If you’re someone that’s looking to set up their own server on Minecraft, then you will need to use a hosting provider to help you make that happen and bring your server to life. Although options were limited in the past, there are now countless of different minecraft hosting providers to choose from - but actually picking one can be a difficult decision to make. There are just so many factors to consider - speed, reliability, pricing, uptime, server setup difficulty, etc. that it can be overwhelming to say the least. Let’s take a look at the best minecraft server hosting providers according to Minecraft aficionados.
Best Minecraft Server Hosting Providers To Use
1. Apex Minecraft Hosting (Claim Your Discount)
If you’ve already started to do some research on the best minecraft server hosts out there, then you have almost certainly heard of Apex hosting already. This is one of the biggest players in the industry and it’s for good reason - Apex has offered stable and reliable hosting services to tens of thousands of customers for years, and shows no signs of slowing down. Players love this service because they offer some extremely flexible plans that are not only reliable (with fantastic uptime and speeds) but also very affordable.
The user interface of Apex hosting is simple yet attractive. It is extremely easy to install (that is important to mention) and the vast majority of their customers are satisfied with the amount of storage they were able to profit from when using them. Overall, they seem to check all the boxes and that is precisely what makes them the best minecraft hosting service on the market right now. Their cheapest package starts at less than $5 per month which gives you 1 GB of storage and 1 GB of ram which is pretty great. Here are some features of Apex:
- Raid SSD’s
- FTP Access
- MySQL Databases
- Instant Setup
- Consistently Reliable Uptime
- 9 Geographical Location to Opt
- Free Subdomain
- Automatic Backups
- Supports modpacks
- Introductory discount to new customers
- 24/7 Live Customer Support
- DDOS protection
- Free domain
2. ShockByte Hosting (Claim Your Discount)
Next up on our list we have ShockByte which came in as a very close second, but it is still second nonetheless. This is a hosting provider that offers even more competitive pricing than Apex, but many have said that the quality in service is slightly lower than that of Apex’s which is why we couldn’t have it higher on this list. Their smallest plan starts out at less than $3 per month with 1 GB of ram which is extremely cheap even for those on the tightest budgets. It is also definitely one of the easiest hosting services to use which is why it is beloved by many newbies who are just setting up their first server on minecraft. ShockByte is relatively stable, but they simply do not have the amount of features that Apex’s hosting offers, which justifies the price difference between the two services. Speed is also not quite up there with Apex. From a financial point of view, this is simply just a cheaper hosting service that is reliable enough for most users. Again, we are not saying that this is a bad service at all (otherwise, we wouldn’t have it at #2 on the list). It just isn’t as great as Apex, yet. Features of ShockByte include:
- 100% uptime: any network outages that may occur are covered and covered by the company’s service level agreement.
- Guaranteed protection through DDoS: with the mission to protect all threats. If this is not achieved, the lack of coverage is also covered by the service level agreement.
- Instant reconfiguration: the hosting system is automated to instantly activate your new server.
- 24/7 Support: offers the availability of a support team always present to help with any inconvenience that may arise.
- Free sub-domain: you can create a personalized IP with the name you have given to your Minecraft server for free, already included in the contract price of each package.
- Automatic backups are offered.
3. ScalaCube Hosting (Claim Your Discount)
ScalaCube is an interesting hosting provider. Although some people have had great experiences using it, others tell a different story. The main knock on this host has been that they don’t really seem to have 100% uptime like many of the other hosting providers do, which can be a very big problem. Now, this has not been an issue for everybody but it has been mentioned in the past so it was crucial for us to mention that. Their plans also start out at less than $3 per month, but the smallest plan only offers 768 MB of ram which quite frankly isn’t going to be enough for most people. The next plan starts out with 1.5 GB of ram and is right around the $5 per month mark which is more acceptable. Although not a perfect service, it still remains one of the superior options out there for those seeking the greatest minecraft server hosting services available right now. Some features include:
- Minecraft 1.8 Support
- Native Support for Minecraft 1.7 (JVM) and 1.6 (Java)
- Dedicated Managed ModPack Host
- Free Ranks for all players who want to play in-game
- Custom Minecraft Servers for all Minecraft Servers
4. Bisect Hosting (Claim Your Discount)
Bisect is a bit of a more premium hosting service out right now. They are more expensive than many of the other guys, but offer a more professional service. Bisect Hosting provides a number of flexible options in Minecraft server hosting with budget and premium packages offering from 1GB up to 32GB of RAM (starting at $7.99 per month). Bisect Hosting provides easy setup, unlimited slots as mentioned (in premium packages), free MySQL, free subdomains, modpack updates and more, making this provider an attractive choice for those that are more experienced in setting up their own servers on minecraft. Still, pricing is an important factor to consider which is why we were hesitant to place this much higher on our list. There is definitely a place on this list for a more premium service on this list though, because there are many experienced players who aren’t necessarily looking for the cheapest hosts. Fortunately, they offer some budget options which are significantly cheaper than their premium options, but you will be getting much less ram. Their features include:
- 24/7 support and professional service.
- Fast response and great service.
- Strictly follow anti-cheat policy.
- Higher security and better protection for your server.
