How much does a game server cost?Price factors, ranges per game and hidden costs

Published on October 12, 2026

The short answer

A game server at MainHoster.de costs between €2.99 and €35.99 per month. Which end you land on is decided almost entirely by the game: Minecraft starts at €2.99 / month, ARK: Survival Evolved at €9.99 / month. The difference isn't about the player count - we don't charge for slots - but about how much memory and CPU power the respective game needs.

Two things never come on top with us: a contract and an automatic renewal. You top up credit and extend yourself - when it runs out, the server ends without you having to cancel. How that compares with a classic subscription is explained in Prepaid or subscription?.

You will find the full list per game further down; the next section explains which factors drive the price.

What determines the price

Game servers aren't billed by player count, but by the performance the game needs. Three factors dominate:

• The game itself. A Rust or DayZ server simulates a large, persistent world with thousands of objects. A Terraria server doesn't. That difference goes straight into the price.
• Memory. The single biggest cost driver. Modpacks and overhauls multiply the requirement compared with vanilla.
• CPU performance per core. Almost all game servers are heavily single-thread bound - the performance of a single core decides the tick rate, not the number of cores.

What does not determine the price with us: the number of slots. Slots are unlimited - you set the player count yourself, and it is never a price barrier.

Price ranges per game

The entry prices of our thirteen games, each per month:

The order reflects the performance requirement: Minecraft, Terraria and Garry's Mod at the lower end, Project Zomboid and ARK: Survival Evolved at the top - that is where large, permanently persistent worlds with thousands of objects and creatures are simulated. Upward, the plans for each game go up to bigger tiers for modpacks, script collections and large communities - the full tiers are on the respective product pages.

The right-hand column leads to the detailed breakdown per game, with all four plans and which plan fits which project. If you mainly want to avoid a commitment, all thirteen games are on Game servers without a contract.

Prepaid instead of a contract

The billing model is where the market splits. Two approaches:

• Fixed-term contract: a lower monthly price, in exchange for a commitment and a notice period. If you stop after two months, you keep paying.
• Prepaid: you top up credit and the server runs as long as it lasts. No contract, no notice period, no automatic renewal.

We work exclusively with prepaid. For game servers in particular, that matches reality: a community rarely lives exactly twelve months. Prepaid or subscription? compares both in detail. If you don't have a bank account, you can top up with Paysafecard - with a 15 % fee added on top; all other payment methods are free of charge.

Hidden costs - what to look out for

The monthly price alone says little. These points matter too:

• Slots extra? Many providers charge per slot - then the price rises with every player.
• Limited traffic? A cap only becomes noticeable once you hit it.
• DDoS protection included? With us, yes, at 250 Gbit/⁠s.
• Backups? Self-service with us via SFTP and the web file manager - free, but you make them yourself.
• Switching games? Whether you can change the game without ordering again.

Is self-hosting worth it?

Looking only at the monthly price, your own computer seems free. The full calculation looks different: electricity in continuous operation, a connection with enough upload bandwidth, no DDoS protection, your home IP exposed to the outside and a computer that can never be switched off.

For a short session among friends, that works. As soon as the server is meant to be reachable permanently, the calculation tips quickly.

The third option is a VPS with root access, on which you run the game server yourself. That pays off if you want to host several services on one machine - otherwise the game server panel with console, config editor and one-click installation saves you a lot of work. The VPS plans are explained in Prepaid VPS without a contract.

Frequently asked questions