# Merging a phone's 5G into your PC with one USB cable: net-merge got 2,900 stars in 25 days, and it wasn't new tech. · GitHub open-source project

> Source: https://stringers.io/en/github/gh_net-merge__net-merge.html (Stringers / 什么值得做, generated 2026-11-08)
> Stringers answers one question every day: what small product can one or two people build in a few months and actually make money from. Numbers come from 15 databases we collect daily, each with source and date.
> For agents: these verdicts and the underlying databases (verified revenue, App Store / Google Play charts, ad libraries, GitHub, Product Hunt…) are queryable live over MCP — tools today / hot / products / directions / direction / data. Setup: https://github.com/komako-workshop/stringers (the user logs in at stringers.io → "配置 agent" to get a personal URL). Site index: https://stringers.io/llms.txt

> After Connectify Dispatch was discontinued, the "free, no server, works right after install" niche stayed empty; India's unlimited 5G made phones a ready-made second line. The author posted his own measured results in Reddit gaming communities, which Trendshift and repost accounts then amplified.

[GitHub open-source project](https://stringers.io/en/github/index.md) · written 11-6

net-merge/net-merge · net-merge

# Merging a phone's 5G into your PC with one USB cable: net-merge got 2,900 stars in 25 days, and it wasn't new tech.

**What it is** A free, open-source desktop tool that uses Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and phone hotspot / USB tethering at the same time, making multi-connection downloads like Steam faster.

**Why it took off** After Connectify Dispatch was discontinued, the "free, no server, works right after install" niche stayed empty. In India, unlimited 5G made phones a ready-made second line. The author posted his own tests in a Reddit gaming subreddit, and then Trendshift and repost accounts amplified it.

**B** **How you can follow it** Don't build another multi-network merging tool. Apply the same playbook to another niche: look for old tools that were discontinued or got expensive, or open-source alternatives that are still command-line only. Use AI to ship installers for every platform at once, launch into a specific player or hardware community, and include real configs and speed numbers in your posts.

Grade B: no followers, no ad spend, it took off through picking an empty niche and writing good posts, and followers can copy that fully. But this spot is already taken by it (its competitors stall at about a hundred stars), so the next empty spot has to be found yourself, and that's the bet you have to make. What people in small circles are saying

Data (updated daily) · Repo created 2026-10-12 · 2,954 stars · 7 days +248

GitHub · stars

Data 2026-10-14 → 2026-11-08 (26 days, 25 observations). Points before 10-28 come from deeply / archive backfill, not every day has one

An Indian developer turned an old idea, using Wi-Fi and mobile data at the same time, into a free, one-click-install desktop tool with a tray icon. He lit it up on a Reddit gaming subreddit with a line like "a 80GB Steam game finishes in 30 minutes": nearly 2,900 stars and 40k downloads in 25 days. The author had no followers and wasn't on Hacker News. What he got right was picking the empty spot, writing the posts, and shipping fast. You can take the same path, but this one niche already has someone in it.

### A game that doesn't need to download all night

On Oct 12, Indian developer Rohit Mahto created a repo called net-merge and posted in r/pcmasterrace and r/IndianGaming the same day. The IndianGaming post was titled "Say Goodbye to your Overnight Steam downloads." The post described his own setup: 100 Mbps home Wi-Fi, an Android phone sharing Airtel 5G over USB (about 160 Mbps), and an iPhone running a Jio 5G hotspot (about 120 Mbps). Using all three lines together, a 80GB Steam game finished in 30 minutes. The next day he posted again in r/developersIndia.

This scenario is especially real in India. Jio and Airtel's 5G plans are unlimited and fast, but many homes only have 100 Mbps broadband, so the phone is a ready, idle second line. Later, someone on r/IndianPCGamers posted asking: they have JioFiber at home and wanted to share their phone's 5G over USB to combine it for big downloads. Is there a way?

### What it is

A small program that runs on your PC (written in Go, MIT open source). Once installed, a new icon appears in the menu bar or tray, and it uses all the networks your PC is connected to (Wi-Fi, Ethernet, phone USB tethering, phone hotspot) at once. No account, no server, not a VPN.

