Your Vintage Story server runs the official Linux dedicated server, downloaded from the developer's own servers. Vintage Story is not sold on Steam, so there is no Steam step and no long first download: the server is installed and running about a minute after you pay. This page is the path from checkout to your group standing in the same world.
1. Give it about a minute
On our test server (game version 1.22.7, 5 November 2026) the install took under 40 seconds, and the server was up 30 seconds after it started. The console line to wait for is Dedicated Server now running. The game prints it when the world is loaded and players can log in.
2. Find your address
Open your dashboard and select the Vintage Story service. The server's address, the IP and the port, sits at the top of the page with a copy button, and again under Connection Details on the Overview tab.
The game's default port is 42420, but the port on your dashboard is the one to give out, and it is usually different. Your server needs only that one port, for both TCP and UDP.
3. Make yourself an admin
Open the Console tab and type:
/op YourPlayerName
Use the name of your Vintage Story account, spelled exactly. The quickest place to find it is the bottom-left corner of the game's main menu. Once you are an admin, you can run server commands from the in-game chat as well as from the console. See Server commands for the ones owners use most.
4. Decide who can join
Since version 1.20, a new Vintage Story dedicated server keeps strangers out by default. In the server's own words at start-up, servers "no longer register themselves to the public servers list and are invite-only (whitelisted) out of the box".
Connect servers start with the whitelist switched off, so anyone with your address, and your password if you set one, can join.
To keep a server for your own group, use one or both of these:
- A password.
/serverconfig password yourpasswordsets one. It may not contain spaces./serverconfig nopasswordremoves it. - The whitelist.
/serverconfig WhitelistMode onturns it on, then/player FriendName whitelist onadds each friend. The wiki notes the server does not need a restart after you whitelist someone.
More on every setting is in Server settings.
5. Join
Every player does the same thing:
- From the main menu, select Multiplayer.
- Click Add new server.
- Give it any name, and paste the address from your dashboard, port included, as
IP:port. - Enter the password if you set one, and click Create.
- Click the server's name to join.
Every player's game has to be on the same version as the server. New servers install the latest stable release, which is 1.22.7 as of November 2026. Players who are behind download the update from the Client Area on vintagestory.at.
6. Before you invite everyone
- Take a backup. The Backups tab snapshots the server. Take one before you change the world, add mods or update.
- Bring your own world. If you already have a world, on the official server or in single player, see Upload your world.
- Add mods. See Adding mods to your server. Every player needs the same mods.
If something is not right
- Nobody can connect: work through Players can't join. It starts with the quick checks: the server still starting, a version mismatch, the port and the whitelist.
- You want more players or more mods than your plan allows: see Plans & resources, or compare plans on the Vintage Story hosting page.
- Anything else: open a ticket from your dashboard and paste the last lines of the console.