Popular Game Server Hosting Options
Logo Host Details Rent 
GTX Gaming
- Great performance
- Cheap
- 24/7
support Rent a server 
Host Havoc
- 99.9% uptime
- Excellent support
- Easy to use
Rent a server <img src=”https://www.easypc.io/img/game-hosts/ping-perfect/logo.png” alt=”best hosting for games gmod gtx” /> PingPerfect
- A+ Performance Fair
- prices
- Many
games Rent a server <img src=”https://www.easypc.io/img/game-hosts/game-server-kings/logo.png” alt=”game server location” />
- Gameserverkings Reliable
- Affordable
- <10 games
Rent a server
- Popular Game Server Hosting
- What is a dedicated game server
- vs VPS Hosting Best
- How to Choose
- Need a dedicated gaming server
- Is it worth going to a gaming-focused host
- How much do game servers cost?
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Multiplayer games have revolutionized the industry. In my opinion, few things are more fun (or addictive) than playing a Rust game with your friends.
And nothing is more annoying than the word l:
Lag
.
If you want to run a game server for yourself, your friends, and others, a slow server is a death sentence. Nobody likes to lag, and nobody likes a server with terrible performance.
But why am I qualified to write this article? Why should you trust a random guy on the Internet?
Well, as a gaming super nerd and someone who has hosted servers, and tested over a dozen hosting companies for a variety of games, I’m pretty well-versed in the subject.
With that said, in this article, I’m going to round up the 7 best game server hosting companies I’ve tried, and teach you everything there is to know about game server hosting.
Let’s jump
:
What is a dedicated game server? Game
servers are
like traditional web hosting servers, but they are used exclusively for gaming. Instead of having to host a game on your computer, which drains computing power and network resources, dedicated servers make multiplayer games fun for everyone.
Just as websites are hosted on servers, so are gaming lobbies. Players connect to a server that allows everyone to play together. Your computer handles graphics, but there’s a lot more behind the scenes.
Servers are responsible for transmitting enough information about your internal state so that your connected clients (people who play the game) can maintain your version of the game in real time. That means tracking movement, remembering how much loot is in your chest, logging gunshots, etc.
Choosing between a typical game server hosting provider and VPS hosting can be difficult for beginners, so let’s break it down
.
According to C# Corner
:
On the other hand:
What’s the bottom line here?
When you rent a dedicated server, you can make use of the full power of the machine. No one else can extract the system power from your game.
In contrast, a VPS is basically a segmentation of a dedicated server. There can be multiple VPS servers on a single dedicated server, and the server’s computing power is divided among several VPSs.
You can choose how much energy you’re renting with a VPS, but that doesn’t mean you’ll get what you pay for.
Just like gyms tend to have more members than they can handle at
once, VPS providers tend to sell more server space than they can handle, hoping everyone won’t use the server at the same time
.
This can cause slowdowns if that occurs, making the gaming experience unpleasant, coughing, lagging.
Dedicated servers also have limits on their resources, but they are clearly displayed before you buy a server, and you know that’s exactly what you’re going to get. After cross-referencing the game requirements with the server’s computing power, you’ll know which server is best for you.
Choosing a cheap VPS can be good if you want hosting on a budget, but keep in mind that you get what you pay for. They allocate minimal processing power and RAM, which is not enough even for a simple game.
Take Minecraft, for example. Minecraft servers require a minimum of 2GB of RAM, and some cheap VPS providers start at 1GB or even less. If, unknowingly, you paid for a VPS server that expected excellent performance, you would be sorely mistaken.
That’s why dedicated servers usually offer the best gaming performance. From average to powerful machines, dedicated servers are capable of hosting hundreds of players at the same time seamlessly.
Pros and Cons
of Game Hosting
Let’s talk about the good, the bad and the ugly of using dedicated hosting:
The Pros
1. A
dedicated server is completely yours
The first advantage of choosing a dedicated game server host is that, well, it’s dedicated
.
