This compares ten Minecraft server hosts as they present themselves on their own websites. I run Space-Node, so I have an obvious interest here. To keep it fair, every figure below comes from the provider's own pages, checked on 28 September 2026, and where a page does not list something I say so. I did not run test servers for this article, so there are no performance scores here. Prices and promotions change often, so check the checkout before you buy.
Quick Comparison Table
| Provider | Lowest price on their page | CPU named on the site | Locations listed | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Space-Node | €2.70/mo (3 GB) | Yes, per region | 9 regions | No |
| Apex Hosting | $8.99 first month, then $14.99/mo (4 GB) | Yes, per location | 14 on the specs page | No |
| Shockbyte | $3.99/mo (1 GB), $2.79 with the 30% recurring discount shown | "Up to AMD EPYC 4465P" | US, Europe, Asia, Australia | No |
| BisectHosting | Per GB, shown in the configurator | Not on the Minecraft page | 21 | No |
| Hostinger | $6.99/mo (4 GB) on a 24-month term, renews at $11.99/mo | Not named | North and South America, Europe, Asia | No |
| Nodecraft | $6.99 first month, then $9.98/mo (always-on Pro) | "AMD Ryzen 9 or AMD EPYC" | 28+ | 24-hour free trial |
| GGServers | $3.00/mo (1 GB, Standard) | Clock speed only | 2 standard regions, 8 premium locations | No |
| ScalaCube | From $2/mo, 50% off the first month | Not on the homepage | US, Europe, Australia and more | No |
| Aternos | Free | Not on the homepage | Not on the homepage | Free only |
| FalixNodes | Free, paid plans available | Ryzen 9 7950X3D / EPYC 7502P | Europe, North and South America, Asia, Australia | Yes |
"First month" prices are introductory; the second figure is what the page says you pay after that.
Space-Node
Disclosure: this is my company. Leaving it out of my own comparison would be stranger than including it.
Hardware: listed per region. In the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Canada the Standard tier runs Ryzen 9 3900X-class CPUs with DDR4 and the Premium tier a Ryzen 9 7950X or 9950X (depending on stock) with DDR5. The USA runs a Ryzen 9 7950X3D with DDR5, Singapore and Australia a Ryzen 9 5950X, and India (Mumbai) Ryzen 9 3900X-class hardware. The CPU is shared on every plan; Premium gets 600 to 800% CPU (6 to 8 vCores) under fair use.
Locations: Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Canada, USA California, USA Virginia, Singapore, India, Australia. Nine regions.
Pricing: Standard from €2.70/mo for 3 GB, Premium from €5.25/mo for 3 GB, billed in EUR. Plans scale by RAM, not by player slots. DDoS protection is included on every plan.
What it does well: the CPU is named for every region, the panel is Pterodactyl with SFTP and one-click modpack installs, and the Premium tier in Europe and Canada runs a Ryzen 9 7950X or 9950X, both with a 5.7 GHz max boost.
Where it falls short: support is staffed every day from roughly 08:00 to 20:00 UTC, not around the clock like several hosts below. There is no money-back window; refunds follow our terms. No South America location, and a smaller company than most names on this list.
View Space-Node Minecraft plans
Apex Hosting
Apex's site footer dates the company to 2013.
Hardware: their server specs page lists the CPU per location. A Ryzen 9 7950X appears in New York, Dallas, San José, Miami, Vint Hill, Singapore, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London; other locations use other CPUs, for example a Ryzen 7 5800X in Portland, a Xeon E-2176G in São Paulo and an i7-7700K in Sydney. Their EX-Series gives 4 dedicated vCores of a Ryzen 9 5900X (US and EU) or Ryzen 7 5800X (Australia and Singapore) with 16 GB.
Locations: 14 on the specs page, across North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Oceania, including Tel Aviv, Tokyo and São Paulo.
Pricing: 4 GB at $8.99 for the first month, then $14.99/mo; 6 GB at $13.49, then $22.49; 8 GB at $16.79, then $27.99. Custom plans start at $1.50. The EX-Series 16 GB plan recurs at $71.99/mo.