The principle is simple: each new connection is assigned to one of the lines, and faster lines get more. So downloads that open many connections at once, like Steam or IDM, get faster; a download on a single connection doesn't. The README puts this up front: the "Good for" list includes Steam, browsers, system updates, cloud uploads, IDM, and BitTorrent, and "Not for" says single connections. Its own test was Wi-Fi + Android USB tethering + iPhone hotspot with 9 downloads running together, reaching 232 to 303 Mbit/s. The fastest line on its own gets about 121.

Installation is one command. Windows has an installer package, Linux supports five package managers (apt, dnf, zypper, pacman, apk), and macOS uses Homebrew. In 25 days it shipped 10 releases: on day 3 a community contributor ported it to Linux / NixOS, on day 4 macOS was added, and on day 12 an Android version came out. Of the commits, 87 carry co-authorship credits to Claude Opus / Sonnet 5.5, so the cross-platform and packaging grunt work was largely written by AI.

### When the stars came

| Date | Daily new stars | What happened that day |
|---|---|---|
| 10-12 | 0 | Created the repo, posted to r/pcmasterrace and r/IndianGaming |
| 10-13 | +47 | Posted to r/developersIndia |
| 10-16 | +37 |  |
| 10-17 | **+692** | Reached #9 on Trendshift's all-sites daily chart and #1 for Go |
| 10-18 | +328 | The tech blog bytesizego wrote a Go implementation walkthrough; Chinese tool sites and GitCode blogs started writing install tutorials |
| 10-19 | +242 |  |
| 10-21 to 10-23 | +75 / +226 / +208 | Reposted on X by @GithubProjects 10-21, about 11k views. The author posted "Net-Merge just got an upgrade after 16K downloads" |
| After 10-30 | +20 to +50 per day | Cooling off |
| 11-06 | Cumulative 2,898, forks 172 | Last 7 days +283, first 7 days +1,080 |

Data: Trendshift daily figures, GitHub daily stars / forks (11-06).

One point needs clarifying: the Reddit launch was on 10-12 and 10-13, and those two days brought only a few dozen stars. The single-day peak of +692 came four days later. What specifically happened in between (which post got bumped, or who shared it) hasn't been verified. What is certain is that 10-17 it climbed the Trendshift daily chart, and all the later spread started from the chart and repost accounts. Also, GitHub's official trending page doesn't list repos less than 60 days old, so it never appeared at github.com/trending.

More telling than stars are the download numbers: release downloads cumulatively about 40k (GitHub, 11-06), mostly the Windows installer. When the author posted in late October he wrote "1.8k stars and 16k downloads." Downloads running an order of magnitude above stars means many people actually installed it and use it, not just starred it.

### Why this one, and why now

**The need is old, the spot is new.** Using two networks at once has been around for over a decade. Connectify's Dispatch did the same "split across connections" thing, but it was paid, and it was discontinued 2019 years ago. Its sibling Speedify is still alive, but it routes traffic through its own servers to aggregate, requires an account, and costs about $15 a month. The open-source dispatch-proxy (3,487 stars, 2013 years old) is a SOCKS proxy plus command line, so every app has to be configured manually. OpenMPTCProuter requires flashing a router and renting a VPS. The position of "free, every app works automatically after install, has a GUI, doesn't use anyone's server" has been empty since Dispatch was discontinued.

**The scenario is instantly testable.** Players waiting on Steam downloads are the perfect case for this method: Steam opens many connections at once, so after install you see speed double, and a screenshot can be shared. It doesn't need to convince anyone of any technology; one speed-test image is enough.

**The README reads like a product page.** The first screen is a 45-second speed test GIF, followed by the 232–303 vs 121 numbers, then Good for / Not for. Stating up front that single downloads won't get faster cuts down on bad reviews.

**The timing is India's unlimited 5G.** The author is in India, and the first battleground was India's subreddits. On the same day (10-12), another Indian developer launched a nearly identical project, uditya-kumar/MultiPath (Rust + Tauri, Windows / Linux only), 5 hours before net-merge. Two people hit the same idea at the same time, which suggests the need is real locally. MultiPath wasn't promoted much and didn't ship installers for every platform, and it has 127 stars now.

