How Much do Minecraft Servers Cost: Hosting Prices

If you want to host a Minecraft server, it can get pricey. But for playing with a small group of friends, hosting a server can cost as low as 3$!

Updated on Feb 22, 2024
Fact checked by Dean Nastevski |
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How Much do Minecraft Servers Cost: Hosting Prices

How Much Does it Cost to Host a Server in Minecraft?

When it comes to Minecraft server hosting, choosing what provider to go with can get tricky depending on what are your needs. From the very low price of free to paying $50 per month, you can get various perks such as less lag and more player support when you're in Minecraft hosting servers!

The price may vary between the best server hosting providers, but the starting packages are enough to make a decent server to play with some friends. So taking in the starting packages, here's the Minecraft server hosting price you can expect:

Minecraft Server Host
Monthly Starting Package Price
No. of Players
RAM
Allowed Mods & Texture Packs
Free
At Least 15 With Medium Lag
Depends on Minecraft Version, up to 2.4 GB on Vanilla 1.20.1
Yes
$9.99
Unlimited, but recommended up to 10 for no lag
2 GB
Yes
$4.79
Unlimited, but recommended up to 10 for no lag
2 GB
Yes
$2.99
Up to 12
1 GB
Yes

Most of these best Minecraft server hosting providers have other more expensive packages with lots of more RAM storage, player slots, and server locations as well. Let's take the most expensive package of one of the best Minecraft server hosting providers Apex, which will give you a whopping 16GB of RAM for $59.99 per month! 

Besides the pricing, almost all Minecraft server hosting providers offer servers for both Bedrock and Java editions. But you'll have to purchase a different monthly plan from any Minecraft hosting service for either edition. However look on the bright side, you can play Minecraft cross-platform with other devices with a Bedrock Minecraft server hosting!

What is the Price for Minecraft Realms Server Hosting?

Besides the traditional way of going with Minecraft server hosting providers, Realms is also another option. Realms is a monthly subscription-based way to make multiplayer servers officially through Minecraft to play with a small hand of friends and family! And it's pretty easy and quick for anyone to start making Minecraft servers through Realms.

Although Realms servers are most supported within the game, their pricing is a bit tedious considering other services like the ones above for Minecraft hosting servers. For $7.99 per month, you can make a server to play with up to 10 other players! There's also an extra option in the Realms Minecraft hosting service for Bedrock Edition at $3.99 for you to play with up to 2 other players.


Minecraft Realms In-Game and Server Pricing

As you can see, Minecraft hosting servers through Realms support fewer players than outside providers, even though it's on the official Minecraft cloud storage. Making a modded Minecraft server here is hard since addons and mods can only be obtained through their marketplace, so you should cancel your Realms subscription and definitely opt for other Minecraft hosting services!

What To Get: Minecraft Cheap or Expensive Hosting Servers?

Now with all the prices from above in mind, you might still be confused about what specifications to get, price to pay, and Minecraft hosting provider to choose. So here's what specifications and pricing plan you should choose for Minecraft server hosting depending on your needs:

  • Small Minecraft server: pay up to $10 monthly for around 10-15 players with 2 GB of RAM
  • Medium Minecraft server: pay up to $15-$25 monthly for around 30-50 players with 4-6 GB of RAM
  • High-end Minecraft server: pay up to $30-$40 monthly for around 80-90 players with 8 GB of RAM
  • Best Minecraft Server: pay up to $60 monthly for 150+ players with 16 GB of RAM

As you can see, RAM memory is what is most important to choosing Minecraft hosting services. The more RAM memory there is, you can make a more modded Minecraft server that supports more players and texture packs.


Minecraft Server Hosting Prices and Providers

Another key thing to keep in mind is server locations if you're planning on a big Minecraft game server. Server locations tell you where your PC will be connected to play Minecraft multiplayer. So for example, if someone from Europe tries to connect to server locations in the USA, there might be more lag than usual!

That's everything you need to know about how much Minecraft server hosting costs. Making your own Minecraft server for a small group of friends is cheap, and sometimes even free when you're using free Minecraft server hosting services like Aternos. But if you have a powerful PC, you can even try making your own Minecraft server!

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