- Fully support popular plugins
5. Sparked Host (Claim Your Discount)
Sparked Host is a bit of an underrated host these days simply because the other giants have taken the bulk of the market share. Sparked Host is also a provider that offers cheaper hosting solutions for those looking to set up their own Minecraft server(s). Although affordable, our personal experience with it wasn’t the best and that is the reason why we docked it a couple of points. In terms of usability and their interface, it’s one of the cleanest and easiest to use. Their packages are also quite flexible and offer something for virtually anyone which is fantastic and something we appreciated a lot. This is a better hosting provider to use for beginners and perhaps for those on a budget, but it wouldn’t necessarily be the first minecraft server hosting provider we would recommend for those that are more experienced with setting up their own servers. It’s not great but not terrible either. They offer budget, extreme, and enterprise packages which differ in terms of pricing and ram offered. Sparked Host at this point is just solid, which is still enough to say that it’s better than most hosting providers out there.
Benefits of having your own Minecraft Server:
- You get the freedom to decide what Minecraft mods to install and what to skip.
- Build your own small community or gamers with your closest friends and relatives.
- With your own server, you only have to worry about rules that will affect your community.
- Your own Minecraft server can be a great teaching tool to shape young minds about decision-making and behavioral aspects.
- You can monetize your Minecraft server with in-game advertising and setting up web stores. Okay, so this might be a long shot, but if you can set the slim odds aside and believe that it is a possibility after all, this might be a good reason to start investing in a Minecraft server. As a rule of thumb, keeping the server afloat with merely the (expected) donations is not advisable – aim higher, if you can. Successful Minecraft servers are able to start generating profit, but always remember that’s usually after tedious – not to mention nerve-racking – efforts to gain visibility.
Choosing A Minecraft Server Hosting Provider: What To Consider
Like we have already mentioned, you’re going to come across a lot of different hosts to choose from which oftentimes makes the selection process somewhat overwhelming to many people. You might be wondering - “how do I even go about choosing a single hosting provider?”. The answer is that it is not all that difficult once you sit down and really analyze what you’re looking for and how much you are willing to spend to make it happen. These are just some of the things to look at before making a final decision.
Hardware
The importance of hardware when running online multiplayer games cannot be stressed enough; this is a crucial thing to take into consideration. If you’re planning on having a number of players with different mods, Minecraft can be extremely demanding when it comes to hardware. Choosing the right kind of processor (with enough RAM) to handle such heavy hardware requirements is critical in keeping your multiplayer environment optimized. In choosing the hosting for your Minecraft server, the hardware will definitely be a dealmaker… or a dealbreaker.
Pricing
Pricing is huge and arguably the first thing you should think about before making a decision. All of these hosting providers offer competitive pricing with all of their packages, but which one you should go with depends entirely on your budget and how much RAM/storage you are looking to get. If you know that you’ll need a surplus of RAM, it wouldn’t be wise to cheap out and go with a smaller package. Instead, try to find a host that offers what you need at a lowered cost to make it work.
Support
Many people often overlook support as an important factor when they really shouldn’t. When it comes to something that can be as complex as hosting, it’s almost inevitable that at one point or another you will rely on support to help you solve/maintain something. When that happens, you want to be sure that you receive an adequate level of support from the company you choose to go with. Be certain that the hosting provider you choose to go with is one that offers at least a decent level of support to their customer. The ones we have mentioned on this list tend to do quite well in this category, so you do not have to worry too much about this if you go with something like Apex or ShockByte (or even Hostinger).
Ease of Use/Installation
This is also something very important to consider. It doesn’t matter much if your hosting provider offers great speeds, uptime, and pricing if you can’t figure out how to use it to set up your server. For that reason, it is absolutely essential that the hosting provider that you use makes it easy and simple to set up your Minecraft server.
Server Location
This can be one of the most critical things for your Minecraft hosting server. The location where the server is hosted makes a difference. A server that is far away from where the players are will often result in high latency (lag).
If you are hosting players from around the world then there’s not much you can do about this. However, if you are hosting in a more localized context (perhaps for players in a specific country/region) then choose a web host with servers in or near that area. This can go a long way to reducing game lag.
Should I Use A Free Minecraft Hosting Service?
The general rule of thumb has been that free hosting is no good, and that has been consistently accurate for years. There is an inherent cost to running a hosting service and if a service is free, it just shows that the company running that hosting service is not investing into making their service high quality. Free hosting just isn’t viable because you will not be getting any ram or storage, and most of the time you won’t have full control over how you run your server either. The good thing is that most of the hosting services we have mentioned throughout this article offer extremely cheap packages that are almost free anyways, and there is a huge difference between a paid service (even when it’s just a few dollars) and something that is completely free. The quality difference is night and day.
Bottom Line: The Best Minecraft Server Hosting Service Is The One That Works Best For You
Many would make the argument that there is no definitive best hosting provider, and that would be a fair claim to make. Best is subjective and depends entirely on your needs and wants. If you define the ‘best’ as being the cheapest, then you’re going to be picking a different hosting provider than someone who defines the best as offering the best uptime/speed. Our stance was to look at the hosting providers that offer the most amount of features at the highest quality while still being affordable. After taking into consideration all of the things we mentioned throughout this article, we determined that Apex minecraft hosting is the best service to use for hosting your own server on Minecraft.
