Best game server hosting of 2025

Thanks to the best game server hosting providers, hosting your own game server has never been simpler. Once, it could be an unwieldy and expensive experience, but all these hosting providers streamline the process, making it painless and cost effective.

Below, we’ve picked out the very best game server hosting providers having extensively researched all the options. Whether you’re looking to set up a simple Minecraft server for a few friends, or you want the best Rust hosting for your Twitch community, there’s a solution here. That also covers different budgets, the need for voice servers or separate web hosting, and seemingly everything else you can think of.

The best dedicated server hosting can also help you on this front, but we’ve homed in on game server hosting here as it can often provide a few extra services relevant to gamers.

There’s a seemingly endless supply of game server hosting providers but through our extensive research and hands-on time, we’ve focused on a handful of the very best here. There are premium options for those making long-term plans but also some great budget game server hosts for those simply needing something casual.

If you have specific games in mind, we’ve also picked out the best Minecraft server hosting along with the best Palworld server hosting. You’ll note there’s some overlap here but we’ve made sure that all the game server hosts here work with many games and often make it very simple to switch between them if your needs change.

Simply put, think of these as the Swiss Army knife of game server hosts. The best game server hosting for seemingly every occasion. We’ve considered key factors like price, RAM, bandwidth, storage, ease of use, general performance, as well as how easy it is to change to different games.

Here’s the best gamer server hosting of 2025:

Best game server hosting services 2025 in full

Best game server hosting for beginners

ShockByte is one of our favorite game server hosting providers. It’s very simple to use and offers support for many popular games with dedicated plans to big favorites like Minecraft. All plans offer DDoS protection, unlimited bandwidth and NVMe storage, automated instant setup, a free subdomain, and 100% network uptime. There’s also 24/7 support although I have found in my time with it that support tickets can take a little while to be responded to. Fortunately, a comprehensive FAQ section and many tutorials ensure you don’t need assistance often.

A recently launched new control panel makes managing your server even simpler and more straightforward than before, with many options simply a matter of picking from drop-down menus. ShockByte is simple to use and doesn’t overwhelm you with anything too technical. Creating a server takes moments and you can easily access the server from any location. Having used it for months, the uptime promise is accurate too. I’ve never had a problem which is high praise indeed.

Depending on the game, plans can be very cheap with Minecraft proving cheapest. Shockbyte is also good at suggesting which plan works best for which situation so it’s perfect if you’re not sure of what you need. If you need to go high-end, options are fairly comprehensive here too. Any time you decide to upgrade, you can do so without feeling tied into anything permanently.

Read our full Shockbyte review.

Best value game server hosting

ScalaCube is an ultra-affordable game server host which is also very reliable. It’s ideal if you’re starting out or simply dabbling with game server hosting, but everyone will appreciate it. Its plans start from as little as $2 for the first month for a basic Minecraft server with some premium options also available.

There’s one-click installation for modpacks with ScalaCube offering an intuitive and user-friendly interface. Once set up, the control panel easily brings up all the servers you own which is useful if you have ambitious plans. It’s simple to pick your location with many areas around the country included, with the focus clearly on appreciating that you might know games but not necessarily server hosting.

The clearly laid out panel means it’s simple to see how CPU usage is going, and how much storage you have spare. More importantly, you can easily install relevant plugins and mods, along with setting up tasks. Crucially, it’s all laid out in a very easy to figure out way. While some services might be a little complicated in their layout, ScalaCube makes it accessible.

Granted, over time, ScalaCube can get expensive. Some of its most premium packages are, well, premium in price. Also, adding on extras such as being able to create your own Minecraft launcher or a dedicated IP all soon add up. Despite that though, I found ScalaCube to be the better value proposition here. It’s simple to use and a good entry point for those who are testing the water. Appropriately, it’s highly scaleable.

Read our full ScalaCube review.

Best premium Minecraft game server host

If you’re serious about your game server hosting and looking for something fairly high-end, you need Scalahosting. It's not quite as obviously intuitive as the other options because you're signing up for a VPS rather than a dedicated game server host plan. Also, its plans are fairly expensive but that’s because you get an awful lot for your cash. There’s a dedicated IP address included with each plan along with a free domain. More importantly though, there are dedicated system resources, daily backups, an automatic world check and repair, along with custom plugin ports. You’ll need to pay a little extra for 24/7 monitoring but otherwise, this is pretty extensive stuff.

Scalahosting promises to keep all machines under 70% capacity so there’s enough backup resources for the busiest of days on your server, while AWS integration means there’s unlimited scaleability. Once the VPS is set up, you can also use it to host a website on the server, create email accounts, and do everything you’d expect from regular web hosting alongside your game server hosting.

Potentially, you could even branch out and create multiple hosting accounts on a single VPS, before giving them away or selling them to people you know. It’s pretty clear then why Scalahosting isn’t cheap. It’s potentially a solution to far more than your game server hosting needs. Not everyone will need or want so much, but if you’re a high-end user willing to invest in something built to last rather than just a server to enjoy with your mates -- this is it.

Read our full Scalahosting review.

Best game server hosting for experienced users

Hostinger is one of the bigger names in the web hosting and game server hosting world. Like Scalahosting, it’s a curious service in that, initially, it can be confusing if you don’t already have experience in server hosting. That’s because you’ll need to pick a VPS plan over a web hosting service in a world where many other hosting companies specify certain services for gaming.

