Meshnet was always a cool feature from NordVPN, and one of the signature ways in which my favorite VPN distinguished itself from my other favorite VPNs. Few other worthy VPNs had it.
By enabling Meshnet, you could link your devices together so that, even if you were far away from one physically, you could access it through another, as long as both were connected through your NordVPN server.
After three years, NordVPN is facing up to the fact that users haven’t taken to it as they’d hoped. “As time went on, it became clear that while a small group of dedicated users valued Meshnet, it never really caught on the way we’d hoped,” they wrote on Monday, August 1.
It’s a little tough to find through the blog section of NordVPN’s right now, but NordVPN made an announcement today regarding the service’s discontinuation on December 1, 2025.
wait, what’s meshnet, and why is NordVPN discontinuing it?
Meshnet is a feature that lets you access a device (or its files) remotely from another device, as long as you were logged into both through your NordVPN account and they were connected to a NordVPN server.
You weren’t restricted to only two devices, either. The explainer image below shows how a single person, using NordVPN on all their devices, can become a sort of information super hub.
A NordVPN representative reached out to break the news at about 9 a.m. EDT on Monday, August 18, saying, “While we originally launched Meshnet as a free addition to our service with high hopes, it hasn’t resonated with our users as much as we anticipated.
“Given the effort involved in maintaining and developing mesh-based networks and limited adoption among our customers, we’ve made the decision to discontinue Meshnet.
“However, the decision will allow us to put more focus on developing new better features and the quality of our VPN product, delivering greater value to our users.”
NordVPN’s Meshnet feature goes dark on December 1, 2025, so if you want to try it out for the first (and ostensibly last) time before then, you’d better get a move on.
NordVPN struck an apologetic tone about the feature’s discontinuation, saying in their announcement that “we want you to know that we did not take this decision lightly. We explored several alternative approaches to reworking Meshnet, but none were viable.”
While it sucks to lose a feature, even if it’s one I don’t use very often, it doesn’t knock NordVPN off its pedestal as my favorite VPN and an unabashed good value from a trusted company.
For more reasons why I trust my very own digital privacy to NordVPN, read through my full review.
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