Choosing Minecraft hosting UK is tricky business, but you can save yourself a lot of grief if you follow this simple rule: Keep your friends close and your Minecraft server hosting closer. If you live in the UK, your best bet is to keep your Minecraft hosting UK based. If you live in Timbuktu, choose hosting in Timbuktu. (You get it.) Location is important, but that’s not all there is to choosing the best Minecraft server hosting. To do that, you’ll need to check for things like server speed, customer service, server security, and a whole bunch of things that are easy to overlook if this is your first time getting Minecraft server hosting. Luckily, we wrote this guide for beginners, so we promise it’ll be easy to follow.
First, we’ll look at why you need Minecraft hosting, then we’ll get into how to choose the best Minecraft server hosting for you, and finally, we’ll tell you how to avoid bad servers.
Let’s get right into it!
Table of Contents
6 Reasons why you need Minecraft hosting
1. You’ll have less lag
Minecraft is one of those games that are just as much fun to play by yourself as they are to play with other people. But to really fulfill your chaotic gameplay dreams, you’ll want to play with as many people as you can cram into your game. This will create a perfect environment for players’ personalities to mix in beautiful ways and for players’ imaginations to spark off each other, creating scenarios that are more fun and interesting than you ever thought possible.
The problem is that if you don’t have your own Minecraft hosting, you’ll run into so much lag that it’ll be difficult to enjoy the game the way it was meant to be played. Getting your own Minecraft hosting (UK based if you’re in the UK) is the best way to minimise lag.
2. You can create the server you want
If you don’t have your own hosting, you’ll have to rely on public servers. Public servers will use client servers to keep track of all the connections from each player in a single game, which is great if you want a hands-off gaming experience, but not so great if you like customising your server to suit your own gaming preferences. If you have the best Minecraft server hosting, you’ll be able to tweak your server to create the perfect gaming setup, which means you’ll have a server that runs exactly the way you want it to.
3. Fewer performance limits
Playing Minecraft on a public server is fun – until your connection gets dropped or your game starts lagging so much that it’s borderline unplayable. The best way to improve your game’s performance is to create your own Minecraft server hosting (how to do that was covered in this guide on creating your own Minecraft server on all platforms).
When you run your own server, you can even limit the number of players who are allowed to use your server at once, which means you get even more control over your game’s performance.
4. You can choose your own mods
Minecraft is already a great game, but installing mods on your server will really take your gameplay to the next level. Unfortunately, if you’re stuck playing on a public server, you don’t always get to choose the mods you like. But when you have the best Minecraft server hosting, you can choose the mods you want to install and ignore the ones you can’t stand.
5. You can play by your own rules
It’d be nice if we didn’t need rules at all, but having server rules helps improve the gaming experience for everyone on the server instead of having it be overrun by trolls or fun-suckers. But sometimes, people who manage a server can make rules that don’t make sense or that make the game less fun to play. When you have your own Minecraft server hosting, how to talk, how to act and how to play will be entirely up to you. You don’t have to play by anyone else’s rules.
6. You can make money from your server
This is one of the lesser-known perks of having your own Minecraft hosting, but it’s true. If you host your own server, you can make money by running ads in-game, running web stores, setting up a system where other players pay tiny dues to use the server, and so much more!
Now that you now why you need Minecraft server hosting, how to choose the best hosting plan is coming right up!
7 Ways to choose the best Minecraft server hosting
1. Focus on reliability
The best Minecraft hosting, UK based or not, will provide a smooth gameplay experience with as few interruptions as possible. You don’t want to choose a server that’s so poorly maintained that you can never tell from one day to the next whether your server will be functional or not. You want a company that offers well maintained servers so that you can offer your fellow gamers a consistently good performance.
2. Look for high-performing servers
Whichever hosting provider you choose, make sure they offer fast servers on sturdy infrastructure. For smooth gaming, your server needs to be Tier 1 with at least Intel Core processing. Your game will also require high-quality hardware and SSDs, so your server needs to support these too. Anything less than this, and you’ll have to suffer through a glitchy, laggy game, or worse – one that crashes when faced with the slightest pressure.
3. Choose a host that protects your server
When you’re choosing Minecraft server hosting, how to decide whether your host adequately protects your data can be a bit tricky, but here are some basic things to look out for:
- Strong firewalls
- Regular system updates
- Frequent server backups
- Excellent hardware
4. Responsive customer support
Minecraft hosting (UK-based in particular) will be guaranteed to provide support in fluent English, which helps when you’re trying to communicate a technical issue which might already be out of your depth. The best Minecraft server hosting will also offer 24/7 support (even on bank holidays!) so you can always get help when you need it.