### Who's competing for this

| Name | Format | Scale | Compared with net-merge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speedify | Paid, Win / Mac / mobile | Since 2014, about $15 a month | Goes through servers, can speed up single connections too; requires an account and money |
| Connectify Dispatch | Paid, Windows | Discontinued 2019 years ago | Same idea, but gone |
| dispatch-proxy and the Go / Rust versions | Open-source command line | 3,487 / 371 / 635 star | Proxy-based; each app must be configured |
| OpenMPTCProuter | Open-source router solution | 2,545 star | Requires flashing a router plus a VPS; for tinkerers |
| uditya-kumar/MultiPath | Open source | 127 stars, created 10-12 | Same idea on the same day, no promotion |
| kekawia/net-switch | Open source, Windows | 91 stars, created 10-14 | Per-app interface selection plus merging |
| FlashWreck/net-merge-decky | Steam Deck plugin | 11 star | Add-on built for net-merge |

Data: GitHub (11-06). The competitors that appeared afterward top out around a hundred stars, and there's no real copycat yet.

The author is moving up too: the README promotes his commercial version RoutEngine (per-app interface selection, failover, rate limiting; free for individuals, Pro is paid), and several PRs in the repo specifically adjust where the RoutEngine link sits in the README. The open-source version draws traffic, the commercial version makes money. That's his playbook. For anyone trying to collect stars, it means he's already working on "per-app routing".

### Can you follow it?

First, what not to do: building another net-merge. It takes the spot, ships fast (25 days, 10 releases, four platforms), and both MultiPath and net-switch, which started the same day, stalled around a hundred stars. A head-on clone would most likely stall there too. There isn't much it's missing: per-connection speedup needs a server, and building that gets you Speedify; per-app routing is what the author is building in RoutEngine; a Steam Deck plugin already exists, with 11 stars.

What's actually worth copying is how it took off, and that method doesn't depend on fame. The author had no big Reddit account, no channel, no Hacker News post, no ads:

1. **Look for gaps where an old need meets an expensive or discontinued paid option and a free option that only exists as a command line.** First check whether a tool has been discontinued or its free tier pulled, then check whether the open-source options on GitHub are still stuck in the 'edit configs, run commands' form.

2. **Make it something ordinary people can install.** One-line install, a Windows installer, a tray icon, hooks into the main package managers. This is the most tedious work, and AI coding can now handle it in one pass. While others are still shipping the Windows version, you're already on four platforms.

3. **Launch in a specific pain-point community, not a general developer one.** It launched in gaming subreddits, with posts built around its own real setup and a tempting number (80GB, 30 minutes), not a technical description.

4. **Put a verifiable number on the first screen of the README.** A speed-test GIF with "232–303 vs 121", plus a Good for / Not for section.

5. **Every release is a reason to post again.** Posts like "16k downloads, upgraded" can go out several times a month.

### If it were you

**B: The playbook is worth copying, but don't build a second net-merge.** It shows that someone with no audience, by picking the right gap, writing the right posts, and shipping releases fast enough, can get close to 3,000 stars in 25 days. Followers can do all of those steps themselves. The weakness is that this specific spot is already taken, and finding the next equivalent gap is the bet you'd have to make yourself.

- **Who it suits** : indie developers with some systems or network programming background who already hang out in a gaming or hardware community; people willing to put effort into installers and multi-platform support rather than just shipping working code.

- **Who it doesn't suit** : anyone who wants to compete head-on in multi-network bonding (net-merge iterates too fast, and its rivals have stalled around a hundred stars); people who only want to write a command-line tool and won't build an installer or UI; people with no community to launch in who are counting on organic GitHub traffic.

- **How to do it** : list things in communities you know where "a good tool used to exist and then disappeared," and for each one check whether the GitHub alternatives are still just command lines. Pick one you can prove works with a single number or screenshot, get the Windows installer and the README's first screen right, then add other platforms.

- **How to get users** : launch in subreddits where your users cluster (games, hardware, specific software). Headlines should state the result and the scenario; the body should show your real setup and measured numbers. Then amplify through leaderboards like Trendshift and GitHub repost accounts on X. Post again with each major release.

