Last Updated on January 7, 2026 by James Wilson
Have you ever been playing an online game, either by yourself or with some friends, and you’ve been fed up with the server that you’re playing on?
Switching to a game server plan gives you that extra performance that you need for gaming.
Still, you’re certainly not short of choice in terms of the range of game server hosting providers available on the market.
Throughout this article, we’re going to be walking through the best game server hosting providers.
If anyone out there is looking for a server specifically tailored towards Palworld, you’ll be able to use one of Hostinger’s VPS packages with all the specs you need to run it smoothly – from multicore processors to around 40 GB of storage.
In addition, this VPS package is also one of the only options we’ll be covering on this list that comes with an AI assistant to give you a hand when it comes to performance optimisation.
Hostinger is one of the pricier options, it’s perfect if you’re a beginner who needs help with implementing commands or writing scripts.
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Our top choice is Shockbyte, which is the best option we found in terms of the price tag and different hosting plans if you like playing Minecraft in particular.
They support plenty of other games, too, from Rust to ARK: Survival Evolved, but you’ll find plenty of Minecraft-specific support mods and plugins mainly – all for about £2 per month.
Aside from this, you’re also given an impressive 100% uptime guarantee thanks to Shockbyte’s huge range of servers across the world – whether you’re located in England or Australia.
ScalaCube is one of the only free options we’ll be covering (if it has nothing else going for it), but it’s still fantastic for catering to a huge number of players, thanks to its unlimited traffic policy. We liked using ScalaCube for Minecraft in particular, as it comes with a few custom launchers and a streamlined process for installing mods, but it’s still a great platform for other games, too.
It’s actually one of the most popular game server hosting providers currently available, as they’re used by around 2.4 million different customers across the world due to their quality customer service and easy-to-use control panel for handling all your configurations.
Host Havoc’s one of the most reputable hosting providers if you’re in the market for a platform that’ll support some pretty resource-heavy games, and at just £4 per month, it’s a bargain how scalable this service is – supporting popular games from as basic as Minecraft all the way up to DayZ.
DayZ, in particular, is a game that requires a significant amount of resources if you want to get the most out of performance and graphics, so you definitely need to be using a hosting provider like Host Havoc if you’re a fan of huge sandbox games with high player counts like this or Arma.
In addition, once you’ve paid for your server, it’ll actually go live pretty much instantly, so you can get your game up and running without having to sit through any unnecessary onboarding processes.
Next up is ScalaHosting, and right off the bat, it’s worth mentioning that this isn’t a cheap hosting provider, setting you back around £50 per month with their cheapest plan, but it’s this way for a reason – ScalaHosting is generally used in a more commercial setting than between a small group of friends.
For instance, ScalaHosting is used to host esports events and tournaments fairly frequently, thanks to the performance of their VPS servers. Naturally, large-scale events like the aforementioned examples are going to require a decent level of security so that the integrity of the tournaments is not jeopardised in any kind of way, so you’ll be able to take advantage of a range of different privacy features with ScalaHosting, too.
Finally, they also throw in some additional features with their hosting plans, like their LiteSpeed web server option, for even better performance.
PingPerfect is possibly the best hosting provider if you’re never tied down to one specific game and prefer switching between different genres – from space engineers to Minecraft.
So, it’s really the fact you’re receiving support for 175+ different mods and games that really sells PingPerfect, all for around £1 per month. Having said that, if you prefer something with a bit more dedicated support towards one particular game, you’re probably better off finding a less diverse hosting provider that can give you specialised tools for that game.
Generally speaking, you’ll find that pretty much all game server hosting providers offer a range of resources to help you with things like setting up your server, maintenance, and any troubleshooting. It’ll depend on which specific provider you’re using, but pretty much all of them have a support team available where you can get in touch across various channels – such as live chat or via some kind of ticket system.
You’d typically only ever associate game server hosting with PC gaming, given the level of control PC gamers have over their devices in comparison to consoles, but most providers should still offer some form of support for hosting multiplayer games on PlayStation, Xbox, or any other mainstream gaming platforms. In fact, as cross-platform compatibility is becoming increasingly common in the gaming industry, this is slowly becoming the norm for most hosting services.
Not at all, so you shouldn’t be dissuaded by the range of complex tools available to you if you’re a bit of a beginner – the hosting providers literally design their platform to be accessible to as many gamers as possible in order to make more money, whether that’s in the form of a user-friendly interface or a solid knowledge base where you can learn the ropes. Plus, you’ll usually have a dedicated support team ready to help if you do need some assistance, so it’s generally really easy to learn.
Obviously, even a couple minutes of downtime can be pretty dramatic across multiplayer gaming communities when you’re playing in a dynamic world with other users, so most providers typically strive to resolve these kinds of issues ASAP. Furthermore, many of these companies even offer service level agreements (SLAs) where they guarantee a certain level of uptime, meaning you’ll actually be compensated for any downtime going over a certain amount of time.
Absolutely, although it’s always going to depend on your specific server’s specifications and resources. This is usually done by using virtual private servers (VPS), for example, as these allow you to be way more efficient with the way you allocate resources, giving you a chance to run multiple game servers at the same time without skimping on the performance.
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