5. Stress-free server management
You’re not getting a Minecraft server so you can spend hours of your time on annoying server maintenance tasks. You’re getting a server so you can have more fun playing Minecraft. So, when you’re choosing Minecraft hosting, you’ll want to choose hosting with features like one-click installation, automatic updates, control panels and more. The less work you have to do to keep your server up and running, the more time you’ll have to spend playing the game you love.
6. Check for DDoS protection
This goes hand in hand with choosing a secure host, but DDoS protection is a specific form of security that you should look for in your hosting provider. Gaming servers are frequently targeted by cybercriminals, and one of their favourite tools is the DDoS attack. So, even if your hosting provider says they’ll secure your server, make sure they specifically offer DDoS protection.
7. Choose a VPS or dedicated gaming server
These are the fastest, most secure servers you can have, and if you choose the right hosting provider, they won’t be too expensive either. Having a VPS or dedicated gaming server is especially important if you want to monetise your Minecraft gameplay. Streaming platforms have become particularly lucrative in recent times, and if you have a magnetic personality and are reasonably competent at the game, this could be a great way to make buckets of money doing something you genuinely love.
Now that you know what to look for in a great Minecraft server host, here are some things to avoid doing when you’re searching for a host:
Minecraft server hosting UK: How to avoid bad servers
1. Don’t ignore downtime
Uptime is the percentage of time you can expect your server to be up and running. Downtime is the opposite of that. If a server is down 50% of the time, it means you’re just as likely to find that your server isn’t working as you are to find that it is. Those are terrible odds. Most good server hosts will offer at least 99% uptime, so never settle for anything less.
2. Don’t prioritise cheap hosts
You can get great hosting for a really affordable price. As a matter of fact, our low web hosting price is precisely what attracts many of our clients in the first place. But you shouldn’t choose a host just because they’re cheap.
Some web hosts are able to offer you rock bottom prices because they cut costs wherever they can.
Sometimes that means they don’t offer reliable support, or they can’t afford to maintain their servers, or they don’t offer adequate protection for your server. All of these things are detrimental to your gaming experience. Price is important, but unless you’re trying to sabotage your game, you shouldn’t choose a host just because they’re cheap.
3. Make sure your host knows their stuff
There’s no point in having a host that offers 24/7 customer support if you can never get any useful answers to your questions. When a host offers Minecraft server hosting, how to set up your server shouldn’t be your responsibility, because that should be your host’s area of expertise. You also shouldn’t need to bother with questions like how to update your server or how to protect your server from hackers. Your host should be able to handle all these technical issues for you and they should definitely be able to answer your questions about setting up and maintaining your server.
4. Pay attention to bandwidth and RAM
Videogames are notorious for sucking up bandwidth, but luckily, Minecraft isn’t a very resource-heavy game. This can vary depending on your mods, your graphics options, and how many players you like to have in your game at the same time, but in general, you shouldn’t need more than about 2GB of RAM. If you want to play by yourself, you’ll need about half that. For bandwidth, about 100 Mb per hour should be fine for most gaming needs, but the important thing is to choose a host that can scale the bandwidth according to your requirements. That way, you’ll never run out of server resources, but you won’t end up paying for resources you don’t need, either.
5. Location, location, location
It’s the number one rule of real estate and, as it turns out, Minecraft servers. The whole point of a dedicated server is that it’s faster than using a public server. There’s no point in paying for a server, only to have it run just as slowly as a public server. So, when you’re choosing your server, make sure it’s as close to your location as possible. (The closer your server is to the people who are using it, the better it’ll perform.) That’s why if you’re in the UK, it’s important to choose a hosting company with servers that are also located in the UK.
(Not to toot our own horns, but our servers are fast, secure, and located right here in the UK to ensure the best performance for our clients.)
Wrapping up
Getting a Minecraft server is a great way to get the most out of your gaming experience, but it won’t do to select the very first server your eyes land on. If you’re going to be spending your money on a server, you need to make sure it’s speedy, secure, and simple to use. If you learned a lot from this guide, you’ll love our guide on VPS Minecraft server setup for beginners.
Check out our hosting plans and talk to our friendly, super-smart customer service reps so you can find the perfect plan for your gaming needs!