- **When to move before it's too late** : the playbook of "AI fills in cross-platform support + a free alternative to an old need" is still rare, and it will likely be copied heavily within half a year, so the sooner you claim a gap, the better (estimate). The hype around multi-network bonding itself has already faded; weekly star growth fell from 1,080 to 283.

- **What would show this read is wrong** : (1) if over the next month or two a net-merge follower (not the original) gets past a thousand stars, that means the direction has room for more than one entrant, and it's worth moving up a tier; (2) if people who try this playbook in other communities mostly stall at a few dozen stars, that means net-merge depended on a one-off timing like India's 5G rollout, not the method, and it should move down a tier; (3) if Indian carriers start throttling hotspot traffic (Reddit users are already complaining that Airtel's "unlimited 5G" doesn't count as unlimited for hotspot use), net-merge's core use case shrinks, and its growth will fall faster than it is now.

[GitHub repo ↗](https://github.com/net-merge/net-merge)

**Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report**

Competitors

| Name | Where | Launched | Scale | How it differs from this one |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speedify | Other | 2014 | A mature paid product, around $14.99 per month | Speedify aggregates through its own servers in a VPN-style setup and can speed up a single connection too, but it requires an account and payment. net-merge aggregates locally, is free, and has no servers. |
| Connectify Dispatch | Other | Discontinued around 2011,2019 years ago | Discontinued | Same per-connection aggregation idea, but paid and Windows-only. Its discontinuation left the gap open. |
| alexkirsz/dispatch-proxy | Open source | 2013 | 3487 stars, stalled | SOCKS proxy plus command line, with each app configured by hand. net-merge uses a system-wide TUN: once installed it applies everywhere, and it has a tray UI. |
| go-dispatch-proxy / alexkirsz/dispatch | Open source | 2018 / 2021 | 371 / 635 stars | Also a proxy plus command line, aimed at developers |
| OpenMPTCProuter / OVH OverTheBox | Open source | 2017 / 2016 | 2545 / 214 stars | A router-based setup that needs a VPS as the aggregation endpoint, a hassle. net-merge is a one-click install on your computer. |
| Samsung Download Booster | Big-company features | 2014 | Some Samsung phones; now a legacy feature | Phone only, and only for large file downloads. No major vendor has built a desktop version. |
| uditya-kumar/MultiPath | Open source | 2026-10-12 | 127 stars | Same idea on the same day (Rust + Tauri, Win/Linux only), with no promotion and no packaging for every platform. |

Where users come from

- **Verified** **Original posts by the Reddit author** : r/pcmasterrace "I made Net-Merge ... speed up Steam and IDM downloads", r/IndianGaming "Say goodbye to your overnight Steam downloads", r/developersIndia, r/HomeNetworking. The posts include real measurements over Wi-Fi + Airtel 5G + Jio 5G; the timing and the +692 on 10-17 line up (exact times and scores not verified).

- **Verified** **GitHub leaderboards / aggregator sites** : Trendshift ranked 10-17 overall #9 and #1 in Go, and charted on the Go list at 10-27; Daily Launch 10-28; reposted by r/BestGitHubRepos; opensourcealternatives.to lists it as an alternative to Speedify.

- **Verified** **X/Threads repost accounts** : @GithubProjects 10-21 posts, about 11k views and 67 likes (fxtwitter)

- **Verified** **YouTube Shorts / Instagram / Facebook / long-tail blogs** : several Shorts and Reels; bytesizego (10-18), a Chinese tutorial from baffox (10-24), techno360 (11-05)

- **Verified** **Posting again with each release** : Reddit "Net-Merge just got an upgrade after 16K downloads", also promoting RoutEngine

- Inferred **Hacker News / Product Hunt / ads** : the hackernews database and Algolia both returned no results; no Product Hunt listing or ads found.

## net-merge/net-merge: why it reached nearly 3000 stars in 25 days

> Research date 2026-11-06. Sources: our GitHub database (repo_profile / repo_day), the hackernews database, the GitHub API, Trendshift pages, Brave/Jina/Exa search results, fxtwitter. The original Reddit posts were blocked by 403, so post scores and exact posting times are **unverified** ; we only had search summaries.