Yes, it is obvious, but the importance of this cannot be overstated. When you choose a dedicated hosting provider, you won’t have to worry about other people obstructing the server’s processing power. Dedicated servers are completely yours and are (almost) always free of lag and downtime, assuming you choose a good hosting provider.
2. Better performance and improved security Secondly,
because you are not sharing the server with anyone else, you can expect improved electronic performance and security. Choosing a dedicated hosting service ensures maximum uptime for your game. Shared hosting options are typically used for websites with low to medium traffic. Trying to host a large Rust server, for example, on a shared server would be a nightmare.
3. Flexibility
Shared servers and VPS servers are usually locked to their default settings or at least less customizable than dedicated servers
.
Because a dedicated server doesn’t belong to anyone but you, there are many more options in terms of customization. You can adjust the server to your exact needs in terms of CPU, RAM, disk space, and software.
Creating a custom environment designed for your exact needs is incredibly beneficial, especially when it comes to hosting a video game server.
The
main disadvantage of using dedicated game server hosting is the additional cost. You’re paying a premium to enjoy the flexibility, reliability, and performance of a dedicated server.
And while you could probably get away with cheap VPS hosting on a small website or even a small server, it’s not ideal. Once you have more than a few players, the performance will take a massive hit, which is horrible for all parties involved.
As you can (hopefully) see, the advantages of dedicated game servers far outweigh the disadvantages.
Best Game Server Hosting Options
Logo Host Details Rent GTX Gaming
- Great performance
- Cheap
- 24/7
support Rent a server Host Havoc
- 99.9% uptime
- Excellent support
- Easy to use
Rent a server <img src=”https://www.easypc.io/img/game-hosts/ping-perfect/logo.png” alt=”best hosting for games gmod gtx” /> PingPerfect
- A+ Performance Fair
- prices
- Many
games Rent a server <img src=”https://www.easypc.io/img/game-hosts/game-server-kings/logo.png” alt=”game server location” />
- Gameserverkings Reliable
- Affordable
- <10 games
Rent a server For the past few months, I’ve been looking for a new server company to host. I
was a hosting virgin when I bought my first Rust
server, hoping for the best.
And while things were fine at first, things didn’t go so well in the end, and I can’t recommend them anymore.
That’s why
I’ve
been researching and testing game server hosting startups to find the best company of servers for me and for you.
This time, I knew what to look for:
1. Reliable servers: First of all, I was looking for servers that wouldn’t crash or lag.
2. Control Panel
: I wanted a control panel that was simple, intuitive, but had all the options I needed for mods, add-ons, and more
.
3. Support: The importance of going with a hosting company that cares about their customers with excellent support cannot be overstated, especially if you are transferring a server from another company to yours.
4. Price: And finally, I wanted to find a company that offered all of the above without breaking the bank.
After spending months testing different servers, asking companies a bunch of questions, giving their support team a run for their money, and comparing all their prices to each other, my tests are complete.
Now, I can confidently recommend the 7 best server hosting companies, for almost every game.
Let’s dive in:
as you’ll find out in our GTX Gaming review, they’re one of the best game hosting companies
. Brand reputation, performance,
support, ease of use, and crazy value come to mind when I hear its name
.
I tested their Rust servers with my friends and was impressed not only by the performance but also by their pricing.
The host Havoc is my number one choice overall. I’ve been using them since 2016 when I wanted to go with a new hosting company for my Rust server, and I haven’t looked back since.
I was impressed in all four aspects of the criteria I mentioned above. In addition to their excellent performance and uptime, I love their support team.
In my experience, their average response time was around 10 minutes, which is faster than any of the other companies I’ve tried. Most of my tickets were answered quickly within 5 minutes of asking the question.
They usually linked to a helpful article on their resource page that solved the problem, and when that wasn’t enough, a member of the support staff would help me personally.
And while their control panel is incredibly easy to use (another great feature of Host Havoc), chances are you’ll eventually run into issues with your server, so it’s crucial to have a responsive and helpful support team.
Host Havoc has a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and in my experience, it’s been 100%. The only time my server went down was related to the game, not Host Havoc (which I discovered after their support team helped me).
