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The cheapest good Vintage Story server depends on how often your group plays. Official hosting costs 10 EUR per 30 days and is the simplest choice for a small, vanilla group, but it is limited to eight concurrent players, Central Europe, stable or release-candidate versions, and no third-party mods or world uploads. If you can stop a server between sessions, an hourly plan can cost less: TickServ advertises a starting rate of €0.02 per hour and says billing falls to €0 while the server is off, with the world saved between sessions.
Monthly third-party plans can be better for an always-available or modded world. OXY.Games advertises plans from €3.20 per month, while Gravel Host advertises plans from $4.50 per month. Those figures use different currencies, tiers and commercial terms, so they are examples to investigate rather than a universal price ranking. Self-hosting can remove a rental bill, but it transfers hardware, networking, electricity, backup and maintenance responsibilities to you.
Choose by play schedule, not by the lowest headline number
There is no single provider that is cheapest and still good for every Vintage Story group. A server that runs only for scheduled weekend sessions has a very different cost profile from one that friends expect to join at any time. Before comparing plans, estimate how many hours the server will actually be online each month, how many people may connect at once, whether you need mods, and where most players live.
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|---|---|---|---|
| Official Simple Server Hosting | 10 EUR per 30 days | Small, vanilla group wanting an in-game setup | Maximum eight concurrent players; Central Europe; no third-party mods or world uploads; stable and release-candidate versions only |
| Hourly third-party hosting | TickServ from €0.02 per hour | Groups able to stop the server between sessions | Calculate real monthly hours; verify RAM, region, autosave and how stopping works |
| Monthly third-party hosting | OXY.Games from €3.20/month; Gravel Host from $4.50/month | Always-available servers or groups needing mod support | Compare equivalent RAM, location, taxes, renewal price, backups, support and migration terms |
| Self-hosting | No rental price quoted by the official guide | Technically comfortable owner with suitable always-on hardware and internet | You provide hardware, power, firewall and port forwarding, uptime, updates and backups |
All provider prices above are advertised starting prices accessed in 2026, not guaranteed checkout totals. Taxes, promotional terms, resource limits and renewal rates can change.
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When official hosting is the right bargain
The official Simple Server Hosting plan is listed at 10 EUR for 30 days. Its value is convenience rather than maximum flexibility: setup is designed to be simple and stays inside the game’s supported hosting experience. The plan allows up to eight concurrent players and is located in Central Europe.
That plan is a sensible low-effort purchase when your group meets the following conditions:
- You will stay at or below eight simultaneous players.
- Most players are reasonably close to Central Europe.
- You want a vanilla world without third-party mods.
- You do not need to upload an existing world or export it for migration.
- Stable or release-candidate versions are sufficient.
It is not a good match for a modded community, a group spread far from Europe, or anyone who needs full control over world files. A lower price elsewhere may be better in those cases, even if the advertised number is not dramatically lower.
How to calculate whether hourly hosting is cheaper
Hourly billing only wins when the server is offline enough to offset the rate. Use this calculation before signing up:
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monthly hosting cost = advertised hourly rate × hours the server is running
At TickServ’s advertised starting rate of €0.02 per hour, the arithmetic looks like this:
| Runtime in a month | Illustrative total at €0.02/hour | Compared with a 10 EUR 30-day plan |
|---|---|---|
| 100 hours | €2.00 | Lower, before taxes or tier changes |
| 150 hours | €3.00 | Lower, before taxes or tier changes |
| 200 hours | €4.00 | Lower, before taxes or tier changes |
| 225 hours | €4.50 | Lower, before taxes or tier changes |
| 300 hours | €6.00 | Lower, before taxes or tier changes |
| 500 hours | €10.00 | Same arithmetic total, before taxes or tier changes |
The table is a cost illustration, not a performance test or a promise that every resource tier is available at €0.02 per hour. Confirm the RAM tier, storage, region and any minimum charges. TickServ says the server costs €0 while stopped and that the world is saved between sessions; verify the exact stop, wake-up and autosave behavior in its current control panel.
Hourly hosting works best when
- Your group plays in scheduled blocks rather than leaving the world online continuously.
- Everyone agrees who can start and stop the instance.
- The provider preserves the world during shutdown and offers a usable backup or export path.
- Players accept a short startup wait when a session begins.
Hourly hosting can be false economy when
- Someone expects to join at any time, including when the owner is unavailable.
- The server is left running for most of the month.
- Stopping requires manual intervention that your group routinely forgets.
- The cheapest tier has too little memory for your player count, mods or established world.
How to compare monthly third-party plans
OXY.Games advertises a starting price of €3.20 per month, and Gravel Host advertises a starting price of $4.50 per month. These are provider-published figures accessed in 2026; they are not independent market averages. Currency alone prevents a precise ranking, and the lowest tier at one provider may include different memory, storage, locations or renewal conditions than the lowest tier at another.
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Ask for the full recurring cost and specifications for the exact plan you would buy. Compare the following in the same currency where possible:
- Memory allocation: A plan with more RAM may cost more but avoid lag as the world grows or mods are added.
- CPU share: Check whether the plan specifies dedicated or shared resources and whether limits apply during busy periods.
- Location: Choose a datacenter near the majority of players, not merely the cheapest region.
- Renewal price: A displayed introductory rate may not be the recurring amount after a promotion.
- Taxes and payment fees: VAT or other local charges can materially change a small monthly bill.
- Backups: Confirm frequency, retention, storage location and whether you can restore a particular point in time.
- World migration: Verify that you can download the world and upload it elsewhere without provider-specific locking.
