Assetto Corsa Server Hosting: Freeroam vs Racing (Which Server Do You Actually Need?)

When people search for Assetto Corsa server hosting, they're usually picturing one thing — "a server for Assetto Corsa". But there isn't one kind of Assetto Corsa server. There are two, and they run completely different software for completely different reasons. Pick the wrong one and you'll spend a weekend wondering why your AI traffic never shows up, or why your league can't get a proper qualifying session going.

Here's the short version, so you can stop reading and go if that's all you need:

• You want traffic, cruising, drift, touge, or a big map like Shutoko? You want a freeroam server, which runs AssettoServer.
• You want practice → qualifying → race, a real grid, Balance of Performance, and lap times? You want a racing server, which runs the stock Kunos dedicated server (acServer).

These two are not different "modes" of the same server. They're different server programs with different config files, different resource needs, and different audiences. This guide explains the split properly — because almost every other guide online blurs it — and then shows you which one Connect Hosting provisions for each job.

What are the two types of Assetto Corsa server?

Assetto Corsa (the original 2014 game — not Competizione, and not the new EVO; more on those further down) ships with an official dedicated server from Kunos. That server is built for racing: it runs a race weekend with practice, qualifying and race sessions, it enforces assists and Balance of Performance, and it produces a results file. What it has never been able to do is AI traffic. There is no server-side AI in the Kunos server at all — the AI you see in single-player is run by your own game client, not by a dedicated server.

That's a problem, because the biggest thing the Assetto Corsa community actually does online — cruising Tokyo's Shutoko expressway with a road full of AI cars, drifting mountain touge, kanjo loops — depends entirely on server-side AI traffic. So the community built its own server.

AssettoServer is an open-source replacement for the Kunos server, written from the ground up with freeroam in mind. It adds the thing the stock server can't do — server-simulated AI traffic, spawned along a recorded driving line and broadcast to every player — plus dynamic weather, proper Steam authentication, and a plugin system. The trade-off: AssettoServer explicitly does not run qualifying or race sessions and doesn't do lap timing. It is a freeroam engine, not a racing engine.

So the two servers are genuinely opposite tools:

The one-line test: want a busy road → freeroam; want a grid and a chequered flag → racing. You cannot have both on one server. AI traffic and structured race sessions are mutually exclusive because they live in two different server programs.

Which Assetto Corsa server should I choose?

Run through this and it'll be obvious within about three questions.

Choose a freeroam (AssettoServer) server if you want any of:

• AI traffic on the road — highway cruising, city driving, a lived-in map
• Big cruise/car-meet maps like Shutoko Revival Project, LA Canyons, or a kanjo loop
• Drift or touge sessions with a lot of people on track at once
• Street-race "flash the headlights to challenge" style play
• Dynamic or voted weather, day/night, and community plugins (auto-moderation, Discord integration)
• A large, casual population — 30, 50, 80 people cruising rather than a fixed grid

Choose a racing (Kunos) server if you want any of:

• A real race weekend: practice, qualifying, then a race with a grid start
• Lap times, timing screens, and a results file at the end
• Balance of Performance — ballast and restrictors to even up a mixed field
• Server-enforced assists (ABS/TC restrictions), fuel use, tyre wear and damage rules
• A fixed, known grid of registered drivers for a league or championship
• Mandatory pit stops, penalties, and clean-racing enforcement

If you're still torn, ask what breaks your heart if it's missing. No traffic on the road? You're freeroam. No qualifying or lap times? You're racing. There is no middle server that does both — and any host or guide that implies otherwise hasn't run either.

How is a freeroam server different under the bonnet?

The freeroam stack is the one people get wrong most often, so it's worth understanding what's actually involved — it's also what determines the hardware you need.

It runs AssettoServer, not the Kunos server. That means an extra config file. A racing server has two config files; a freeroam server has three:

• cfg/server_cfg.ini — the standard Kunos file (track, player cap, ports, name). Inherited.
• cfg/entry_list.ini — the car slots. Inherited, but with an extra AI= flag per slot.
• cfg/extra_cfg.yml — AssettoServer-only. This is where AI traffic, weather effects, plugins, and CSP requirements live.

Mixing these up — putting an AI-traffic setting in server_cfg.ini, say — is the single most common mistake in Assetto Corsa guides. If you're editing files by hand, keep the split straight. (On our platform you don't touch files at all — the freeroam dashboard has a Plugins & Weather tab and an AI-traffic control that write the right keys to the right file for you.)

AI traffic is simulated on the server. Every AI car's position is computed on the host and sent to each nearby player. That has a real cost: CPU load scales with traffic density multiplied by the number of players who can see that traffic, not just raw player count. Freeroam is CPU-hungry in a way racing isn't, and single-thread clock speed matters more than core count. If you want the numbers, we break them down in how much RAM and CPU an Assetto Corsa server needs and in the deep dive on AI traffic cost.

Clients need CSP. AI traffic, dynamic weather, teleport points and Steam auth all rely on Custom Shaders Patch being installed on the player's game. A vanilla, no-CSP client can't properly join a freeroam server. This is normal for the scene, but it's worth knowing before you invite friends who've never modded the game.