I
haven’t had any problems with them (so far), and I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a game server. Whether you want to play Rust, ARK, Minecraft, or any of the other 25 games they offer (including Terraria), you can’t go wrong here.
Click the
red button below to see them, or the blue button to read our Host Havoc review
.
Before I started using PingPerfect, I was hosting my server with a different company. Traditionally, transferring a server is an absolute nightmare.
But that wasn’t the case with PingPerfect.
They transferred all my data from another company to theirs, the first time. That was surprising, to say the least. They are also an open-minded company and take suggestions from their user base.
Ping Perfect is a large company with server nodes all over the world. They probably have a server node near you, wherever you live.
Whether you want to play ARK, Rust, 7 Days to Die, or any of the other 130+ games they support, Ping Perfect is a great choice.
GSK aims to make its service “less about technical setup and more about playing the game.”
That’s a breath of fresh air, considering that most hosting companies can be a headache.
After all, paying for dedicated game hosting is supposed to make your life easier, not harder!
How to Choose
Game Server
Hosting Alright, you’ve decided to go with dedicated game server hosting. Great!
However, it’s not over yet: now it’s time to choose your hosting company. Here are some things to consider before making a decision:
Location
One of the
first things I look at before buying game server hosting is the proximity of the server closest to my home. It’s also important to consider where the majority of your server’s player base lives.
The farther you are from the server, the worse your connection will be. That’s why playing with Londoners when you live in San Francisco is a horrible idea.
Choosing the server location closest to you will ensure the best possible connection and performance. If the hosting company you’re looking at doesn’t have servers near you, it’s best to go with a company that does.
Even if you have to pay a little more to bring the accommodation closer to your home, it will surely be worth it. Paying for a dedicated game server around the world is pointless because you’ll be behind anyway.
In general, if the server
node is on your continent, it should be fine, but if you live in a huge place like the United States (probably most of you reading this) choose a server closer to the side of the United States you live in.
Server Slots
The more players you want to support at once, the more server slots you’ll need
. And the more server
slots
you have, the more powerful the server should be
.
That’s why it’s usually okay to host some people on a dedicated server hosted from your own computer.
But if you want to have more than 10, 20, hundreds or thousands of players, you’re going to need a pretty powerful dedicated server with a lot of computing power.
More players on a server at once means a larger map, particularly in open-world games like Minecraft and Rust. Big worlds use a lot of RAM.
And if you have a lot of people at the same time, you’re going to need a powerful processor that’s capable of handling everyone’s actions at the same time.
This is not the case with a small server with few people: you can get away with (more or less) a potato for a CPU.
But if you want fifty, a hundred, or two hundred players at a time, you’d better make sure you have a capable CPU.
Check the server requirements of the game you’re playing before making a decision.
Also, it’s important to note that servers with a lot of slots will also consume a lot of bandwidth. Unless you have world-class internet, you and your server members will experience severe lag once there are more than 5-10 active members.
Lastly, many servers will offer a ton of slots, say, a maximum of 250. And while a server that’s supposed to be capable of hosting 250 people is amazing, that’s not usually the case.
If everyone logged in at once, the server would surely go down. Often, servers advertise more slots than they can handle. Theoretically speaking, you can set the maximum slot count to whatever you want. But being able to handle so many people is a different story.
Even things like mods, plugins, and DLC can slow down servers. The more plugins you have, the more you’ll have to calculate your server in addition to your already heavy workload.
Make sure you know the game’s server requirements and calculate how much computing power and bandwidth you’ll need before choosing your server host.
Server latency (also known as ping)
Have you ever been delayed before? It’s because you had high server latency (ping). Server latency is a measure of the time it takes for information to be sent and received between your computer and the server.
Higher ping means slower connection speed and more lag. And if you’ve ever played before, you know that lag is one of the most infuriating things you can experience.
Buying a server
with high latency issues is a surefire way to have a terrible time and anger your server community
.
That’s why testing your hosting provider’s speed is important before making a decision. Or at least, read what others have to say about your latency, especially those who live near you.