What they list: 24/7 support, a 7-day money-back guarantee, free server transfers, Java and Bedrock, FTP and MySQL access.
Best for: groups that want a well-known brand with support around the clock, or a location such as São Paulo or Tel Aviv. Check which CPU your chosen location runs on the specs page.
Shockbyte
Shockbyte says it has been hosting since 2013.
Hardware: their hardware page says "Up to AMD EPYC 4465P @ Max 5.40 GHz", with NVMe SSDs and DDoS protection. "Up to" means you should ask which CPU your location uses.
Locations: servers in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia, according to the hardware page.
Pricing: the 1 GB Dirt plan lists at $3.99/mo, shown as $2.79 with a 30% recurring discount; plans go up to 12 GB, with custom plans from 17 GB. Separate budget plans are on another page.
What they list: a 72-hour self-serve refund, 24/7 support, an instant modpack and plugin installer, a new control panel, and a 99.9% uptime figure.
Best for: small servers where the monthly price matters most.
BisectHosting
Hardware: the Minecraft page says "Modern Hardware" and NVMe drives but does not name a CPU model.
Locations: 21 worldwide locations with BisectOne, with free swaps between locations.
Pricing: per GB, with the actual price shown in the plan configurator. Longer billing gets 10% (quarterly), 15% (semi-annual) or 20% (annual) off.
What they list: their own Starbase panel, 24/7/365 support by live chat and tickets with a stated average response under 15 minutes, unlimited disk space, 7 days of free backups, DDoS protection, automated modpack installs, and BisectOne covering more than 100 games.
Best for: players who want many locations, support around the clock, or one plan for several games.
Hostinger
Hostinger is a web host that sells Minecraft as a VPS with a game panel.
Hardware: plans are sized in vCPU cores (1 vCPU on the 4 GB Game Panel 1 plan); the page does not name the CPU.
Locations: data centers in North America, South America, Europe and Asia.
Pricing: Game Panel 1 (1 vCPU, 4 GB, 50 GB NVMe) is $6.99/mo when you pay 24 months up front, renewing at $11.99/mo. Game Panel 2 (2 vCPU, 8 GB) is $9.49/mo on the same term, renewing at $14.99/mo.
What they list: firewall and DDoS protection, automatic backups plus a manual snapshot, over 2,000 modpacks, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Best for: people comfortable with a VPS who are happy to commit to a long term. Compare the renewal price, not only the first term.
Nodecraft
Hardware: "AMD Ryzen 9 or AMD EPYC CPUs", SSD storage and ECC RAM.
Locations: 28+ worldwide.
Pricing: two products. Lite servers hibernate when unused and wake up with a link, from $4.17 for the first month, then $5.96/mo; Nodecraft itself marks Lite as not recommended for Minecraft. Pro servers stay online 24/7, from $6.99 for the first month, then $9.98/mo.
What they list: no player slot limit, a one-click installer for modpacks and plugins, running other games on the same plan, and a free 24-hour trial without a credit card (a phone number is needed).
Best for: people who play several games and want to switch between them on one plan.
GGServers
Hardware: clock speeds rather than CPU models. Standard: 3.2 to 4 GHz, DDR4-2133, SSD in software RAID 1. Premium: 4.4 to 5 GHz with high priority, DDR4-2400, NVMe.
Locations: Standard servers in North America and Europe. Premium adds Montreal, Roubaix, Sydney, Hillsboro, London, Frankfurt, Singapore and Vint Hill.
Pricing: 1 GB from $3.00/mo on Standard and $6.00/mo on Premium, with unmetered SSD storage and anti-DDoS. A coupon on the page takes 20% off the first invoice.
Best for: straightforward servers on a budget, with a Premium option for more locations.
ScalaCube
Hardware: not named on the homepage.
Locations: the United States, Europe, Australia "and more".
Pricing: from $2/mo, with 50% off the first month for new customers.
What they list: 24/7 support, unlimited slots, FTP access, a free subdomain, one-click modpacks, and a refund policy in their terms.