- Support: Check support hours, response expectations and whether staff help with version or mod issues.
- Cancellation: Read notice, refund and data-deletion terms before paying.
The Vintage Story Wiki’s third-party provider list explicitly says those services are “not vetted.” Treat each company’s performance, uptime and feature statements as its own claims, and verify them directly before committing a valuable world.
One monthly option to check against that list is Godlike.Host’s Vintage Story hosting, which offers up to three free backups a day with restore, SFTP/FTP file access and ten data-center locations across North America, Europe and Singapore. See the current plans for pricing, and apply the same checks on RAM, renewal terms and world migration.
Mods, world files and version policy can outweigh price
For many groups, flexibility is what makes a server “good.” The official plan does not support third-party mods or world uploads, so the lowest advertised monthly cost is irrelevant if you already have a world or plan to install community content.
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For a third-party plan, establish a migration routine before inviting players:
- Ask whether the provider permits third-party mods and which Vintage Story versions are available.
- Upload a copy of your world, then confirm that the server can start it without altering the original.
- Make a test backup and download it to a local drive.
- Stop the server, restore the test backup, and verify that player data, configurations and mod files return correctly.
- Record the export location and the steps needed to move to another provider.
Do not assume that “backups included” means you control the files. A backup that cannot be downloaded or restored on demand offers less protection against billing, account or provider problems.
Region and uptime: the hidden part of “cheap”
Latency depends mainly on the network path between players and the server. The official service is in Central Europe; third-party providers may advertise several regions. Select the region closest to the largest part of your group, then ask whether the listed location is the physical game server or only a billing region.
Monthly hosting buys availability as well as compute time. The official guide describes paid internet hosting with the benefit that “Everyone can join at any time and setup is simplified.” That convenience disappears if an hourly server is routinely stopped, if only one person knows how to start it, or if the provider’s wake-up process is unreliable. Conversely, paying for 24-hour availability is wasteful when nobody plays during most of those hours.
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Self-hosting: no rental fee, but real operating costs
Self-hosting can be the least expensive option if you already own a suitable computer and a reliable connection. It is not costless in practical terms: the machine consumes electricity, must remain available, and becomes your responsibility to secure, update and back up.
The official self-hosting guidance gives a rough conservative estimate for a normal survival world:
- Windows or Linux.
- 1 GB of base memory plus 300 MB per player.
- Four CPU threads recommended.
- CPU frequency described as 1 GHz base plus 150 MHz per player on the official self-hosting page.
The dedicated-server Wiki guide currently states 1 GHz base plus 100 MHz per player instead. Because the two official references differ, use the current official self-hosting page for planning and treat the figures as rough recommendations, not guarantees. Neither estimate promises smooth performance for heavily modded, very old or unusually active worlds.
Turning the memory rule into a planning estimate
Using the official page’s 1 GB plus 300 MB-per-player rule, four simultaneous players imply roughly 2.2 GB, while eight imply roughly 3.4 GB. Reserve additional headroom for the operating system, mods, server processes and world growth; do not size a machine so tightly that the game consumes all available memory.
What self-hosting requires
- A computer that meets the current CPU, memory, storage and operating-system requirements.
- A stable internet connection with enough upload capacity for your group.
- Firewall and router configuration, including port forwarding where required.
- A plan for automatic or manual backups stored separately from the game computer.
- Someone available to apply updates, restart the service and troubleshoot connectivity.
- Acceptance that outages affect your group unless you maintain a second route.
The official guide distinguishes local hosting, paid internet hosting and a free internet route. The free route can save a subscription, but it may require a strong connection, advanced network setup and leaving the PC running. Count your time, electricity and uptime expectations when comparing it with a small rental plan.
Should you buy a mini PC?
A low-power mini PC is an optional way to dedicate hardware to the server, not a requirement. No specific model is established as tested for Vintage Story here. Before buying, check CPU performance, installed memory, storage health, operating-system support and expected always-on power draw against the current official requirements. Renting remains simpler if you do not already have suitable equipment.
A practical decision process
- Count simultaneous players. If the group may exceed eight, remove the official plan from consideration.
- Mark required features. Mods, world uploads, downloadable backups and multiple regions usually point toward third-party hosting or self-hosting.
- Estimate online hours. Multiply the advertised hourly rate by realistic runtime, including idle time during sessions.
- Compare equivalent monthly plans. Normalize currency, taxes, RAM, CPU, location, renewal price and backup terms.
- Price self-hosting honestly. Include hardware, electricity, internet reliability and the owner’s maintenance time.
- Test before migrating permanently. Use a copy of the world, verify backups and have a rollback plan.
Pre-purchase checklist
- Is the advertised price recurring, promotional or a one-time allowance?
- What is the final price after VAT or other applicable taxes?
- How much RAM and CPU capacity does the exact tier provide?
- Where is the server physically located?
- Can you install your mods and upload an existing world?
- How does the provider save, download and restore backups?
- What happens to the world when an hourly server is stopped?
- Can you migrate the files to another host?
- What are the support, cancellation and refund terms?
- Who can restart the server if the owner is unavailable?
For an eight-player-or-fewer vanilla group in or near Central Europe, official hosting is the simplest predictable choice at 10 EUR per 30 days. For intermittent sessions, calculate an hourly plan first; at €0.02 per hour, several hundred online hours can still cost less than a full month. For mods, world portability or a continuously available server, compare third-party plans on resources and safeguards rather than headline price. Self-hosting is cheapest only when your existing hardware, connection and time make the ongoing work acceptable.
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