nodes on the same LAN find each other and work at local speed, and the catalogue, your files, chat history and the media library are all local. Offline is a supported state rather than a failure mode.
Is there a mobile app?
Android, yes — including an Android TV build. iOS, no: Apple's restrictions on background peer-to-peer make it hard, and it will ship when there is a clear path rather than a promise.
How do I get help?
The forum for anything the next person might also want to know, and a private ticket for anything with your configuration or logs in it. Both go to the person who wrote the code, and neither needs a support contract.
Licensing
We want to modify it. Do we have to publish our changes?
Under AGPL-3.0, yes — if you run the modified version as a network service, its source has to be available to its users. Running it unmodified, or modified purely for internal use that nobody else reaches over a network, does not trigger that.
What if we cannot publish them?
Then buy a commercial licence: the same code under terms without that obligation. It is not a different edition and nothing is held back from the open build — it is the price of keeping your own modifications closed. Priced per deployment rather than per seat.
Will the open version stay open?
Yes. AGPL-3.0, permanently, with no feature moved out of it to make the commercial licence look better. The commercial licence sells different terms on the same code, which is only worth anything while the open one keeps being worth having.
For organizations
Can you sign a contract, a DPA or an SLA?
Not yet. There is no legal entity behind MeshHold — it is a private project run by one person — so there is nobody to countersign. If your procurement requires one, that is a blocker today and we would rather say so than discover it at signature.
Has the code been audited?
Not by anyone independent. If your process requires an external audit, it does not exist, and a review by the author is not the same thing.
What happens to our deployment if you stop working on it?
It keeps running. Nothing phones home for permission, no licence expires, the data is in a documented format on your hardware, and the source is public under AGPL-3.0. What you would lose is future work and the direct line — not access to your own files.
We deploy for customers. Is there a partner programme?
Yes, and it takes no cut of your invoice. You charge your customer for the whole engagement; we charge you only for work inside the core and for commercial licences, which you resell at your own markup. No membership fee, no tiers, and — said plainly on the page — no lead flow to share yet.
Not here? The documentation goes considerably deeper, the comparison pages answer “how is this different from…” row by row, and anything left over is worth a message.