- What is a Dedicated Game Server?
- How Much Does an MMO Server Cost?
- How Much Does a Minecraft Server Cost?
- How Much Does an ARK Server Cost?
- What Impacts Game Server Cost?
- Types of Servers
Here’s how much an online game server costs:
Gaming server prices range from $5 per month to $150 to $1000s per month. The cost of a game server depends on how many player slots you want, and the type of game you’re playing. For example, small Terraria servers will cost less than a large Arma 3 or Fortnite server.
That’s the short answer, but it’s a bit more complicated than that.
Let me explain:
Back when I wanted to host my first Rust server, I didn’t really know what I was doing.
After trying to set up a dedicated Rust server, I realized I needed to find a good host instead.
Before anything else, I was wondering how much it would cost to host a game server.
Now, after years of hosting experience in a variety of different games, I’ve learned it depends on a variety of factors.
In this article, you’re going to learn exactly how much it costs to host a variety of different servers, and why.
Let’s dive in:
What is a Dedicated Game Server?
It’s like your own private game room where only you and your friends play. So the games run super smooth without annoying lag. Plus, no randoms crashing your game night!
Basically, everyone in the game connects to the server. The dedicated game server hosting tracks all of the players in the game, their location, direction, gear, health, base locations, etc.
The larger the map and the more players in the game, the more processing power the server must use. Hence, the game server pricing depends on multiple factors here.
How Much Does it Cost to Run a Game Server 24/7?
Renting a server will cost you $5-$150 per month and may also go as far as $1000 depending on how you scale and the game you’re playing.
But running the server yourself is a different story.
If you want to set up a server in your home or office, you’ll save a lot of money. Rather than paying a hosting company, you only have to pay for electricity.
On average, a server can use between 300 to 1200 watts-hour. For example, a server consuming 500 watts running for 24 hours: comes out to 12000 watts daily, or 12 kilowatts (kWh). So that means it would cost $360 to power the gaming server for one month.
How Much Does MMO Server Cost?
Multiplayer game servers cost much more than other video game servers because they have far more players gaming at once, which means more for the server to process.
The cost of MMO server primarily depends on two factors:
1. How many concurrent players you plan to serve
2. The efficiency of your custom server technology
Simply put, an MMO can cost you anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand per month, depending on how many concurrent players and locations you want to support.
For example, a 5k concurrent player base on MMO may cost you ~$1500 per month, even with a bulk discount.
How Much Does a Minecraft Server Cost?
Minecraft servers are far cheaper than MMO servers, but they can still get pricey as they can fill up quickly.
Most people will pay between $5-$50 per month for a Minecraft server. Rates depend on how many concurrent players you want to support. More players means more RAM, and more RAM means more money.
Those figures are for small Minecraft servers, however. That number can grow to more than $100 per month for large communities.
The amount of RAM you choose also has a direct impact on pricing as well.
How Much Does an ARK Server Cost?
Survival games like ARK, and DayZ tend to cost anywhere from $15 to $100 per month.
By now, you already know this is an average cost and the actual one depends on a bunch of factors.
But they’re generally cheaper than MMO servers because they have far fewer players.
What Impacts Game Server Cost?
The cost of a game server depends on the game you’re playing, the total number of concurrent players, and some other factors (like the cost of electricity where your game host is located).
Here are some of the basic factors that impact the cost of game hosting:
- CPU: The more players join your server, the more CPU power you’re going to need. Some games, however, require CPUs with lower cores and faster clocks, while others make use of multi-threaded CPUs and all of their cores.
- RAM: Games with large maps/worlds like Minecraft, Tekkit, Rust, etc. will make use of a lot of RAM. Do you need 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, etc? More RAM means a higher monthly rental fee.
- Storage: SSDs are significantly less expensive nowadays, and have become standard in the hosting industry. I’d recommend staying away from any hosting company that doesn’t make use of SSDs.
- Network: Some hosting companies give 100Mbps ports, although the best companies like PingPerfect and Host Havoc have 1Gbps ports. Server hardware is important, but don’t underestimate your server’s network speed’s impact on performance.
- OS: Most servers make use of Linux and Windows operating systems. Some hosting companies have designed custom operating systems made specifically for hosting, and nothing else. They tend to be more efficient for them, but it probably won’t make a big difference on the client side.
As your server scales in size (higher concurrent player count), you’ll need more of the server’s resources outlined above, which will raise your rental fee.
Types of Servers
When I first started hosting online game servers, I didn’t know the difference between VPS servers and dedicated servers.
But don’t be me. Here’s what you need to know:
Dedicated Game Servers
Dedicated servers provide the best performance of any type. A dedicated server is entirely yours – its entire existence is dedicated to your game.
Unlike shared servers, nobody else has access to your machine. These servers are designed for high-demand games that need performance.
You wouldn’t use a dedicated server for a simple mobile game or low-resource retro game like Terraria.
Instead, dedicated server hosting for gaming is best used for stuff like CS: GO which are highly competitive and need top-notch performance at all times.
VPS Servers (aka Hybrid Servers)
A VPS server, or Virtual Private Server, is essentially a slice of a dedicated server shared by several users.
VPS servers run virtual machines on a dedicated server. One dedicated server (depending on its performance) could be sectioned off into four VPS servers. Four users can use the same hardware for different purposes, but they can only harness 25% of the server hardware’s total capability.
You can think of a dedicated server like a filing cabinet, and a VPS server as a drawer in the filing cabinet. Each drawer contains folders, which are the actual files used to run the server.
Most people use VPS hosting for small groups of players working together, like in a small Minecraft server with friends.
If you only want to run around with a dozen or so friends, VPS servers will provide enough performance.
However, I wouldn’t recommend a VPS server for anyone who wants to grow a large community on their server. As you scale, VPS servers don’t have adequate performance. Large servers need reliable performance, especially for competitive games like Arma 3, Squad, Fortnite, and Rust where lag will make your player base abandon the game.