For many Minecraft players, there can be many different options for playing on a local server, hosting and managing your own Minecraft server. In this helpful little guide below, we hope to give you an idea of what Minecraft server hosting is and how you can make the right choice when choosing a provider based on your needs and budget. Whether you want to rent your very first Minecraft server or buy from a server hosting company that offers a wide range of services, including hosting, server management and more, this is the place to be.
This is essentially a host company that owns a powerful computer and then splits the server into smaller pieces that they rent out to their customers in the form of a Minecraft server package.
The company lists the package at different prices depending on how many resources you need, which is relative to the size of each part of the physical server. You could rent a dedicated server, but it would cost much more than the hosting package. With a Minecraft server package, you will be able to install and manage everything yourself.
For users who want to get directly into playing and running their own server without doing too much technical work themselves, a package on a shared server is fantastic. We recommend this for new users, as it does not require knowledge of server administration. Compare the home page and the page below for more information about the various Minecraft server packages and their prices.
Costs Considerations
Costs are usually one of the first things people consider when buying a server and should be taken into account when choosing a host. In our opinion, the cost of a small server that supports up to 10 users and provides support for all of them is usually around PS8. The most important thing to consider when setting prices is what is included in the price, what price you pay and whether you get everything included or have to pay separately.
Quality of Support
If you are new to Minecraft hosting, chances are you will need the help of a support team and in our opinion this is usually what separates the good from the bad hosts. If you need support and assistance, they usually provide it in the form of support, support teams and other support services.
Many of the companies we have used in the past have been top notch in answering support tickets, but some poor companies took advantage of this and completely ignored our requests, took a few days to respond and we had to move our business elsewhere. Our advice would be to look at a company’s rating and test its support before buying a server by sending in a few tickets and seeing how committed it is to answering them. Smaller and newer hosting companies may have difficulty with support, as their teams are usually very small and they have difficulty providing 24-hour support.
Over the years, we have seen many game server providers offer test servers to try out their services. This can be a very good way to see how well the service works in terms of distance between servers, and it is relatively easy to export it and move it between worlds.
Server Location
I would always suggest choosing a server location as close to your friends as possible to improve your ping experience and overall experience. It is easy to spend 10-20 minutes looking for feedback from other users, which is much easier to find in the MinecraftHosting TrustPilot community forums. Some servers may not be as good as they seem, so make sure you do your research before you spend your hard-earned money on servers that don’t match user feedback.
The location is very important when you choose a company to host your game, as it can have a drastic impact on the performance of your server depending on where other users connect with you. If you rent a server in Australia, you may have difficulty connecting from the UK. Always keep location and distance in mind when choosing your provider.
If a hosting company has many sites to choose from, it means that they have been around for a while and are well established, while companies with fewer sites are usually younger and smaller.
Reviews, Mods and Plugins
Therefore, I recommend that you check several sources before buying, and TrustPilot offers its companies the option to remove negative reviews if they pay a monthly premium.
Minecraft now has hundreds of mods and addons that hosting companies need to add individually to your server. Don’t forget to check out our guide where you can go for a hosting experience, and also our Minecraft Hosting Guide for more information.
If you are new to server hosting, it is worth asking your selected company if it includes mod support in the monthly price you pay. Some companies charge very low monthly costs for your server, but ask if you need to pay extra for changes to the service.
Overcrowding with Providers
Selling servers and overcrowding with lots of people on one server was a big problem many years ago and that’s still happening to hosting companies. You will basically be putting too many users on one server and hoping that not all accounts are active at the same time.
In my experience, this usually happens with very cheap hosting companies, but they can offer such low prices because the overhead costs are much lower.
These companies do not pay for the physical equipment they rent or own, so they can operate on lower margins. The cheaper companies do not usually put resources into regular backups, but additional storage or system resources could be the difference between profit and loss. These companies could experience enormous downtime and lose their world, or they might not have to make backups at all.
