What's in the mod library?
361 mods, curated and hosted on our own infrastructure:
| Type | Count |
|---|
| Vehicles and client mods | 306 |
| Maps | 31 |
| Bundles | 15 |
| Server plugins | 9 |
Popular picks include the BMW M3 E90, the Porsche 911-992 pack, PGP's Engine Pack, the GTA V map and Norwegian Backroads. Each entry shows its file size, gallery images and description before you commit, because file size is the number that actually matters (more on that below).
The library also carries mods from BeamFinds, a partner catalogue. Those install just as directly — we presign the download straight from their storage at install time rather than mirroring it, so you get their full catalogue without us serving stale copies of it.
The four ways to install a mod
1. One click from the library
Open the Mods tab, find the mod, click install. The file goes from our storage to your server's correct directory, and the server restarts itself when it's done. Nothing touches your PC.
2. Upload your own file
Drag in any .zip up to 4 GB. The upload goes directly to the node your server runs on — it isn't proxied through our web servers, which is why the ceiling is 4 GB rather than the 100 MB–1 GB limits most panels impose.
The real limit is min(4 GB, your free disk), and we check the disk before the upload starts. You get "needs 3,544 MB, 1,605 MB free" up front rather than a failure at 98%.
3. Install from a URL
Paste a direct download link and the server fetches it itself. Useful for mods hosted elsewhere — you skip downloading a 2 GB map to your laptop just to upload it again.
4. Adopt something you uploaded over SFTP
If you put files on the server yourself, the mod manager still sees them. It scans your directories and lists anything it doesn't have a record of under "Found on your server", with a Set it up action.
That matters because a hand-placed file is invisible to most panels — it exists, it may or may not be loading, and nothing in the UI will tell you which. Adopting it makes it a managed item you can uninstall cleanly later.
The map installer: the fix for "my map won't load"
Maps are the single biggest source of BeamMP mod tickets, and the cause is almost always the same. A map zip contains a folder like levels/italy_expanded/, and the server's Map setting has to point at that inner folder name — not the zip's filename, not the mod's title.
So when you install a map, the dialog:
- Reads the zip in your browser before anything uploads
- Finds every
levels/<name>/info.json inside it
- Asks you which level to boot into if there's more than one
- Sets the
Map value for you when it installs
If the file doesn't contain a level at all, it says so immediately — "we expected levels/<map>/info.json" — instead of accepting a 900 MB upload that was never going to work.
Uninstalling a map clears the Map setting too, so you don't end up with a server pointed at a level that's no longer there.
You can watch the install happen
Installs run as background jobs with real status, not a spinner:
Pending → Downloading → Uploading → Extracting → Finalizing → Installed
Each step is retried independently up to three times. If something does fail, the row tells you why — disk space, a corrupt archive, an unreachable URL — and the job cleans up its own partial files so a retry starts clean rather than compounding.
Three installs run concurrently per server, matching what the underlying node will accept without choking. There's a full activity timeline of everything that's been installed, updated or removed.
Uninstalling is one click and removes the file properly, including any config the mod set.
Server templates: a whole mod set in one click
If you know the kind of server you want, four templates apply a complete config and install their entire mod set in a single action, with per-mod progress:
- Drift Server
- Freeroam / Hangout
- Roleplay (RP)
- Vanilla / Clean
How many mods should you actually run?
Here's the part most hosting pages won't tell you, because it argues against using the feature they're selling.
Mods make most BeamMP servers less popular, not more.
We measured this across a live snapshot of 3,443 public BeamMP servers in August 2026, de-duplicated so that one large fleet can't skew the numbers:
| Server config | Fleets | Average peak players |
|---|
| Vanilla (0 client mods) | 800 | 0.99 |
| Any modded config | 2,396 | 0.39 |
Vanilla servers average roughly 2.5× the players of modded ones. Broken down by download size, there's a clear dead zone:
| Client download | Servers | Occupancy |
|---|
| 0 MB | 701 | 24.7% |
| Under 100 MB | 253 | 11.5% |
| 100–300 MB | 158 | 8.9% |
| 300 MB – 1 GB | 419 | 9.5% |
| 1–4 GB | 752 | 11.3% |
| Over 4 GB | 1,031 | 17.0% |
100 MB to 1 GB is death valley. Heavy enough to bounce players at the join screen, not distinctive enough to be worth waiting for. It never recovers to vanilla's numbers.
