Open source alternative to Speedify and Connectify Dispatch
Last verified
Connect Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and phone hotspots to combine bandwidth for faster downloads, browsing, and uploads. MIT licensed, no account, no server.
Steam, Epic, and system package managers open many concurrent connections for large downloads. Net Merge distributes those connections across Wi-Fi and a phone hotspot or Ethernet, so download speed approaches the sum of both links. The tray icon shows the speed of each connection and the total in real time.
If you only have one internet connection available at a time, net-merge has nothing to combine and provides no benefit.
A traveler with weak hotel Wi-Fi can plug a phone in via USB tethering and run both links simultaneously. Browsers loading many assets per page, cloud sync clients, and download managers all benefit from the combined bandwidth without any per-app configuration.
If your company VPN runs as an app on the laptop, net-merge and the VPN cannot coexist on the same device. Configure the VPN on a travel router instead, or use net-merge for personal traffic only.
Package managers such as npm, pip, cargo, and Maven open multiple concurrent connections when fetching dependencies. Running a fresh install or a Docker layer pull over two connections reduces wait time on congested links. No client-side configuration is needed for any package manager.
If your package sources are served from a CDN that pipes each file over a single connection, the per-connection balancing provides limited benefit for that specific fetch.
Dedicated network appliances that aggregate links typically cost several hundred dollars and require proprietary configuration interfaces. Net Merge provides per-connection load balancing in software, free, on any machine already running Windows, macOS, or Linux, with no additional hardware.
If you need per-application routing rules or a dedicated fallback link per app, the README recommends RoutEngine, the commercial upgrade from the same developer.
Most computers and phones have more than one way to connect to the internet. A laptop often has Wi-Fi and an Ethernet cable from a separate router available at the same time, and a phone's USB tether or hotspot adds a third link. The operating system picks one path for each application and stays on it, leaving the other connections idle. A large Steam download, a cloud sync process, and a browser page load each use a single link, even if two faster ones sit unused.
The options for combining those links have been limited. Managed networking appliances can do it but cost several hundred dollars. Commercial bonding services like Speedify and Connectify Dispatch require a subscription and route traffic through external networks. Setting up per-interface routing by hand requires networking knowledge most users do not have. Until recently there was no free, zero-account, zero-server tool that worked transparently across all apps on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Every new TCP or UDP connection from any app gets assigned to one of your active network interfaces. Apps that open many connections at once, such as Steam, web browsers, and cloud sync clients, spread traffic across all links automatically. A documented test with three simultaneous connections reached 232 to 303 Mbit/s combined, versus 121 Mbit/s on the fastest link alone.
Runs as a tray app on Windows and a menu-bar app on macOS, and as a system tray daemon on Linux with StatusNotifierItem-compatible desktops. The Android beta app lets a phone use Wi-Fi and mobile data simultaneously without root access. All platforms share the same no-account, no-server design.
Faster connections receive proportionally more connections. A link with no internet access is removed from rotation automatically and re-added once connectivity returns, with no manual intervention. This means adding a slow or unreliable connection does not drag down the faster ones.
Each link can be capped at 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, or 100 Mbit/s from the tray menu. From the command line, `net-merge limit "Ethernet 2" 25` sets a custom Mbit/s cap that persists across restarts. The cap covers only traffic net-merge routes over that link; apps bound directly to an adapter bypass it.
Signed repositories for apt, dnf, zypper, apk, and pacman let net-merge update with the rest of system packages on Linux. A Homebrew tap covers macOS. Windows users get a setup installer from GitHub Releases or a PowerShell one-liner that runs the installer automatically.
Net Merge operates as a TUN virtual adapter. If the process quits or crashes, the adapter is removed and the operating system routes traffic normally again, so an unexpected exit leaves no broken state. The README names this as an explicit design goal.
Both tools let a computer use multiple internet connections at once to improve throughput for apps that open many connections simultaneously. Speedify is a commercial service that routes traffic through its own relay network and charges a subscription, while net-merge is MIT licensed, free, and routes traffic directly through your own connections with no external server involved.
| Feature | Net Merge | Speedify |
|---|---|---|
| License | MIT | Proprietary |
| Price | Free | Subscription-based |
| Account required | No | Yes |
| Traffic routing | Direct, through your own connections | Via Speedify's relay servers |
| Self-hosting | Runs entirely on your device | No self-hosted option |
Net Merge is the better choice for users who want no subscription cost, no account, and traffic that never leaves their own devices for a third-party network. The MIT license lets you inspect and modify the code.
Speedify is worth considering when you need a managed commercial service with dedicated support, or when you need to combine connections from different physical locations: its relay-server model supports that use case, whereas net-merge requires all links to be present on the same device.
Connectify Dispatch is a paid Windows application for combining multiple internet connections using per-session load balancing. Net Merge covers the same core use case on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and adds Android support.
| Feature | Net Merge | Connectify Dispatch |
|---|---|---|
| License | MIT | Proprietary |
| Price | Free | Paid |
| Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux, Android | Windows only |
| Account required | No | Yes |
| Package manager install | Yes | No |
Net Merge is the stronger choice for anyone using macOS or Linux alongside Windows, and for users who want a no-account, no-cost tool that updates through the system package manager. Connectify Dispatch remains an option for Windows-only users who prefer a commercial Windows-native application with its own support team.
Install net-merge on macOS or Linux with the shell setup script.
```bash
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/net-merge/net-merge/main/install.sh | sh
```
Install on Windows from PowerShell.
```powershell
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/net-merge/net-merge/main/install.ps1 | iex
```No. Only downloads that use multiple connections simultaneously get faster. Apps like Steam, web browsers, and torrent clients open many connections at once and distribute traffic across all your links, reaching speeds close to the combined total. A basic single-connection transfer, such as a direct HTTP download from one URL without a download manager, always uses one link and does not speed up. The project website and README document this distinction clearly.
Not when the VPN runs as an app on the same device. A VPN client captures all traffic before net-merge can distribute it. The workaround documented in the README is to configure the VPN on a router instead of the device, which lets net-merge operate normally. On Android, Android allows only one VPN app at a time, so net-merge and a VPN app cannot run side by side there either.
Yes. Net Merge is MIT licensed and free, with no subscription, no account, and no usage limits. There is no paid tier for the desktop app. A related commercial tool called RoutEngine, from the same developer, adds per-application routing controls and speed caps per app for users who need those features, but the core bandwidth aggregation in net-merge is free and open source.
The internet connection continues working. Net Merge runs as a virtual TUN adapter; when the process stops, the adapter is removed and the operating system falls back to its normal routing. There is no configuration residue left behind that could break connectivity, which the README describes as an explicit design goal.
Yes, with limitations. The Android app (beta, Android 8.0 or newer) combines Wi-Fi and mobile data simultaneously with no root access required. Because Android allows only one VPN app at a time, net-merge cannot run alongside another VPN on the phone. Mobile data stays on while net-merge runs, which may use data plan allowance.
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