Free Minecraft server hosting, compared

Three ways free hosts keep costs down

• You start it. The server is off until someone opens a website and presses Start, sometimes after a queue. If that person isn't around, nobody plays.
• You renew it. The server runs, but you come back every few hours or days and click to keep it alive, or it stops and may be deleted.
• It sleeps and wakes. The server sleeps when nobody's on and starts by itself when a player joins from Minecraft.

Most free hosts also show ads, keep free plans small, and delete servers nobody uses. None of that is unusual: it's what makes free possible.

The hosts

• Aternos. The best-known free host. You press Start on its website, and at busy times there's a queue. Ads pay for it, and you can keep several servers. See Aternos alternative.
• Minehut. Quick to set up, especially for plugin servers, with a shared lobby where strangers can find your server. The free tier is small, and paid upgrades use in-site credits. See Minehut alternative.
• FalixNodes. One of the bigger free hosts. Its free plan's limits have changed over time, so check its site for the current rules. See FalixNodes alternative.
• ScalaCube. Free and paid servers in many countries. Its help pages describe renewing a free server every couple of days to keep it. See ScalaCube alternative.
• Server.pro. Hosts many games; its free option is a short demo you renew by hand, meant for trying it before paying. See Server.pro alternative.
• Minefort. Free servers that don't run all the time: you start one when you want to play. See Minefort alternative.
• Jump. Free servers sleep after 15 minutes alone and wake when anyone joins from Minecraft, with no website to open. 2 GB, Java or Bedrock, one free server per account, one ad in the panel. Servers are in US East and US West.

Free plans change often, everywhere. Treat this as a guide to how each one works, and check each host's own site for today's limits.

What to check before you pick

• How it starts. Can a friend get on when you're not around, or does someone have to press Start or renew it first?
• Memory. 2 GB is fine for vanilla or a few plugins with a handful of friends. Modpacks want 4 to 8 GB, which means a paid plan on any host. See how much RAM a server needs.
• What happens when you take a break. How long an unused server is kept before it's deleted, and whether you're warned first.
• Backups. Free plans rarely include them, so download your world now and then.
• The way up. If your server grows, can you upgrade the same one in place, or do you start again somewhere else?
• Where the machines are. Pick a host with servers near your players for a lower ping.

Where Jump fits

Jump is built for a group of friends who play at different times: nobody has to start the server or renew it, because joining wakes it. When you want it always on, the same server upgrades in place, from $4.99 a month (or $1.39 a week), with your first week from $0.99.

Make a free server to try it: it takes under a minute and needs no card.

Questions