The gaming scenario is evolving every day and reaching a new height. Gone are those days when you are stuck with playing at your home and with friends nearby. Nowadays you can play with anyone living anywhere in the world – multiplayer gaming is the next big thing. With that being said, game server hosting making all these things much easier.
What is Game Server Hosting?
Although most games have their own servers, you can have your own server if you feel like, which will provide you with much better security, uptime and lower latency depending on where you live. Another great thing you can do with your own server is add-on plugins and mods which makes playing these games much more enjoyable.
Why Game Server Hosting?
There are many games which are not officially supported anymore. To play these games you need a game server hosting. Also as mentioned earlier, if you want to add extra mods and plug-ins you cannot do those on official servers. Apart from these, networking issues can happen at any time. That will surely make your gaming experience less enjoyable.
There are other advantages also if you get a dedicated game server:
- Great performance, thanks to great hardware and SSD
- 99% uptime, assuring you can enjoy anytime you want
- Great voice chatting, as many servers offer extra plugins
- Smooth high traffic management
- You can ask for support 24/7
- DDoS protection for higher security
- Can switch games any time
- Amusing control over the server
- As hosted on cloud, no hardware throttling issue
If you want all of these mentioned features, a game server is essential. Keeping all of these in mind, in this article we will talk about the best 8 game server hosting platforms you can use in 2021 to enjoy a lag-free and smooth gaming experience.
8 Best Game Server Hosting Platforms for Everyone
1. Google Cloud
Starting the list, we have Google Cloud which is although not known much among the gaming enthusiasts but offers a robust infrastructure. It offers a seamless gaming experience with not much effects on performance. Their servers are capable of running at a maximum speed of 3.8 GHz and located all around the world in 24 regions, covering more than 200 countries.
Another great feature of Google Cloud Gaming is it offers auto-scaling, depending on your need and comes with a single control panel, with which you can easily manage the server settings.
2. Amazon GameLift
One of the best choice for a multiplayer gaming server is Amazon GameLift. It leverages AWS to deliver great performance, lower latency than the competitors with lower cost. TcAdmin is their control panel, which is extremely powerful and customisable. It comes with several server management tools and it is equipped with the latest technology.
Their servers run on Solid-State Drives which can runs at 1 Gbps for fast performance. A plus point to Amazon GameLift is the server set up process is really easy and fast. Also, the servers are equipped with anti-DDoS protection and are located in more than 20 locations to reduce the lag. If you rent servers for at least a year, you will also get a 10% discount.
3. Vultr
Another great alternative is Vultr. It comes with high performance and enterprise-grade hardware, fast SSD drives, latest Intel CPUs which altogether ensures 100% SLA, lag free experience and consistency. Deploying your server is a one click process and most of the hard work is done behind the scene, for you. Their data centres are located in 17 places in 10 different countries, covering all the regions.
The control panel of Vultr comes with a simple and easy to use interface and with it you can control every detail of the server. Other than that, it allows you to connect your apps with isolated local private networks, facilitates IPv6 network and root access.
4. ScalaCube
One of the renowned competitors on the market is ScalaCube as a game hosting server. You can rent servers from them for games like Minecraft, Minecraft PE, ARK, Rust, and Hytale. Without any throttle or lag, it offers unlimited traffic regardless of downstream or upstream. They also offer HDD and SSD storage, depending on your need and price, but if you are serious I would suggest opt-in for SSD as they are much more powerful and convenient.
Scala Cube guarantees 99% uptime to ensure an uninterrupted gaming experience and you will get unlimited slots for Minecraft servers. You can add multiple plugins to the server and get moderator support if needed. Their pricing starts at only $2.5 per month with Ddos protection for every game.
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5. HostHavoc
With HostHavoc you can choose between more than 25 different games to play including Minecraft, PixARK, Rust, Space Engineers, Survival Evolved, 7 Days to Die etc. The set up process is fast and the servers are easy to manage, thanks to the powerful tools they offer. NVMe SSDs are their storage of choice to offer fast and reliable speed. Another great feature of HostHavoc is it features Steam workshop and supports multiple mods, plugins, and 3rd-party APIs.
Their 10 data centres are located on 3 continents which offer 99% uptime. It also comes with DDoS protection, daily back and 24/7 support. In case you are not happy with their offerings, you can get money back after 3 days of usage and when it comes to payment, they support cryptocurrencies, PayPal and credit cards.
6. OVHcloud
Another well known game hosting server is OVHcloud which offers games like Counter-Strike, