Renting Minecraft Server Hosting vs Running Your Own
While it certainly is possible to host your Minecraft server on your home PC, Minecraft server hosting is extremely taxing in three areas: CPU, RAM and bandwidth. Now while newer models of home computers often come equipped with strong enough CPUs and enough RAM to be able to physically handle running a server, your home internet connection likely isn’t fast enough to allow more than a few players on the server at any given time without running into serious lagging and connection problems. Not to mention, if you’re playing Minecraft on the same computer that you’re hosting your server on, you’re going to have a very miserable and short-lived Minecraft multiplayer experience. This causes a huge strain on your servers resources. While using a dedicated Minecraft server hosting service will totally eliminate any of the these problems because of the fact that these servers are built to do these types of things and these hosting companies have extremely fast internet connections.
Another benefit of leasing Minecraft server hosting is the improved uptime. Uptime being the percentage of the time that the server spends online. When running your own server, the host computer has to be powered on and connected to the internet all of the time, otherwise your server isn’t accessible. This can be a major setback if you have an unsteady internet connection or your computer begins to experience performance issues caused by it overheating which will see you having to shutdown your computer.
Dedicated Minecraft server hosting companies run their servers 24 hours a day and 7 days a week with uptimes around 99.9 percent. This will enable your players to continue playing even when you’re not around and generally leads to a much better community.
Running your own Minecraft server takes a ton of time and patience and requires some pretty serious technical abilities. If you don’t have even a general understanding of computer networking under your belt, you are going to run into some serious issues. Rather than frustrating yourself and ruining your Minecraft multiplayer experience, you’re much better off letting a Minecraft server hosting company take care of the drudgework while you focus on building the best Minecraft multiplayer world that you and your fellow players possibly can.
Choosing a Minecraft Server Hosting Company
There are a lot of hosting companies out there that offer Minecraft server hosting. These types of services are available in all sorts of packages ranging in price and size. The majority of these hosts will feature alist of their server specs and special features. Some companies even offer impeccable customer service and support while others sort of leave you out there on your own. Another thing to watch out for is how much control you have. A lot of companies offer some sort of control panel giving you full control over your servers settings and options while others will not.
There a lot of different factors to consider when choosing a hosting provider. This makes it tough to separate the wheat from the chaff. You’ll need to figure out which types of features and specs are right for you and which ones are essentially useless.
Some Useful Features to Look for
Customer Support
Support is by far and wide one of the most important aspects to watch out for when you’re comparing Minecraft server hosting companies. One company might offer a package that while it may initially seem to be the better deal if the support is minimal at best, you’re likely better off going for the next one day depending on if their support seems better.
Customer support for hosting companies usually comes in the form of forums, live technical support people who you can chat with either online or a telephone, FAQ pages as well as ticketing systems which can all be extremely helpful when you’re having trouble.
McMyAdmin
McMyAdmin is a web interfact and control panel for Minecraft servers. This software allows you to monitor your server’s status, chat with users, schedule events, manage groups and permission, perform updates and more. It’s incredibly easy to use and requires virtually zero technical knowledge to operate.
Location, location, location
It is of great importance that you take into consideration where you hosting company’s servers are physically located in the world. If your server is hosted in Great Britain for example and you and all of your players are located in the United States, your ping times are going to noticably longer and you may experience some lag. If you’re planning to run a server that has a pretty large userbase then obviously your server can’t be close to everyone, but it’s something to think about if its just you and a bunch of friends who all live in the same state/province or even city. If this is the case its probably best to find a server in a close city and this way none of you will experience any lag.
Last words of advice
Before you settle on a Minecraft server hosting company, search around the net and compare prices, specifications, features, any uptime guarantees, location and of course support. Read reviews on any company you think looks promising to see if their customers are satisfied with their experiences with this particular company. Just don’t settle on the first company you come across because chances are you’ll wind up having a problem and will end up having to migrate to a better host somewhere down the line.
A Couple of Recommendations
TreePuncher.com – TreePuncher’s Minecraft server hosting plans start off at 5 bucks for 5 slots. While Bukkit and Canary cost an extra 50 cents per slot you’re still getting extra RAM and Processor power. Their proprietary GameCP control panel allows you to easily edit and update your settings or reboot your server.
TreePuncher is located in a Pheonix, Arizona data center with another data center being located in Wolverhampton, United Kingdom. They aim for 99.9% up time every month and boast professionally maintained data centers hosting on enterprise grade hardware. As well, their servers are setup instantly after you order, and you’ll receive your login information within minutes of signing up.
ServerCraft.co on a number of tiers with the cheapest starting off at 7.99 a month. This package offers 256mb memory, a suggest 1-4 player limit as well as unlimited slots.
