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GETTING STARTED GUIDECreate a Minecraft server
Three decisions, four steps, one address to give your friends. Even if you have never run a server before.
Creating a Minecraft server means renting a machine that runs the game around the clock, so the world stays up when you are not online. You install nothing: getting started takes less than 5 minutes and everything is managed from your browser.
Three questions come up before you click, and only once: the edition decides who will be able to join you, the engine what the server will be able to do, and the memory how far it will stretch. The rest is just settings, and a setting can be changed the same evening.
The edition: Java or Bedrock
The two editions do not connect with each other on their own. Java runs on computers, Bedrock on consoles, phones and tablets, and a Java server turns away a player coming from a console. So the question is not which one is better, but what the people you plan to invite are playing on: make the list before choosing, because this choice is hard to undo once the world is up and running.
The engine: Vanilla or Paper
Vanilla: the game exactly as Mojang releases it, no plugins possible. Paper keeps the same rules but accepts plugins, those add-ons that bring ranks, land protection or an economy without asking anything of the players.
Among friends, Vanilla is enough. To moderate an open server, go with Paper from day one: switching later means reworking your settings. Mods go through Forge, NeoForge or Fabric, and require an installation on each player's side. Everything installs in one click, like the 18,774 plugins from the catalogue.
Memory: what sets the ceiling
Memory carries everything the server keeps in the air at the same time: the chunks of world loaded around each player, the creatures, the plugins. So it depends on the players present together, not on the number of people registered. A small group on Vanilla gets by with little; a modpack asks for more with the same headcount. When in doubt, a trial settles it better than a table.
From the click to your first evening of play
What you do with us, in order.
- Choose a plan
Memory and disk set our plans apart, never the number of players: slots are unlimited everywhere. If you are undecided, the trial lasts 10 days, no bank card required.
- Let the installation run
The server is set up and started in less than 5 minutes. You land in the panel with the live console: engine, version and plugins are chosen there.
- Get your address
Your server receives a custom address, easy to remember and with no port to type. That is what you paste into the game's Multiplayer menu.
- Invite your friends
No slot counter to watch as the group grows. If the bill is to be shared, group contributions let your friends chip in on the payment.
The five settings that change the game
Dozens of lines in the file. Five are enough for an enjoyable server.
Everything sits in one file, server.properties, opened from the panel editor or fetched over FTP. Here are the lines that matter, by their effect.
| SETTING | WHAT IT CHANGES |
|---|---|
| difficulty | Decides whether hostile mobs spawn or not. On peaceful, they vanish and hunger no longer hurts: the setting for building servers. |
| view-distance | The render distance, so the terrain loaded around each player. It weighs heavily on memory, and it is the first line to lower if the game stutters. |
| gamemode | The mode a player arrives in on their first connection: survival, creative, adventure. Regulars keep theirs, changed from the console. |
| white-list | Set to true, only listed people get in. The barrier to put up the day your address starts going round. |
| motd | The line shown under the server name in the multiplayer list. It has no effect on the game, but announces a shutdown or the current rule. |
A setting changed while the server is running is only read on restart, and the server rewrites the file as it stops. Stop, edit, start again: in the other order, your changes are overwritten.
What we are always asked
No. The server runs on our machines in Paris, reachable 24/7: your friends play while you sleep.
None of our plans caps the number of slots. The real limit is memory: the memory guide gives some benchmarks.
Server files are backed up automatically and restores are started from the panel. Keep a copy via FTP too before any major change. See the backups.
Yes: a world is a folder. Upload it via FTP and it runs as is, provided the version and engine match. The transfer page lays out the order of operations.
Your server can be running in five minutes
The trial lasts 10 days, with no bank card, on the same hardware as the paid plans.