Best VPS Hosting for Game Servers (2026): No Slot Limits

Get KVM 4 at Hostinger →

KVM 4 is where a game server VPS stops feeling cramped. For $12.99 a month you get 16 GB of RAM, 4 vCPU cores and 200 GB of NVMe storage. That's $0.81 per GB of RAM, the lowest of the four at promo pricing. Hostinger pitches it at demanding, high-traffic apps. A busy modded server fits that description.

The 16 GB figure matters. SSD Nodes says a Valheim server runs smoothly for 10+ players at that size, and it's also the usual floor for ARK and Rust. If you prefer Minecraft, you can give a Forge modpack 8 GB and still have room for a smaller second server, with both run from one Pterodactyl panel because you have root.

Best for: Modded Minecraft communities, Valheim groups of 10 or more, and admins who want two different games on one box with no slot limits.

Skip if: You're hosting vanilla Minecraft for five friends, because KVM 2 handles that for $4 less a month. Also skip it if you're planning a big Rust map with a full player list. That job belongs to KVM 8.

Honest caveat: The $12.99 is a promotional price. On a 2-year renewal it goes up to $28.99/mo, more than double. The product page also doesn't name the CPU model, so you can't check single-thread speed before you pay. Use the 30-day money-back guarantee and run your own TPS test under load in the first week.

Get KVM 2 at Hostinger →

KVM 2 gives you 8 GB of RAM, 2 vCPU cores and 100 GB of NVMe storage for $8.99 a month, which is $1.12 per GB. Hostinger calls it its most recommended tier. For a private server, it really is the right size.

A vanilla Minecraft world for your friends fits comfortably here, especially on Paper or Purpur, which VPS.do notes clearly outperform vanilla server software as player counts rise. At 8 GB you're also at the top of the 6 to 8 GB range for a light Fabric or Forge pack. A small Valheim group works too. NVMe storage keeps new chunks and world saves quick.

Best for: A friends-only Minecraft server (vanilla or lightly modded), a small Valheim group, or a first VPS where you learn Linux and Pterodactyl without overspending.

Skip if: You expect 10+ Valheim players, run a heavy modpack, or want ARK or Rust. Those all point to 16 GB or more.

Honest caveat: The renewal price is $14.99/mo on a 2-year term. With two cores, one game server plus a panel plus scheduled backups leaves little headroom, so plan on running one game at a time.

Get KVM 8 at Hostinger →

KVM 8 is the top of Hostinger's KVM line: 32 GB of RAM, 8 vCPU cores and 400 GB of NVMe storage for $25.99 a month. At promo pricing it works out to $0.81 per GB, a hair behind KVM 4. At renewal it's the cheapest per GB of the four, at $1.56.

This plan is for running several servers, not one giant one. You could run a 16 GB Rust server and a modded Minecraft server side by side, or keep separate instances for different communities, each with its own world. The 400 GB of disk also gives you space to keep several days of backups on the box.

Best for: Large communities, big Rust or ARK maps, and admins hosting several games or instances from one Pterodactyl install.

Skip if: You run one server for one game. More cores won't raise a single Minecraft world's tick rate, because its main loop runs on one thread.

Honest caveat: It renews at $49.99/mo on a 2-year term. Don't hand all 32 GB to one Java server, either. Fly-Serv warns that over-allocating RAM can cause delayed but severe garbage collection pauses. Give each instance only what it needs and use Aikar's JVM flags, which VPS.do recommends for tuning garbage collection.

Get KVM 1 at Hostinger →

KVM 1 is the cheapest way into a root-access VPS with DDoS filtering: 1 vCPU core, 4 GB of RAM and 50 GB of NVMe storage for $6.49 a month. It ranks last on cost per GB at $1.62. It's still on the list because sometimes you only need a small sandbox.

Hostinger itself aims this plan at developers spinning up test environments, and that's the right way to think of it here. Install Pterodactyl, get used to the panel, break things and rebuild them. Then move up a tier once you know what your server needs. Terraria runs fine at this size, and so does a small vanilla Minecraft server for two or three people, which sits above the 2 GB minimum.

Best for: Testing a game panel, running Terraria or other lightweight servers, or a tiny Minecraft world for a couple of friends.

Skip if: You run anything modded, anything public with more than a handful of players, or more than one game.

Honest caveat: The game, the operating system and your panel all share a single core, so a busy moment will show up as lag. Renewal is $11.99/mo on a 2-year term, which is $3.00 per GB, the worst value of the four.

All four plans have Wanguard DDoS filtering, NVMe storage and full root access, so RAM and price are what separate them.

Is a VPS good for game servers?

Yes, if you're comfortable on a Linux command line. A KVM-based VPS gives you dedicated CPU resources without the swings in performance you get from container-based hosting, VPS.do notes. Root access means you aren't locked to one game or a set number of player slots. The tradeoff is that updates, backups and security are your job.

How much RAM do I need for a game server?

It depends on the game. A basic Minecraft server needs at least 2 GB, and modded Forge or Fabric servers need 6 to 8 GB or more. SSD Nodes says Valheim runs smoothly for 10+ players at 16 GB, and ARK and Rust usually want 16 GB as a minimum. Leave a gigabyte or two for the operating system and your panel.

What is the difference between a VPS and a managed game server host?

A managed game host sells you one game, usually priced by player slots, with a control panel already set up. A VPS is a general-purpose virtual machine where you install the game, the panel and anything else yourself. A dedicated server is a whole physical machine. It costs more, but no other customers share the hardware.

Can I run multiple game servers on a single VPS?

Yes, as long as the RAM and cores can carry them. A panel like Pterodactyl runs each server in its own container with its own memory limit. On 16 GB you could pair an 8 GB modpack with a smaller vanilla world. On 32 GB, two 16 GB servers fit side by side.

Does more vCPU mean a better tick rate?

Not for a single world. Minecraft Java runs its main tick loop on one thread, so clock speed and IPC matter more than core count. Dev.to's server guide points out that desktop chips like the Ryzen 9 7950X and Core i9-13900K often beat high-core-count server CPUs on single-thread work. Extra cores help when you run more instances, not when you want one world to tick faster.

How much does it cost to host a game server?

On the four plans here, $6.49 to $25.99 a month at promo pricing, and $11.99 to $49.99 a month at renewal. Network quality counts as much as price. Dataplugs notes that jitter and packet loss cause more gameplay problems than average ping, and Fly-Serv says 5% packet loss can look exactly like server lag. Pick the data center closest to most of your players.