How much does a Project Zomboid server cost?Four plans - and why the mod list comes before the player count

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 the plan already selected:

The player numbers are recommendations. We don't sell slots - you set how many survivors may play at the same time yourself via MaxPlayers in servertest.ini.

Which plan for which group?

• Plan S for a group of friends: up to around eight players, the vanilla map and a handful of quality-of-life mods. For most groups, this is the right entry point.
• Plan M for a regular group with a full-grown mod list or an extra Workshop map.
• Plan L for larger groups of up to around 20 players who spread out across the whole map.
• Plan XL for community servers with up to 32 players and a large mod list.

As a guideline, Project Zomboid needs 4 to 6 GB of memory without mods and 8 GB or more with many mods. Even plan S is therefore above the vanilla requirement and leaves room for the first mods.

What drives the price

Three factors drive the requirement, and only one of them has to do with the player count:

• The mod list. Every mod brings content that sits in memory. In Project Zomboid, maps are ordinary Workshop mods and count here too.
• The game world. Zombie count and behaviour are set in the SandboxVars. A world with very high zombie density demands more from the server than the default preset.
• How players spread out. Eight survivors in one shared shelter keep less of the map active than eight who roam different towns on their own.

For planning, that means: look at the mod list first, then at the play style, and only at the end at the head count.

Two decisions that get expensive later

You can change the plan at any time. Two other choices, however, can only be corrected by starting over - and in a game that lives from its grown base, starting over is the real price:

• The branch. Build 42 has been the stable default since 29 July 2026. An existing Build 41 world cannot be transferred; it keeps running via the Steam branch legacy41. For new groups, Build 42 is the obvious choice - as long as your mods are available for it.
• The maps. The later an extra map is added, the more already explored world ends up in the wrong place. So put the mod list together before anyone sets off.

Neither changes the monthly price. But they decide whether the group is still playing on the same world in three months - and therefore whether the server was worth it.

What is included in the price

• Steam Workshop mods and custom maps, set up via WorkshopItems and Mods.
• Build 41 or Build 42, whichever you choose.
• Config editor for servertest.ini and SandboxVars including presets.
• Admin commands and RCON.
• Automatic updates, web file manager and SFTP.
• DDoS protection up to 250 Gbit/⁠s, located in Frankfurt am Main, provisioned in around 120 seconds.

Nothing is backed up automatically. You download the world, characters and both configuration files yourself - before a branch or mod change, that is the cheapest insurance there is.

Keeping costs low

• Start with S. You upgrade yourself in the customer interface, and world, mods and configuration are kept.
• Maintain the mod list. Mods nobody uses any more still cost memory - and every extra mod is one more place where client and server can drift apart.
• Adjust the SandboxVars before upgrading. If it stutters mainly in densely populated areas, a more moderate zombie setting often helps more than the next plan.
• Use prepaid. Project Zomboid groups like to take a break once everyone has died. Without a contract, you pay nothing for those weeks: download the world, let the credit run out, order again later.

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

Frequently asked questions