Push through after a little research though and you’ll see that Hostinger offers highly competitive VPS plans. There are often sales making it even more affordable so it’s well-suited for small server setups with friends while you can also upgrade to something much more advanced if you have ambitious plans. With up to 32TB bandwidth available on select plans, it should cater for many needs.

Once you’ve picked a plan, you can delve into setting up a game server by jumping into the control panel. Interestingly, there’s AI assistant support, which directed me in the wrong direction for one thing but was spot on for another. There’s clearly a little work to be done here, as with a lot of AI support, but it’s still fairly simple for a novice to figure out where to look.

Once in the panel, things are much smoother sailing. I quickly set up a series of instances relating to all my gaming interests with extensive support for dozens of games. It only takes a couple of minutes to set up a server with the most extensive functionality coming from a Minecraft server.

Here, there’s extensive plugin support already there along with a wealth of options for getting things set up just how you like them. It’s a similar case with other games like Rust with much older games such as Counterstrike 1.6 also supported. It’s not the prettiest of interfaces, but it works well and is fairly clearly laid out. If you experiment too much, you can create manual snapshots making it simple to undo any changes. Automated backups come as standard with all plans if you prefer to be hands-off. All plans also come with a dedicated IP and DDoS Protection.

Uptime in our tests was very reliable with no issues. We had access to the maxed out KVM 8 plan with 8 vCPU cores, 32GB RAM, 400GB of NVMe disk space and 32TB bandwidth. As standard, all plans come with one snapshot, weekly backups, dedicated IP address, full root access, malware scanner, and AI assistant.

Read our full Hostinger review.

Best game variety

Nodecraft feels instantly welcoming to less tech savvy users. Plenty of games are available and as you pick the game you want the server for, Nodecraft will instantly tell you if you’re picking too weak a plan to run it. There’s a 24 hour free trial too if you don’t mind handing over your phone number. It’s a nice idea for a brief taster session although I did find issues with getting it to recognize my phone number for doing so.

Options are pretty extensive once you start. Set up a Minecraft server and there are loads of plugins which can be installed at the tap of a button. Similarly, you can swap between different versions of the game with one click. Any time you want to set up an entirely different game server, you can choose to archive the current one then pick a different game via its save&swap service which is a useful bonus, especially for Twitch communities which may find their needs changing rapidly.

To an extent, you’re limited by the hardware on the server you’re paying for but you can still often make things work. In particular, that makes the free trial a great starting point as it shows you how easy it is to use Nodecraft. Within a few minutes, I had one Minecraft server set up and archived before opening up a Rust server. If you’re part of a gaming community which swaps around a lot, this is a huge advantage.

Making adjustments throughout is easy enough and you can save up to five instances. Crucially, it’s welcoming. Nodecraft hides all the complex stuff in the background but when you do need support, there are fairly comprehensive FAQs as well as live chat during US hours.

Read our full Nodecraft review.

Best game server hosting for hardcore gamers

If you’re looking for game server hosting alongside establishing a large community, PingPerfect is a good place to go, providing you know what you’re doing. Its control panel isn’t the clearest to navigate but on the other hand, PingPerfect is packed with potential. Notably, it has support for over 200 games with some old favorites thrown in there alongside more popular options of late. It’s not quite as straightforward as we’d like to swap between games but for a solid entry for one game, PingPerfect is pretty powerful. It promises great hardware across the board even if you go for cheaper packages, with the most high-end plans proving particularly speedy.

Potentially best of all, PingPerfect offers a 48 hour free trial so you can easily check if things work for you. Performance is just as speedy here with no concessions. All you need to do is remember to contact support if you want to switch to a paid plan otherwise the server is deleted at the end of the 48 hours. That’s a minor bugbear but as long as you remember, you’ll appreciate that time to try out your new server.

Setup takes mere seconds with favorites like Minecraft offering just what you would expect like a mod manager, alongside one click backups and restores, as well as FTP access if you have more ambitious plans. It’d be tough to recommend to newbies given the way that PingPerfect is designed but it gives you extensive control.

Pricing initially looks incredibly cheap but once you add on essentials like sufficient slots, it can go up. There are a lot of options here for customizing PingPerfect just how you want it which means the price can vary significantly. It's worth playing around, especially if you're not certain of what you need. You’ll also want to have your server hosted on NVMe rather than SSD which adds to the price along with bumping up your CPU priority. So, again, PingPerfect isn’t super cheap but it’s ripe for a discussion among your clan mates about how far you want to take your server plans.

Adding to the community developing feel, PingPerfect also provides 1GB of free web hosting if you need it with 10GB of traffic per month. It’s convenient to have everything in one place, but count on spending a little time to get things just how you like it. If you’re a novice, you may end up in the support section a lot. Fortunately, it’s pretty extensive.

Best Game Server Hosting FAQs

How we tested the best game server hosting

We spent time with each of the hosts here. We checked out a mixture of the cheapest plans on a service while also looking at higher end packages. We also took a look at free trials where applicable as that’s where most people will start for themselves.

Besides trying out setting up a server and looking at the ease of installation, server location, and performance, we also evaluated customer support availability. Essentially, we looked at everything that you need to check for yourself.