Will I lose anything by moving from TTN to Datacake?

You leave TTN's free public coverage and roaming-on-community-gateways behind. In return you get a production-grade managed LNS without fair-use rate-limits, plus dashboards, alerting, white-label and commercial support, and the LNS itself is still free.

Are TTN and Datacake compatible at the device level?

Yes. Both implement LoRaWAN 1.0.x and 1.1, and Datacake re-uses the same DevEUI, JoinEUI/AppEUI and AppKey your devices already hold. No firmware re-flash is needed.

Can I use my existing TTN gateway?

Yes. Datacake supports any gateway that runs Semtech UDP Packet Forwarder or LoRa Basics Station, the same gateway hardware you already operate on TTN. Just point its packet-forwarder configuration at Datacake's LNS endpoint.

I rely on TTN's community coverage. Will I lose it?

Datacake operates a managed LNS, not a community gateway network. If your devices currently rely on uplinks from gateways operated by other TTN users, you will need to bring or deploy your own gateway to cover those locations. For most commercial deployments this is already the case.

What about V2 / V3 differences? My devices are still on TTN V2 endpoints.

TTN V2 was decommissioned at the end of 2021 and replaced by TTN V3. Datacake works with TTN V3 device profiles directly. If you are still running V2-style endpoints, the migration to Datacake is a good opportunity to consolidate on standards-compliant device profiles.

Is there commercial support if my deployment grows?

Yes. Datacake offers paid support tiers with SLA when your deployment crosses commercial production. The free tier covers prototypes and small fleets without commercial commitments.

All comparisons

Datacake vs The Things Network

Datacake: a free, production-grade alternative to The Things Network

The Things Network (TTN) is a public, community-run LoRaWAN sandbox, useful for prototyping, but it is fair-use only, with no SLA, no commercial support, and uplink rate-limits enforced. Datacake provides a production-grade managed LNS that is free in every plan, with proper support, dashboards and integrations on top.

Production-grade managed LNS: included free, with commercial support
No fair-use rate-limiting on your uplinks
Built-in dashboards, alerts and integrations
Re-use existing devices: same DevEUI / JoinEUI / AppKey

Get started free See the LoRaWAN Network Server

The Things Network vs Datacake at a glance

A side-by-side view of the parts of the LoRaWAN stack that change when you migrate. We've kept it factual. Both products have their strengths.

Capability	The Things Network	Datacake
Hosted LoRaWAN Network Server	Public community sandbox (TTN V3)	Hosted, included free in every plan
Cost	Free for fair use, no SLA	Free LNS in every plan; you pay only for device licenses
Fair-use / rate-limits on uplinks	Uplinks and integrations are rate-limited per fair-use policy	No fair-use uplink rate-limit; production traffic is the default
Commercial support / SLA	Community-only forum support	Commercial support, paid SLA tiers available
Built-in dashboards	Bring your own integration	Template-driven dashboards
Built-in rules / alerting		Email, SMS, push, webhook actions
Built-in payload decoders	PartialCommunity device repository (JS formatter per device)	400+ Datacake-maintained templates plus the TTN device repo
Multi-region support		EU868, US915, AU915, AS923, IN865, KR920
MQTT / Webhook outputs	Subject to fair-use
Suitable for production deployments	Explicitly a community sandbox: not designed for production traffic	Production-grade managed infrastructure

TTN is a free public community network operated by The Things Foundation. Datacake is a commercial managed platform. Capabilities reflect the public TTN documentation and Datacake at the time of writing.

Why Datacake

Where Datacake comes out ahead

Production-ready, not a sandbox
TTN is explicitly a public sandbox under fair-use. Datacake operates production estates with thousands of devices per account and offers commercial SLAs when you need them.
Still free at the LNS layer
Datacake's LNS is included free in every plan, including the free tier. You do not pay to leave the sandbox; you only pay for device licenses if you choose to.
Dashboards, rules and exports out of the box
TTN gives you uplinks; you build the rest. Datacake adds dashboards, alerting, scheduled reporting, white-label and exports as first-class features on the same account.
Effortless migration from TTN
Re-use the same DevEUI, JoinEUI and AppKey from TTN. No firmware re-flash. Many users finish a small TTN-to-Datacake migration in an afternoon.

Honest take

When The Things Network might be the better fit

You are running a hobby / community deployment
If your project is a hobby, a research prototype or a community gateway contribution, TTN's mission is exactly that. Stay on TTN, and consider deploying a gateway to extend its coverage.
You want to share coverage with other community users
TTN is a shared, peer-to-peer network. If your value proposition depends on devices roaming across community-operated gateways worldwide, TTN's model fits that natively in a way a private LNS cannot.

Ready to switch?

Migrate from The Things Network to Datacake

No firmware re-flash. Re-use the same DevEUI, JoinEUI/AppEUI and AppKey. Run both stacks in parallel during the cut-over so you never lose a device.

Read the The Things Network migration guide

Same DevEUI / JoinEUI / AppKey
Bring your existing gateway hardware
Parallel operation during cut-over
Self-serve: no vendor coordination

Datacake vs The Things Network: frequently asked questions

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