NordVPN has announced it is keeping its secure file sharing feature, Meshnet.
It was due to be shut down by the end of 2025 but the provider, which we rate as the best VPN overall, said community "passion" made it rethink the decision.
Meshnet's shutdown was only announced in August, with high costs and low usage cited as reasons for the axing.
However, NordVPN has now said Meshnet isn't going anywhere and will continue to evolve.
Community intervention
Meshnet has been around since 2022 and is a free add-on to all NordVPN plans. According to NordVPN it has a small and dedicated user base but didn't gain widespread popularity in the way the provider would've hoped.
However, NordVPN said many users have spoken up in the month following the news of Meshnet's retirement, saying how much it is valued. "Tinkering with private networks, sharing files securely," and "gaming with friends" were all positive uses shared by the NordVPN community.
NordVPN said this passion made it take a hard look at the decision. In a blog post, it said: "We heard you. Meshnet is not going anywhere."
"We've realized that it [Meshnet] deserves to keep evolving with you," NordVPN admitted. It confirmed that all Meshnet features will stay live and supported.
Numerous posts on the NordVPN subreddit expressed disappointment over the shutdown decision. One user described the feature as an "absolute essential," adding that without it, there was "no USP to Nord."
Fellow users voiced their support in comment sections and called for users to club together in telling NordVPN how they felt. Some users said Meshnet was the only reason they subscribed to NordVPN and they would not be renewing their subscriptions.
Clearly these strong opinions have played a role in NordVPN reversing its decision.
A new future for Meshnet
Research will be undertaken to reduce development friction and explore improvements. The goal being to find ways of making Meshnet more appealing to a wider audience.
Meshnet will also become open-source. Anyone will be able to examine it, contribute to it, or build on it. NordVPN said it believes "this will not only help Meshnet grow but also empower the community that helped keep it alive."
NordVPN reiterated that maintaining Meshnet "remains challenging and not the easiest thing to justify financially." However it admitted that "its value goes beyond that."
It remains to be seen how Meshnet's continuation will impact other areas of NordVPN. When its shutdown was announced, the provider said Meshnet's "significant ongoing resources" would be redirected to features used by the majority of users.
NordVPN said it will provide updates as it experiments and refines Meshnet.
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