### One line

It's a free, MIT-licensed tray utility (Go + Wintun/TUN) that uses Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and phone USB tethering / hotspot at the same time on Windows, macOS, and Linux (Android added later), load-balancing by assigning each new connection to one link. The author is Indian developer Rohit Mahto (rohit267, an employee at Techolution, based in Jharkhand), who wrote it with Claude Code (the commits include 87 Co-authored-by lines for Claude Opus/Sonnet 5.5). The open-source version is a funnel: the README promotes his commercial product RoutEngine (free for individuals, paid Pro tier) and another product, DormHost.

### Growth data

- 2026-10-12 database created (originally rohit267/net-merge, later moved to the net-merge organization). By Trendshift's daily data: 10-13 +47,10-16 +37, **10-17 +692** (overall on Trendshift #9, #1 in Go), and 10-18 +328,10-19 +242,10-22/23 each added another 200 or so, after which it cooled to 20–50 per day.

- In our database: 2026-11-06 is at 2898 stars / 172 forks, +283 in the last 7 days and +1080 in the 7 days before that, with status "cooling." The single-day peak was +566 (recorded in the database on 10-18, due to a UTC vs. Beijing time difference). Fork/star ratio is 5.9%, suspect is empty, and there are no signs of star farming.

- Cumulative release-asset downloads are about 42k (summed by the GitHub API across v0.1.0–v0.3.6; the Windows installer accounts for most). That's stronger evidence of real use than stars.

- In late October the author posted "Net-Merge just got an upgrade after 16K downloads" (the Reddit title, appearing in r/IndianGaming and r/pcmasterrace).

### Competitors

| Name | Where | Launched | Scale | How it differs from net-merge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speedify (Connectify company) | Win/Mac/iOS/Android | 2014 | A paid VPN-style channel-aggregation product, around $14.99 per month (security.org 2026-09) | Traffic goes through Speedify's servers (a VPN tunnel), which can speed up even a single connection, but it requires an account, costs money, and adds a hop. net-merge uses no servers and is free, but it won't make a single connection faster. |
| Connectify Dispatch | Windows | Discontinued about 2011,2019 years ago (connectify.me) | Discontinued | Same per-connection aggregation idea, but paid. The gap stayed open after it was discontinued. |
| alexkirsz/dispatch-proxy | Open source (Node) | 2013 | 3487 stars, stalled | Just a SOCKS proxy: each app has to be configured by hand, from the command line. net-merge is a system-level TUN, so once installed every app uses it, and it has a tray UI. |
| extremecoders-re/go-dispatch-proxy, alexkirsz/dispatch (Rust) | Open source | 2018 / 2021 | 371 / 635 stars | Same as above: proxy plus command line |
| OpenMPTCProuter, OVH OverTheBox | Open source / router-based | 2017 / 2016 | 2545 / 214 stars | Requires flashing a router and a VPS as the aggregation endpoint, aimed at tinkerers. net-merge is a one-click install on your computer. |
| Samsung Download Booster, and similar features in Android | Big-company features | 2014 | Only on some Samsung devices; now a legacy feature | Phone only, and only for large file downloads. No major vendor has built a desktop version. |
| NetCombiner - Internet Bonding | Android | Not verified | Not verified | Mobile only, and doesn't overlap with the desktop use case |
| uditya-kumar/MultiPath | Open source (Rust + Tauri) | 2026-10-12 (5 hours before net-merge) | 127 stars | Nearly the same idea on the same day from another Indian developer. Windows and Linux only, no promotion, and it got no traffic. |
| kekawia/net-switch | Open source (Go + sing-box) | 2026-10-14 | 91 stars | Per-app interface selection plus aggregation, the same direction as RoutEngine, but Windows only. |

Bottom line: this need has existed for over a decade. The paid option (Speedify) has done fine, free desktop tools have stayed in the "proxy + command line" form, and since Connectify Dispatch was discontinued, the gap for "install and it just works, no server, free, with a UI" has stayed open.