The content is heavy. Freeroam maps and traffic-car packs are big — Shutoko Revival Project alone is over a gigabyte, and a busy server hosts several maps plus car packs. Disk actually matters here, which is why our freeroam plans ship generous NVMe storage rather than a token allocation.

How is a racing server different?

The racing stack is the official one, and it's more contained.

It runs the stock Kunos acServer with two config files, server_cfg.ini and entry_list.ini. No extra_cfg.yml, no AI traffic, no plugin folder. If you want every setting spelled out, we've written a line-by-line guide to server_cfg.ini.

The grid is capped by the track. Assetto Corsa ties the number of drivers to the number of pit boxes modelled on the track. Most Kunos tracks have 24 pit boxes, so ~24 is the practical hard cap — even pit-box mods often won't spawn more. This is why racing grids are small and freeroam servers aren't: it's an engine limit, not a hosting limit.

The real work is the race rules. Ballast and restrictors for BoP go in the entry list; assists, fuel rate, tyre wear, damage, the pit window and penalties go in server_cfg.ini. Serious leagues layer a penalty plugin on top — our racing servers ship KissMyRank built in for automated track-limit and collision penalties. If you're setting up a championship, running a league race weekend walks through the whole thing: a locked entry list, GUID-pinned drivers, mandatory pit stops and results.

Is Assetto Corsa the same as ACC or AC EVO?

No — and this trips up a lot of people searching for a "dedicated server", so it's worth being clear.

• Assetto Corsa (2014) is the moddable original. It's the game this whole guide is about, and it's the one that supports both freeroam (AssettoServer) and racing (Kunos). We host both.
• Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC) is a separate game. Its dedicated server is completely different — configured with JSON files, not INI, and locked to official GT3/GT4 cars with no modding and no AI traffic. Nothing from an AC config carries over. It's a different product entirely.
• Assetto Corsa EVO is Kunos's new title (Early Access since January 2025), positioned as the successor to the original AC. It has its own self-hostable server, but it's racing-focused and still evolving — there's no freeroam/AI-traffic equivalent on EVO yet.

If you thought you needed an "Assetto Corsa" server but you're actually playing Competizione or EVO, our AC vs ACC vs EVO breakdown will get you to the right one. For everything else in this guide, we mean the original Assetto Corsa.

How does Connect Hosting handle the two types?

We treat them as two products because they are two products — and we provision them differently.

Pick Assetto Corsa (Freeroam) and you get an AssettoServer instance with the freeroam toolset in the dashboard: a plugins and weather editor, an AI-traffic generator, a one-click content library and Content Manager auto-download — no FTP, no hand-editing YAML.

Pick Assetto Corsa (Racing) and you get the Kunos acServer with the racing toolset: a race-rules editor for assists and realism, an entry-list editor with per-car ballast and restrictor, and KissMyRank built in.

Both come from the same plan ladder — the price is the same whichever you choose, so you're picking the product, not paying more for one side:

Slots aren't capped by a per-player fee — they scale with your plan's CPU rather than a hard number, which suits freeroam's larger populations. We run seven regions (London, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Virginia, Oregon, Sydney and Montreal), so you can host near your community.

Not sure which plan? Freeroam with AI traffic wants more CPU headroom than a small race server, so our sizing guide is worth two minutes before you buy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is AssettoServer free?

Yes. AssettoServer is free, open-source software — you can download it and run it yourself. What you pay a host for is the hardware, the network, DDoS protection, and the tooling around it. On our freeroam plans AssettoServer comes pre-installed and configured, with a dashboard editor for AI traffic and plugins so you never touch the raw config files.

What's the difference between AssettoServer and the Kunos dedicated server?

The Kunos dedicated server (acServer) is the official one, built for racing — practice, qualifying, race sessions, and Balance of Performance — but it can't do AI traffic. AssettoServer is a community-built replacement designed for freeroam: it adds server-side AI traffic, dynamic weather and plugins, but it doesn't run race sessions or lap timing. They're for opposite jobs.

Does AssettoServer support races and lap times?

No. AssettoServer is a freeroam server — it has no qualifying or race sessions and doesn't record lap times. If you want a proper race weekend with a grid start and results, you need the stock Kunos racing server instead. That's exactly why we offer both as separate products.

What ports does an Assetto Corsa server need?

An Assetto Corsa server uses a game port for UDP and TCP traffic (9600 by default) plus a separate HTTP/lobby port (8081 by default) so it can register on the server list. Freeroam servers running a big map like Shutoko use that same HTTP port for content details. On our platform these are assigned automatically — you don't configure ports by hand.

Can one Assetto Corsa server do both freeroam and racing?

No. AI traffic lives only in AssettoServer, and race sessions live only in the Kunos server — they're two different programs. If you want both experiences, you run two servers. The good news is they cost the same on our plans, so you can have a freeroam cruise server and a racing server side by side.

Ready to spin one up? If you want traffic and cruising, start with an Assetto Corsa freeroam server; if you want a grid and lap times, start with an Assetto Corsa racing server. Same plans, same price — pick the one that matches what you actually want to drive.