The Things Network offers a free and developer-friendly way to get familiar with LoRaWAN technology. The Things Network provides a public community LoRaWAN network, initiated by The Things Industries , and supported by 100k+ community members from more than 100 countries around the world.
Join The Things Network Forum or Slack for community support.
For commercial solutions, we recommend using an SLA-backed network provided by The Things Industries. Learn more about The Things Industries.
The Things Network runs on open source code, actively maintained by The Things Industries. If you would like to explore or contribute, visit our open source LoRaWAN stack repository.
Useful links:
- The Things Network development environment
- The Things Stack Introduction video
- Visit the official The Things Stack documentation page.
- What is The Things Industries, The Things Network and The Things Stack?
Important note: In 2021, The Things Network community edition will be upgraded to use The Things Stack V3. The Things Network Stack V2 will no longer be actively maintained. If you have been using The Things Network, you will need to learn how to migrate your gateways and devices to The Things Stack.
Learn more about LoRaWAN
LoRaWAN is a radio frequency protocol that allows devices to connect to the Internet over a long range with incredibly low power consumption. Visit our documentation to learn more about LoRaWAN.
Watch the video below on Everything you need to know about LoRaWAN in 60 minutes by Johan Stokking (tech lead of The Things Network):
Read along to learn how you can implement your end-to-end IoT prototype within a day.
Set up your LoRaWAN network
The main building blocks of The Things Network are gateways. Thousands of gateways across the globe are already connected to The Things Network, making the community LoRaWAN network available for free usage.
See the global coverage map
Although you might already have coverage in your area, we still recommend you get your hands on a gateway to ensure reliable coverage. There are a lot of gateways with extensive features on the market, so make sure you choose the one that fits your needs best. For example, here is a short list of some popular indoor gateways:
Gateway | Link | |
---|---|---|
![]() |
Mikrotik wAP LR8 | More info |
![]() |
Laird Sentrius RG1xx | More info |
![]() |
Tektelic Kona Micro Lite | More info |
![]() |
Multitech Conduit AP | More info |
Once you have your hands on a gateway, learn how to connect your gateway to The Things Stack.
Important note: Different world regions use different frequency plans, e.g. 863-870 MHz for Europe, 902-928 MHz for North America, etc. Make sure you double-check that the hardware aligns with your region’s radio frequency before purchasing!
To learn more about gateways, have a look at the review video by Ben Olayinka:
Get your development board and activate it
To build a prototype of your end-to-end IoT solution, you will need a development board. Here is a short list of popular development boards that can help you build your IoT app in no-time:
Image | Development board | Webshop |
---|---|---|
![]() |
The Things Uno | Buy |
![]() |
Arduino MKR WAN 1300 | Buy |
![]() |
Pycom LoPy4 | Buy |
![]() |
STM32L0 Discovery Kit | Buy |
![]() |
Adafruit Feather RFM95 LoRa Radio | Buy |
Did you set up your gateway and created a free account on The Things Network? Great, now it is time to activate your development board! Learn how to connect your device to The Things Stack.
To learn more about getting started with The Things Stack, have a look at the video by Bogdans Afonins:
Build your end-to-end application
Once you have your LoRaWAN network setup, you can use available integrations to build your end-to-end IoT solution. Integrations allow you to process data and act on it by triggering events. Learn how to create integrations.