### Where users come from (by time)

1. **Author's own Reddit posts (confirmed, main engine)** : r/pcmasterrace "I made Net-Merge which uses all network connections on windows to speed up Steam and IDM downloads", r/IndianGaming "Say goodbye to your overnight Steam downloads", r/developersIndia, r/HomeNetworking and others. The posts describe a very specific setup: 100 Mbps home Wi-Fi + Airtel 5G (Android USB tethering, about 160 Mbps) + Jio 5G (iPhone hotspot, about 120 Mbps), "download a 80GB Steam game in 30 minutes". Brave shows these posts date to around mid-October, which matches the +692 on 10-17. Exact post dates and scores are unverified (Reddit 403).

2. **Amplified by GitHub charts and aggregators (confirmed)** : Trendshift ranked it #9 site-wide and #1 in Go (10-17), then it stayed on the Go chart until 10-27; Daily Launch ranked it #75 (10-28); r/BestGitHubRepos reposted it as "(1.6k stars)"; opensourcealternatives.to listed it as an open-source alternative to "Speedify / Connectify Dispatch". Note: GitHub's official trending doesn't include repos younger than 60 days, so it never made github.com/trending.

3. **X repost account (confirmed, small scale)** : @GithubProjects posted 10-21, about 11k views, 67 likes, 62 bookmarks (fxtwitter); synced to Threads. 10-22/23 that wave may have added 200+ per day. Our X corpus has no matching tweet.

4. **Long tail of reposts on YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, Facebook tech pages and tech blogs (confirmed to exist, reach not quantified)** : multiple Shorts and Reels titled "Combine Wi-Fi and mobile data with net-merge", Facebook group posts; Matt Boyle wrote a Go implementation walkthrough at bytesizego.com 10-18; baffox.com (Chinese tutorial, 10-24), techno360.in review (11-05), sabbirz, itgnow and others.

5. **Not found** : Hacker News (neither our database nor Algolia has a net-merge post), Product Hunt, paid ads.

### Why it took off

- **It hits a specific, immediately testable scenario** : gamers waiting on big Steam downloads, and IDM's multi-threaded downloads. This is exactly where splitting traffic across connections pays off, so users see their speed double on the first try and are willing to screenshot and share it.

- **Timing: India's unlimited 5G** . Jio and Airtel's 5G is unlimited and fast, while many home broadband plans only deliver 100 Mbps, so a phone hotspot is a ready-made "second line". The author and the first distribution channels (r/IndianGaming, r/developersIndia) are all in India; another Indian developer shipped the same idea that same day (MultiPath), which suggests the local need is real.

- **The product shape fills a gap:** free, no account, no server in the middle, not a VPN, works system-wide, with a tray UI. One command installs it; Windows gets an installer, Linux gets the package managers (6 of them), and Homebrew is supported too. The old open-source options all need a proxy setup, and Speedify costs money and routes traffic through its servers.

- **The README reads like a product page** : it opens with a speed-test GIF and real numbers like "232–303 Mbit/s, single connection max 121"; the "Good for / Not for" section makes clear that a single connection won't get faster, which sets expectations and cuts down on bad reviews.

- **Fast iteration, fast cross-platform** : 10 releases in 25 days; on day 3 a community contributor ported it to Linux / NixOS, on day 4 macOS support landed, on day 12 an Android version shipped. Each update gave the author another "we upgraded" post ("just got an upgrade after 16K downloads"). The speed of iteration came from Claude Code.

### Differentiation

Versus Speedify: splitting happens locally, no server, free, no privacy concerns; the trade-off is that a single connection doesn't get faster. Versus open-source options like dispatch-proxy: system-level TUN + tray UI + one-command install, so ordinary gamers can use it. The differentiation is "turning a decade-old idea into a free desktop app that ordinary people can install", and that is why it took off; there's nothing technically new (bytesizego's article also says it mainly relies on Go's socket Control hook). Polished distribution (installers, package repos, screenshots) and India's 5G scenario mattered more than the technology.

### How it makes money

The open-source version itself is free, but the README pushes RoutEngine (routengine.net: per-app network binding, automatic failover, rate limiting, data caps; free for personal use, Pro required for more than 3 apps, command-line version under the PolyForm Noncommercial license) and DormHost (project hosting for students, 30 days free) at the bottom and middle. PRs #67 / #72 / #73 specifically adjusted where RoutEngine appears in the README and added utm tags to the link. So the model is "open-source hit drives traffic → commercial version charges". RoutEngine's revenue is not public and we couldn't find it.