Why this happens
BeamMP sends your entire /Resources/Client folder to every joining player before they can spawn. Your mod folder is a tax on every single join, paid by the player, over their connection. In the logs it looks like this:
[INFO] Client connected
[INFO] Assigned ID 0 to guest######
[INFO] guest###### : Connected
[INFO] guest###### Connection Terminated <- same second
Connected and terminated in the same second is someone who gave up during the download. Your server logs it as a clean disconnect. Nothing looks broken. Every health check passes. We've seen a server carrying 23 GB of client mods where effectively nobody could ever finish joining.
What to do instead
- Start vanilla or near-vanilla. Stock maps hold about 72% of all BeamMP players;
west_coast_usa alone is 28% of the entire population.
- Add gameplay with server-side Lua, not client mods. Plugins in
/Resources/Server run on the server, so players download nothing. BeamJoy is the obvious one — races with leaderboards, derby, hunter, deliveries, bus routes, tag, plus full moderation, at zero download cost. You keep the 0 MB bucket's occupancy and still have things to do.
- Ignore the popular mod lists. Every one of the 13 most-copied mods on the public list sits below the vanilla baseline. Servers copy each other's mod lists because everyone else has them, not because they work.
- If you do go heavy, go properly heavy. Servers over 4 GB do better than the 100 MB–1 GB band — a distinctive, committed build can be a destination. A half-hearted one just costs you joins.
The mod manager makes all of this cheap to test. Installing and removing a mod is 30 seconds, so you can actually try a build, watch your join numbers, and roll it back — which is the only way to know what works on your server.
What the free tier gets
Free BeamMP servers can install up to 5 mods from the library. Custom uploads and install-from-URL are paid features, mostly because a 4 GB upload onto a 3 GB free disk isn't a thing that can work.
Paid plans have no mod count limit. The real constraint is your disk — and, as above, your players' patience.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need FTP to install BeamMP mods on Connect Hosting?
No. Library installs, custom uploads up to 4 GB, and install-from-URL all work from the dashboard. SFTP is still available on every paid plan if you prefer it — and anything you upload that way is picked up by the mod manager's scan so you can manage it from the panel afterwards.
What's the maximum mod file size?
4 GB per file, or your server's free disk space, whichever is smaller. Uploads go directly to the node rather than through a proxy, which is what makes that ceiling possible. We check your free disk before the upload starts.
Can I install mods that aren't in your library?
Yes. Upload the .zip directly, or paste a download URL and the server fetches it. The library is a convenience, not a restriction.
Why won't my map load after installing it?
Almost always because the Map setting points at the wrong name. It has to be the folder inside the zip — levels/<name>/ — not the zip's filename. Our map installer reads the zip and sets this for you. If you filed the map by hand, check that value first.
Do mods install without restarting the server?
No — BeamMP only loads mods at boot, so a restart is required. The mod manager restarts the server for you once the install finishes.
Will more mods make my server more popular?
Based on 3,443 public servers measured in August 2026: no. Vanilla servers average about 2.5× the players of modded ones, and the 100 MB–1 GB download range performs worst of all. If you want more depth without the download cost, use server-side Lua plugins like BeamJoy instead.
How do I remove a mod?
One click in the Mods tab. The file is removed properly, and if it was a map, the Map setting it changed is cleared too so your server doesn't boot into a level that no longer exists.
Can my moderators manage mods without my account?
Yes. Sub-users with the Manager role or above can install and remove mods. Billing, cancellation and plan changes stay owner-only and are never delegated.
The mod manager ships with every BeamMP server we host, free tier included — no FTP, no file paths, just the library and an install button.