Downloadable content (DLC) and
mods support
There are many game server hosting companies, but not all of them support
mods and add-ons.
Considering that mods and special plugins are half the fun, buying a server without mod support is a bad idea, unless you plan on running a vanilla server.
For example, imagine buying game server hosting for a modified Minecraft game like FTB (Feed The Beast), only to find that your hosting provider doesn’t support mods.
Fortunately, most modern game hosting companies support modpacks and plugins, as they know that their customer base wants to run mods on their servers.
Before you buy game server hosting, check their mod support to make sure it meets what you’re looking for. You may also want to know how easy/difficult it is to add mods to your server once it has been purchased.
Do you have a control panel? Is the click of a button needed, or are more involved?
That brings us to our next point
:
Control Panel (standard or custom)
According to Server Mania:
In simple terms, the control panel is used to manage all aspects of the server. From increasing the number of players to adding mods and add-ons, the dashboard is your one-stop shop for server setup.
When you host a server
on your own computer, you’ll end up with a folder full of server files and a terminal where you can enter commands to change server settings.
A game hosting provider’s control panel is pretty much the same, with a much easier to understand user interface. Instead of having to type in console commands and mess with folders, hosting companies make it easy with a well-designed control panel. In fact, that’s one of the value propositions that hosting companies have to offer.
If you’re not aware of current server technology, you’ll want to choose a hosting company with an easy-to-use control panel. Although they’re all easier than hosting a server yourself, many control panels have so many buttons, settings, and pages, they can be difficult to navigate.
There are three leading game hosting control panel companies that you should look for when choosing a hosting company. Most professional game hosting companies will use one of the following:
1. TCAdmin 
TCAdmin is one of the oldest and most well-known game server control panels. Developed by Balance Servers, TCAdmin is the control panel of choice for most large game hosting providers due to its robust functionality, reliability, and support for a large number of games. It may not be the best-looking control panel out there, but I’ll take reliability and functionality over appearance any day of the week.
2. Pterodactyl 
Open source and built on PHP7, Nodejs and Go,
Pterodactyl
is a younger and more attractive control panel than TCAdmin. However, it still has the same functionality, including WHMCS integration.
It also has a team of developers who have security in mind, so the control panel features passwords, 2FA, and HTTPS by default.
All game servers running on Pterodactyl include Docker support, which provides excellent control over resources, increased security, and custom environments tailored to each game. It hasn’t stood the test of time as TCAdmin, but it’s certainly a viable option. If your game server hosting company uses Pterodactyl, you’re on the right track.
3.Multicraft Multicraft
is a modern control panel with excellent game support for those interested in Minecraft servers. With a rich variety of functionalities, Multicraft is compatible with all Minecraft server versions, plugins, mods, and more.
If you’re looking to host a Minecraft server, go with a company that makes use of Multicraft. It is the most simple, easy to use and reliable control panel for Minecraft servers on the market.
Choosing
a game
server hosting provider that supports official game updates is crucial. Updating your server should be quick and painless.
Too many hosting companies make upgrades a headache. You don’t want to lose your game files or have to reconfigure the entire server after a simple upgrade.
Luckily, the three control panels mentioned above make upgrading your server pretty easy.
Whether
you want to migrate your game server to something advanced like Google Cloud or just another game server
hosting company, make sure the hosting company of your choice makes the migration easy.
Unfortunately, facilitating migration goes against the agendas of hosting companies, but it’s definitely a feature to look for.
You can transfer your server to another company or simply transfer ownership of the server. Either way, having this option available is always a plus.
Why?
Let’s say you’ve been playing on your server for months and built a substantial community. There are bases everywhere and you don’t want to delete the server, but you’re not satisfied with your hosting, for whatever reason.
Would you rather delete the server or have the ability to easily move it to another host?
I imagine the latter is his answer. Reputable companies like Host Havoc have support pages that will show you what to do. If a company doesn’t make it obvious, maybe you should reconsider…
Server
DDoS
Protection DDoS protection is GREAT. Any half-decent hosting company will at least advertise DDoS protection. Whether your DDoS protection works or not is another story, but that’s for another article.
