How much does a Minecraft server cost?Four plans - and which one fits Vanilla, plugins or a modpack

Published on October 5, 2026

Prices at a glance

Four plans, all prepaid and without a contract. The buttons take you to the order, with game and plan already selected:

The "Best for" column describes the use case, not a slot limit. Slots are unlimited with us - you pay for memory, storage and performance, not for the number of players.

Which plan for which use case?

The guideline values for memory translate quite directly into a plan:

For the typical group of friends without mods, plan S for €2.99 / month is therefore the right entry point. If you are planning plugins for ranks, land protection or an economy, start with M for €5.99 / month.

With modpacks, the recommendation of the pack itself takes priority over any rule of thumb. A reliable sign that memory really is short is a server that gets slower over hours and recovers after a restart.

What drives the price: software, not player count

The step between plans follows a simple rule: plugins are cheap, mods are expensive.

• Plugins only run on the server and add management and rules to the game. A Paper server with ten plugins stays lean.
• Mods bring their own blocks, recipes and world generators that sit in memory permanently. A pack with 200 mods uses more while idle than a full vanilla server.
• Play style matters more than head count. Ten people at one shared base cost less than five who spread out in all directions and keep generating new chunks.

One point that is often forgotten in the calculation: the Java heap isn't the entire memory requirement. The runtime also needs room for classes, threads and network buffers. If you are at the upper end of a guideline value or already know the plugin list will grow, plan for the next tier right away.

What is included in the price

When comparing offers, it is worth looking at what comes without a surcharge. Every one of our four plans includes:

• Unlimited slots. If you want your own limit, set it yourself via max-players.
• Server type with one click. You switch between Vanilla, Paper, Spigot and Purpur in the game server panel; world, Minecraft version, plugins folder and server.properties are kept.
• One-click modpacks from CurseForge and Modrinth with the matching loader set up automatically.
• Java and Bedrock. The default is Java Edition; a pure Bedrock server runs on the same plans. Crossplay via Geyser connects both.
• Console, config editor, SFTP and web file manager plus the scheduler for restarts.
• DDoS protection up to 250 Gbit/⁠s, located in Frankfurt am Main, provisioned in around 120 seconds.

Automatic backups are not included. You back up world and configuration yourself via SFTP or the web file manager.

Realms, home PC or rented server?

The cost question rarely comes on its own. Usually it is about the comparison with two alternatives:

• Realms is convenient but runs vanilla: no plugins, no large modpacks, a fixed small player count, no console. That is enough for a family group, but not for anything beyond.
• Your own computer seems free, but only pays off for short sessions: electricity for continuous operation, your home IP exposed, no DDoS protection and a PC that must not be switched off.

A rented server pays off as soon as the world should be reachable while the host isn't at their computer - or as soon as plugins and mods come into play.

Keeping costs low

Four levers before you reach for a bigger plan:

• Start small. You can upgrade yourself at any time in the customer interface; world, plugins and configuration are kept.
• Lower the view distance. view-distance and simulation-distance in server.properties are the biggest lever at no extra cost.
• Measure first, then upgrade. If the server lags, memory is often not to blame but a single core running at its limit. More RAM won't help then - watch the TPS instead.
• Use breaks. Without a contract you only pay while you play. Before a longer break, download the world and let the credit run out; later you order again and upload it.

How prepaid billing works is explained on Game servers without a contract.

Frequently asked questions