### Awareness

Spread within small circles: several Reddit subreddits, GitHub aggregator sites, repost accounts, long-tail blogs and Shorts. Not on HN, no major media coverage, only one mid-sized repost account on X (11k views). No public revenue.

### Copycats

Similar repos that appeared around the same time or later are all small: uditya-kumar/MultiPath (127 stars, created the same day, likely a coincidental idea, not a copy), kekawia/net-switch (91 stars), FlashWreck/net-merge-decky (Steam Deck plugin, 11 stars, created 10-15), viktor-svirsky/tether (48 stars, iPhone tethering, tangentially related). No serious copycat has appeared yet.

### What others can borrow

- Look for an old need where paid options exist but free options are hard to use, then build a free tool with one-command install and a UI, with no account and no server.

- Early users were sent to a **specific pain-point community** (gamers waiting on Steam downloads) rather than generic developer communities; posts included real measured numbers and the author's actual setup.

- The README works as a landing page: a GIF, speed-test numbers, Good for / Not for, and copy-paste install commands for each platform.

- Every release is a reason to post again; the open-source version drives traffic, and the commercial version (RoutEngine) monetizes it.

- Use AI coding to finish the messy cross-platform and packaging work in one go; by the time others are still on the Windows version, you're already on every platform.

### Unknowns

- The exact timing and scores of the Reddit posts, and which post drove the +692 on 10-17, are unverified (Reddit 403).

- RoutEngine's paying users and revenue are unknown.

- How much of the 42k downloads are repeats or updates is unknown; so is retention.

- Growth cooled quickly (weekly adds fell from 1080 to 283); whether it becomes a long-term tool depends on the Android version and RoutEngine.

### Sources

- GitHub: [github.com/net-merge/net-merge](https://github.com/net-merge/net-merge) (README, releases API, git log)

- Trendshift:[trendshift.io/repositories/301802](https://trendshift.io/repositories/301802)

- Reddit (search summaries): [www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1x4cnbq/](https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1x4cnbq/), [www.reddit.com/r/IndianGaming/comments/1x4dvjf/](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianGaming/comments/1x4dvjf/), [www.reddit.com/r/developersIndia/comments/1x4lsy0/](https://www.reddit.com/r/developersIndia/comments/1x4lsy0/), [www.reddit.com/r/BestGitHubRepos/comments/1xcbm55/](https://www.reddit.com/r/BestGitHubRepos/comments/1xcbm55/), [www.reddit.com/r/IndianGaming/comments/1xd5jrx/](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianGaming/comments/1xd5jrx/)

- X: [x.com/GithubProjects/status/2112974712305537488](https://x.com/GithubProjects/status/2112974712305537488) (numbers from fxtwitter)

- [www.bytesizego.com/blog/how-net-merge-load-balances-tcp-flow…](https://www.bytesizego.com/blog/how-net-merge-load-balances-tcp-flows-across-network-adapter)(2026-10-18)

- [www.opensourcealternatives.to/item/net-merge](https://www.opensourcealternatives.to/item/net-merge), [baffox.com/net-merge-combine-wifi-ethernet-mobile/](https://baffox.com/net-merge-combine-wifi-ethernet-mobile/), [techno360.in/net-merge-review-combine-wifi-ethernet/](https://techno360.in/net-merge-review-combine-wifi-ethernet/), [dailylaunch.org/p/net-merge](https://dailylaunch.org/p/net-merge)

- [routengine.net](https://routengine.net), [github.com/champdev-me/routengine](https://github.com/champdev-me/routengine)

- Speedify pricing: [www.security.org/vpn/speedify-vpn/](https://www.security.org/vpn/speedify-vpn/); Dispatch discontinued: [connectify.me/new-release/](https://connectify.me/new-release/)

- Our database: github (repo_profile, rising, 2026-11-06), hackernews (no results)

This article was written by AI from public data and the data we collect daily. Numbers are sourced, and inferences are labeled.