DDoS attacks are designed to exhaust your targest’s resources, effectively overloading your server and causing it to shut down.
They happen more often than you think, and the last thing you want is an angry server member or competing server owner trying to maliciously take down your server.
Major companies like Survival Servers and Host Havoc offer 24/7 DDoS protection, just like other big game hosts. Make sure your provider does the same.
Even
the
best servers have their fair share of problems, that goes with the territory. Expecting to host a populous game server without encountering any problems is foolish.
Enter customer service.
My grandmother is always on the phone with tech support, but that’s because she can’t figure out how to copy and paste properly…
I
never thought I would have the same amount of problems and questions as her, given that I am a young man who knows how to handle a computer.
But after testing more than a dozen hosting companies on a variety of games, I found that it’s virtually impossible to escape technical difficulties.
If you want to be a game server host, the importance of choosing a company that cares about its customers can’t be overstated. This is the case with all businesses, but I’ve found it to be especially true with game server hosting.
When I had trouble logging into my server, Host Havoc was immediately available via email. I received a response within 30 minutes, and my problem was resolved shortly after.
However, after trying GameServers.com I was disgusted by the poor quality of their customer service.
Every company is required to advertise its “stellar 24/7 customer support,” but like all things in life, a guarantee isn’t necessarily guaranteed.
When reading reviews of a company, pay special attention to any reviews that specifically mention their customer support.
The
last factor to consider is cost: what’s your budget?
Cheap VPS game server hosting can cost you $5-$10 per month, but I can promise you that the server performance will reflect the price. Like all things in life, you get what you pay for.
Determining a proper monthly budget depends on what you want your server to be. A server intended for you and some friends shouldn’t cost you more than $5-$10 per month.
Conversely, if you want to grow your server as large as possible, the monthly cost will need to scale with your server population. As you already know, more players means more powerful servers, which cost more money.
For most people, spending between $29-$129/month is necessary, depending on the scale of your server. Anything less is probably too little for a server with a decent population, and anything more is probably too expensive.
If you want to learn more about how much game servers cost, check out our guide.
Need a dedicated server to play?
You always need a server
for online gaming (like everything else online), but technically, you don’t need a dedicated server. That’s why games like COD used one of the lobby members as a host in the past.
That’s also why COD lobbies were notorious for the delay. Dedicated game servers significantly increase performance and improve the experience for everyone. Also, COD lobbies are smaller than Rust, ARK, and Minecraft servers, for example, so they could (a bit) get away with no dedicated servers.
So, technically, you don’t need a dedicated game server if you’re okay with poor performance and lag. But if you want a lag-free server for yourself and everyone else online, then yes, a dedicated server is definitely recommended.
Is it worth going to a gaming-focused host?
Yes, gaming-centric hosts are much easier to work with than traditional hosting companies when it comes to deploying your server.
If you choose a traditional hosting company whose primary customer base is not gamers, deploying your server will be more difficult than necessary.
Gaming-focused server companies know their customers and make it easy to deploy their server.
For example, I bought a Minecraft server from Apex Servers, and within 30 seconds of purchasing the server, my friends and I successfully logged in and were playing.
If I had
gone with a regular hosting company, I would have had to jump through a bunch of hoops before I could play.
Gaming-centric hosts are ‘plug and play’ in the sense that most of the time, you can start playing immediately after setting up your server.
How much do game servers cost?
I hate to answer the question this way, but it depends.
If you want to play with some friends, paying $5-$10 per month should be fine. But if you want to have a sizable community on the server, you’re probably looking at $29-$129 per month.
I’m paying a measly $3/month for a Minecraft server meant for my girlfriend and I to play a world of survival. The server doesn’t require any high-end equipment or anything because you just have to handle the two of you playing.
But if he wanted even 10 people to join, he would surely start delaying. If you’re taking your server seriously, it’s worth spending the extra money because you get what you pay for in the hosting world.
