Free Minecraft server hosting 2026: where to host for free

In short: you can get a Minecraft server for free, but you pay in limits. Aternos and Minehut are the quickest start with no setup, but the server sleeps when it's empty. FalixNodes and Minehut let you upload your own plugins; Aternos only installs them from its own library. Server.pro only offers a time-limited demo for free. No limits on plugins or uptime means a machine of your own: your own PC or a free Oracle Cloud virtual machine, which you set up yourself.

Free options compared#

Each option in brief#

• Aternos — free hosting for everyone, funded by ads, and it asks you to turn your ad blocker off. The server stops when the last player leaves, and keeping it online with bots is against the rules. Plugins come only from the built-in library: Aternos doesn't accept your own files — it cites malware and getting around the automatic shutdown — and points to its paid sister service exaroton for custom plugins.
• FalixNodes — a free plan with 2.5 GB of RAM. Your own .jar goes into the plugins folder through the file manager, and according to Falix's help pages SFTP is available on the free plan too. Free servers run on a timer, not 24/7.
• Minehut — the free Starter plan: 1 GB of RAM, 10 slots, Java and Bedrock in the same world, no port forwarding. The server sleeps when empty and wakes when a player joins; only the paid Ultimate plan stays up 24/7. Plugins are uploaded in the web dashboard.
• Oracle Cloud Always Free — not a game host but a free virtual machine on an Arm processor: 2 OCPUs and 12 GB of memory in total, which you can give to a single machine. Oracle warns it may reclaim a machine whose CPU, network and memory use stayed under 20% for 7 days. It's a VPS: Linux, Java, the server and the firewall are on you.
• Server.pro — only a demo is free: 2 GB of RAM and 2 cores, renewed by hand, with ads and no daily backups. The server is kept for 24 hours after it ends. Good for trying the panel, not for living on.
• Your own PC — costs nothing and has no limits except your hardware and internet connection. How to set up a server from scratch is in the complete guide, how to let players in is in IP and port 25565, and a tunnel works without port forwarding — see a server for friends.

What a free server costs you#

• Sleep and timers. An empty server on Aternos, Minehut and FalixNodes stops or goes to sleep. While it sleeps the world doesn't run: farms stand still, and the first player to arrive waits for it to start.
• Queues. When Aternos is at capacity, starting a server joins a queue, and the service doesn't promise how long it takes.
• Memory. Minehut gives 1 GB for free and FalixNodes 2.5 GB, while the Paper docs start at 4 GB. The more players, plugins and view distance, the sooner the server runs out of memory — see how much RAM a server needs.
• Plugins. On Aternos, only from the library. So you can't install your own plugin or one that isn't there, an anticheat included.
• Ads. Free Aternos, Minehut and Server.pro are paid for by ads — on the website, in the panel or as server branding.
• Backups. The free Server.pro demo has no daily backups, and the others don't mention backups on their free plan pages. Make your own — see server backups.

When to move to paid hosting#

Free hosting is fine for testing an idea and playing with friends. It's time to move if:

• players need the server up around the clock, not after someone wakes it;
• TPS drops at the evening peak — what the numbers mean is in TPS and MSPT;
• you need your own plugins: login, permissions, protection against griefers and cheaters;
• the server went public and is growing — it needs DDoS protection on the host's side, see bots and DDoS.

Paid hosts compared by facts from their own sites are in best Minecraft server hosting, and the choice between a panel and your own server is in hosting or VPS. How to move the world and plugins to a new place is in migrating a server.

Keeping a free server safe#

• Keep `online-mode` on. With online-mode=false anyone can join under any name, yours included, and the whitelist becomes useless. Never turn offline mode on without a login plugin — details in offline-mode servers.
• Close the server with a whitelist while it's for your own people: whitelist on and whitelist add <name>. How OP and the whitelist work is in operators and the whitelist.
• Don't hand out OP. A level 4 operator can do everything, including stopping the server. Give permissions through a permissions plugin if the host allows it.
• Install plugins only from trusted sources. A random .jar from a forum can be malicious — see malicious plugins.

An anticheat on free hosting#

An anticheat is just another plugin, so on free hosting it runs into the same rule: you have to upload your own .jar. DGuard — the best anticheat for a modern Minecraft server — works wherever Paper or Leaf 1.21–26.3 runs, you can put your own plugins into plugins/ and outbound HTTPS is allowed: that's how the license, updates and the cloud check of aim and TriggerBot rules arrive. It needs the latest PacketEvents release next to it.

You can't install DGuard on Aternos, since it doesn't accept your own files. On a host that does allow plugin uploads, ask support whether outbound HTTPS is blocked. DGuard barely touches the weak CPU of a free plan: checks run in network threads, and the main thread cost is 0.03% of one core. Most importantly for a free server, DGuard is free up to 30 players online, with the same protection as on paid plans.

FAQ#