Best for: small private servers on a tight budget.
Aternos (Free)
Aternos is the best-known free Minecraft host. Their homepage says they are free and will always be free, with no way to pay for anything.
What they list: mods, plugins and preconfigured modpacks, custom worlds, free DDoS protection, and backups to your Google Drive.
What to know: their help centre explains that an empty server is stopped after a countdown to free up resources, and starting a server can put you in a queue. For a server that stays online longer, the help centre recommends exaroton, the paid platform run by the Aternos team.
Best for: casual play with a few friends, and finding out whether you want to run a server before paying for one.
FalixNodes (Free)
What they list: free forever with no card and no time limit, one free server per account, unlimited player slots, DDoS protection, Ryzen 9 7950X3D and EPYC 7502P hardware, and one-click installs from CurseForge, Modrinth, FTB and Technic. Falix says it has operated since 2018, with data centers in Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Australia.
What to know: free servers sleep after a stretch of inactivity. Anyone with the address can wake one with their Start Server tool, which Falix says takes about 10 seconds. Premium plans add more RAM, CPU and disk.
Best for: a free server with more hardware detail and control than most free hosts publish.
How to Choose
If you want free: Aternos or FalixNodes. Both stop or sleep an empty server, so expect to start it before you play.
If you run vanilla or light plugins for a small group: most hosts here work. Compare the monthly price after any first-month discount, and pick a location close to your players.
If you run modpacks (ATM10, Better MC and the like): the CPU matters. Prefer hosts that name the CPU for the location you will use: Space-Node, Apex (specs page) and FalixNodes do; Shockbyte gives an "up to" model and GGServers only clock speeds.
If you have 50+ concurrent players: look at plans that state how much CPU you get, such as Space-Node's Premium plans (600 to 800% CPU, or 6 to 8 shared vCores, under fair use) or Apex's EX-Series with its dedicated vCores, or run your own VPS.
If you need a specific location: Nodecraft lists 28+ locations, BisectHosting 21 and Apex 14, including South America. Space-Node covers Europe, North America, Singapore, India and Australia.
If you need support at night: Apex, Shockbyte and BisectHosting list 24/7 support. Space-Node is staffed from roughly 08:00 to 20:00 UTC.
FAQ
How much RAM do I need for a Minecraft server in 2026? Vanilla with under 10 players: 2-4 GB. Light plugins (Paper + essentials): 4-6 GB. Modpacks (ATM10, Better MC): 8-12 GB. Heavy modpacks with 10+ players: 12-16 GB.
Is free Minecraft hosting worth it? For casual play with a few friends, yes. For anything you want to run reliably or grow into a community, no. Free hosting has performance limits, sleep timers, and restricted configuration that will frustrate you once you get serious.
Does the CPU matter for Minecraft hosting? Yes, especially for modpacks and large player counts. Minecraft's server runs primarily on one core. A fast single-thread CPU (Ryzen 9 5950X, 7950X, 9950X, or comparable Intel) directly affects your server's TPS (ticks per second). If TPS drops well below 20, the game feels laggy regardless of how much RAM you have.
Should I get the cheapest plan and upgrade later? If you are unsure, yes. Most hosts allow upgrades without data loss. Start at the tier that matches your expected player count and mod complexity, play for a week, and monitor performance. Upgrade if needed.
Is Minecraft hosting from big web hosting companies (Hostinger, OVH) a good idea? It can be, if you are comfortable with more setup work. What you get is a general-purpose VPS with a game panel on top. Depending on the panel, you may still end up setting Java flags, tuning garbage collection and managing updates yourself. For someone who knows what they are doing, this can be cheaper per GB. For someone who just wants to play, a dedicated Minecraft host is less work.
Related guides: Best Minecraft mods in 2026 | Minecraft 1.22 server update guide
Disclosure: Space-Node is my company and is included in this comparison. I have done my best to evaluate each provider on the same criteria. No performance testing was done for this comparison: prices, hardware and features come from each provider's own website, checked on 28 September 2026, and they change often. Verify current details on each provider's website before purchasing.