Yes, Minecraft server hosting can be free. Mojang gives the server software away, and several hosts will run it for you without charging. You pay in other ways: ads, tighter limits, and conditions on when the server is online. We run Severoo, a free host, so we are not neutral. Every fact about another host on this page comes from that host’s own website, read on 12 October 2026.
Is Minecraft server hosting free, and can you get a free server
There are three ways to run a server. Two of them cost no money.
- Host it yourself. The server software is provided free of charge by Mojang. You supply the computer, the electricity and the internet connection. See how to host a Minecraft server on your PC.
- Use a free host. A company runs the server on its machines and you manage it in a browser. Among the ten hosts we compare, Minehut, ScalaCube and Minefort each say no credit card is needed, and Aternos says there is “no possibility to pay for anything”.
- Pay. Realms is Mojang’s own paid subscription service, and nine of the ten hosts below sell paid plans, upgrades or servers.
So yes, you can get a free Minecraft server. It does not make the game free: each player still needs their own copy of Minecraft.
How free hosts make money
A server costs its host money for every hour it runs, so a free plan has to be paid for somehow. This is what each of the ten hosts on our comparison pages stated about ads on 12 October 2026.
| Host | What its site says about ads |
|---|---|
| Aternos | Ad-funded; visitors are asked to turn off ad blockers |
| Minehut | Ad-supported (the site says ads “keep free servers free”) |
| Falix (FalixNodes) | Ad-funded free plan; ad blockers must be turned off for the panel |
| FreeMcServer.net | Optional ads extend the renewal timer and unlock more RAM |
| ScalaCube | Not stated |
| Minefort | Ads in the dashboard on the free plan |
| Play Hosting | Not stated |
| MCServerHost | States “No ads” |
| PowerupStack | No third-party advertising |
| AxentHost | Ad-funded; optional rewarded ads in the mobile apps earn extra credits; Premium removes ads |
Ads on the website or in the panel
Six of the ten show or offer ads on the free plan. Four are ad-funded or ad-supported. Minefort shows ads in the dashboard. FreeMcServer.net makes them optional: watching one extends the renewal timer and unlocks more RAM. Two hosts say the opposite: MCServerHost states “No ads” and PowerupStack says it has no third-party advertising.
Ads cost you attention, not money. The practical question is whether the host needs your ad blocker off. Aternos and Falix both say so.
Paid upgrades
Nine of the ten sell something next to the free plan. Minehut, Falix, FreeMcServer.net, Minefort, MCServerHost and PowerupStack sell paid plans. ScalaCube is a paid host that also offers a free server. Play Hosting sells VPS and dedicated servers. AxentHost has a Premium tier that removes ads. Aternos is the exception: it has no paid plan.
The paid plan often removes the free plan’s main limit. Minefort and MCServerHost both say their paid plans stay online 24/7, and Minehut says only its Ultimate plan does.
Credits
AxentHost runs on credits. Free credits are claimed every hour and spent on RAM by the hour, and a server stays online while it has credits. Optional rewarded ads in its mobile apps earn extra ones.
Renewals
A renewal is a button you press before a timer runs out. FreeMcServer.net asks for one every 4 hours, ScalaCube every 2 days, and MCServerHost within 7 days. The effect is that a server nobody is using stops taking up memory and disk space, which leaves more for the people who are still playing.
Severoo uses a renewal timer too. Our free plan runs on account credits, which you need to renew a server and can collect for free. The credits are earned, not sold: they cannot be bought.
What the catch usually is
A free plan limits what you get. These examples are from the same ten hosts, as of 12 October 2026.
- Memory. Minehut and Minefort give a free server 1 GB of RAM. Play Hosting and PowerupStack give 3 GB. MCServerHost lists up to 4 GB and says it is not guaranteed during busy periods. Our RAM calculator shows what your server needs.
- Storage. Aternos and PowerupStack limit a free server to 4 GB. Five others give 10 GB. A world grows as players explore, so a small limit matters more over time.
- Uptime conditions. Seven of the ten do not keep a free server running while nobody is using it. The other three run on a renewal timer or a credit balance. Our guide to free Minecraft server hosting 24/7 explains each model.
- What you can install. Aternos does not allow custom plugin or mod uploads. Falix and PowerupStack keep custom JAR files for paid plans.
- Guarantees and support. MCServerHost and Play Hosting both say their uptime guarantee does not cover free servers. Support for free users differs from host to host, so find the help center and the contact page before you need them.
None of this makes a free plan a bad deal. It means the limits are the price, so read them first.
Is free Minecraft server hosting safe
It can be, if you treat a free server as something that might disappear. Four habits cover most of the risk.
- Keep your own world backups. Download a copy of the world folder regularly and store it somewhere that is not the host. Our guide to uploading a world to a Minecraft server shows how to put it back.
- Read the inactivity rule. Hosts differ a lot. ScalaCube says a free server that is not renewed every 2 days is deleted with its contents. MCServerHost deletes one that is not renewed within 7 days. Minefort locks a server after 3 days without use, and says a locked server stays stored. On Severoo, a server that is not renewed is suspended first, and removed permanently if it is not re-enabled within 7 days.
- Never reuse a password. Give the host’s control panel a password you use nowhere else. A host needs an account on its own site. It does not need the password to your Microsoft account, so type that only on Microsoft’s own sign-in page.
- Check the host has terms and a contact address. Published terms, a privacy policy and a way to reach a person mean someone is accountable. If you cannot tell who runs a host, do not keep a world you care about there. Ours are linked in the footer, and the contact page lists how to reach us.
Safety inside the game is a separate job. Check that the whitelist is on so only the friends you name can join. A new Java Edition 26.3 server has it on by default, as of October 2026, but an older server may not.
What our free plan asks of you
A free Severoo server costs no money and needs no credit card. It gets up to 6 GB of RAM and up to 20 GB of NVMe SSD storage, with no player cap. It is online 24/7 as long as you renew it, it does not sleep when it is empty, and there is no queue to start it.
What it asks of you is the renewal. Renewing is one click, paid for with account credits that are free to collect. You renew on a schedule that depends on your plan (every few hours on some plans). Where the interval is short, that is a real chore, and the server is only online around the clock while someone keeps doing it.
You collect credits by claiming them daily, using the site and running your server, and completing small tasks. Credits cannot be bought, and collecting them this way is enough to keep one server online all the time. The server still has to be renewed on schedule.
A server that is not renewed is suspended first. You have 7 days to re-enable it. After that it is removed permanently, and you can always create a new server. Because removal is permanent, keep your own copy of the world. The plans page lists the limits. Read it the way you would read any other host’s.