ServerCraft also offers McMyAdmin, the most trusted and widely used Minecraft server control panel on the market which is included at no cost amongst all tiered packages. They also offer their own ServerCraft Control panel which will allow you easy access to McMyAdmin, important information pertaining to your server setup as well as an FTP-style file manager. All of this is hosted on Powerful AMD Opteron 8 Core Processors which promises low latency and higher performance for all sizes of Minecraft servers.
what do the “slots” mean?
Slots are how many players can play on a server at on time. I run my own successful server, so e-mail me if u have any more issues!
Hello Gaurav. My friend has a server as well, but he doesn’t know how players who are not operators can save their homes as their new spawn point. Is there a way to do so, and if so, how? Thanks a lot!
Brian- they should be able to just sleep in a bed…
Slots is referred to Players 1-4 Slots….i.e 1-4 Players
ON servercraft Are these servers coming with bukkit and those programs or are they going with the normal minecraft server program?
At MultiMinecraft.com you can get 512MB RAM for $9.50 and you can also get 20% off forever! I currently have a 4GB server with them and have no lag at all. They also have TCADMIN as the control panel which is by far better than McMyAdmin. Plus you can have as many slots as the server can take so if you can fit 50 players on a 512MB server there is nothing stopping you! They also have great support which has helped me out of problems many times!
What are the features of TCAdmin Compared to McMyAdmin?
What server hosting offers different powers, like say I have an administrator who is completely top dog, no one has more power so they can’t shut down the server. But if a player donates he gets lets say basic powers. Is there anything like that?
TCAdmin is just much more organized you have the console built into the control panel, and you generally have more control over the server. You can see Ram usage and CPU levels of your server in the panel as well. You can zip up files like maps you want to take off the server quickly and move for storage or edit on a local machine. Overall the control panel is much quicker and features a better layout. You can talk to the guys over at MultiMinecraft.com about it over their live chat.
I’m sure i didn’t list all of the features…
What is a host recommended for low budget, low traffic but full up-time?
I would like starting support basically and have the same features of a normal home server.
thx in advance!
I use Servercraft.co, never had any major problems with them, support is responsive and they are cheap.
Servercraft had constant downtimes and server issues for me, and sometimes 3-6 days response time from Support. It was pretty terrible.
That, and when I lost my credit card and had to get it replaced, I never got a payment failed notice, they just cancelled my service and I didn’t find out for a month (I wasn’t playing on server but friends thought I’d just taken it down)
I absolutely do NOT recommend Servercraft.co
If you want a nicely priced server with no lag, id suggest multiminecraft.com, If you want the owner gave me a special coupon for 20% off which isn’t public for everyone. Here it is: “TWENTYOFF” (that gives you 20% off any minecraft server forever!
You completely forgot about SSH and FTP access which is something any ‘premium’ host should have (even on shared server). Redstone Host seems to have these features…
Also many admins may prefer Intel over AMD processors, having a selection of both is a good sign when looking for server hosts.
Does TreePuncher have a Dedicated IP address??
Anyone here running on TreePunchers?, Would love to know the quality of about 20 Players, with bukkit.
bbqroast,
MultiMinecraft.com gives its clients FTP and a in-browser Console to your Minecraft server.
Isaac Greer,
MultiMinecraft.com gives out Dedicated IP addresses for a one-time-fee of $2.50, and can hold 20 players on a 1gig server.
I think they are currently doing a “TENOFF” deal on our servers, where you get 10% off monthly charges for your minecraft server, however, you can get up to 20% off when you speak to someone on the livechat… The service is amazing, and the quality of their servers is outstanding! I am currently using their hosting, and it is amazing! Ive loved every moment of it
What would be the best server hosting and full acess to the server at all times. Please suggest one that has a low fee.
hi, i need a server, but i want industrialcraft and buildcraft at least, wich one offers mods?
Check out KBG servers they specialise in IC2 and BC2 (they host Alblaka’s number one server).
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Alternatively Redstone host allows SSH/SFTP access so you can just install it yourself
Hey i wana make a small server for just me and my 1 friend so we can play survival mode together..is there anyway we could do that?
The usual minimum players is five but you can still play with just two and have less lag. If you want good quality servers go to TreePuncher.com
I have used the treepuncher service, and it was terribly inadequate. A 5-person server was not even capable of running a single person during map exploration. The map would freeze and then I would be incapable of logging in. I was using only a vanilla server. So, I IMPLORE you, if you are seeking good service, get service at any of the other hosts. Less than $5 a month for good service sounds too good to be true. And that’s because it IS too good to be true. Given that there are only two hosts listed on this page, I would bet anything that treepuncher paid them to put it here.
I’m looking for a server host that’s 24 hours, has McMyAdmin, has at least seven slots, and offers bukkit servers for little or no extra. Any recommendations?
how do i get the server address