Where cheap gets expensive: 1GB plans
The cheapest Minecraft plan on most hosts is 1GB, and on paper it's a bargain. In practice 1GB runs vanilla for a handful of friends and nothing else. A modpack with 300+ mods needs 5–8GB before you've placed a block, and a server that spends its life garbage-collecting feels broken in a way that reads as "bad host" rather than "wrong plan".
We don't sell a 1GB Minecraft plan, which means if you want the lowest possible headline price, Shockbyte's $2.79 beats us — we start at 2GB for $3.99. That's a real trade-off and worth naming. We'd rather not sell a size that disappoints, but if vanilla survival for four people is genuinely all you need, a 1GB plan elsewhere is cheaper than anything we offer.
For what a given pack actually needs, we measured it: how much RAM a modded Minecraft server needs.
What actually separates Minecraft hosts
Per-GB price gets you a shortlist. These decide which one you keep.
Whether the modpack installs — properly
Nearly every host advertises one-click modpack installs. The installs fail in ways that look like success, and this is where most of the difference between hosts lives. Three traps we've hit repeatedly running these at scale:
- A pack with no published server pack. CurseForge packs that ship only a client manifest have to be assembled server-side, and the result is usually a server that boots but plays nothing like the pack. Before you commit, check the pack has a real server pack on its Files tab.
- A server pack nested inside one top-level folder. The archive extracts, the installer reports "Done" in a few seconds, and
/mods is empty — so the server boots vanilla while claiming to be modded.
- File permissions after extraction. Some pack archives carry permissions that leave config files unreadable, and the server dies on boot with an access error rather than anything that mentions mods.
The practical test, on any host: install the exact pack you want, start the server, and confirm the mod count in the console and that /mods is populated. Do it in the first hour, while a refund is still straightforward.
Java and Bedrock in one server
If half your group is on console, phone or the Microsoft Store version, you need Geyser and Floodgate — not two servers. Not every host wires this up for you. Ours is a toggle with a shared port; the detail is on Minecraft Java and Bedrock crossplay.
Where the server is
A UK player on a Frankfurt server is fine. A Sydney player on a Frankfurt server is not, and no amount of RAM fixes it. Check the host sells a region near your group before you compare anything else — this is the single most common cause of "the server feels laggy" that isn't a mod.
Disk, when you run modpacks
Modpacks are large, world files grow, and backups multiply all of it. A generous RAM allocation on a small disk is a false economy. Our standard tiers scale disk with RAM; our Premium tiers remove the disk limit and carry 10 backup slots instead of 3, at a higher price — $23.99 for 8GB Premium against $15.99 for standard 8GB.
The hosts
Connect Hosting
This is us. $3.99 for 2GB up to $59.99 for 32GB, flat $2.00/GB through most of the ladder, with Premium tiers for unlimited disk and 10 backups. One-click CurseForge and Modrinth modpack installs, Java + Bedrock crossplay as a toggle, seven regions — Frankfurt, Helsinki, London, Montreal, Virginia, Dallas and Sydney — and backups with one-click restore on every paid plan.
Where we're the weaker choice: no 1GB tier, so we lose on the cheapest-possible headline; we're smaller and newer than the big three, with a focused game list rather than fifty games; and we have no free Minecraft tier — our free tier is BeamMP only.
Shockbyte
A large, well-known host with the widest published Minecraft ladder of the three — 1GB through 12GB in single-GB steps, plus a custom tier at 17GB+ for $47.48. Flat per-GB pricing, which makes them easy to compare, and the 1GB entry point is the cheapest real plan in this comparison. Their advertised rates carry a recurring discount, so check the renewal figure.
GPORTAL
One of the biggest European hosts, with a very large game catalogue. Minecraft plans are advertised with unlimited slots and priced per 30 days with an introductory discount on the first contract. The location shown on their Minecraft page is Central Europe. The highest per-GB rate here, which buys you scale and a European footprint.
BisectHosting
Large and established, Minecraft-first, with per-GB plans configured in a selector and a long track record in the modpack world. No price was published on the landing page when we checked, so compare it yourself in their configurator before deciding.
How to choose
- Vanilla survival for a few friends, cheapest possible: a 1GB plan elsewhere. We don't sell one.
- Any modpack at all: start at 4GB, budget 6–8GB for the big kitchen-sink packs, and compare per-GB rates at that tier rather than at the headline tier.
- Console or Bedrock players in the group: make Java + Bedrock crossplay a hard requirement and confirm it's a supported feature, not a mod you have to maintain.
- Players in Australia or New Zealand: pick on region first, price second. Most of this market sells Europe and North America only.
- Already hosting elsewhere and unhappy: you don't have to rebuild. Server files move between hosts over SFTP, and our server migration imports an existing world, mods and configs with a preview first.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much RAM does a Minecraft server actually need?
Vanilla for up to about ten players is comfortable in 2GB. A modpack of 150–300 mods wants 4–6GB. The large kitchen-sink packs want 8GB and upwards before players arrive. We measured several real packs in how much RAM a modded Minecraft server needs.
Is a cheaper host worth switching to?
If the per-GB rate at the tier you need is meaningfully lower and the region is right, yes — and switching is less work than it sounds, because your world and mods are just files. The thing to check before you move is the renewal price on both sides, since promotional first-term rates are what most comparisons accidentally measure.
Can Java and Bedrock players share one server?
Yes, with Geyser and Floodgate, which bridge Bedrock clients onto a Java server on the same port. Not all hosts offer it as a managed feature. Ours is a toggle — details on Minecraft Java and Bedrock crossplay.
Why did my modpack install "successfully" but boot vanilla?
Almost always because the pack's server files were nested inside a single top-level folder, so the extracted /mods directory ended up empty. Check the mod count in the console on first boot — a modded server announces hundreds of mods, and a seven-second "Done" is the tell that nothing installed.
What should I test before committing to a year?
Install the real pack, invite the real group, and play one proper session. Then check memory headroom on the panel. Start monthly — annual terms are a discount on a decision you haven't made yet.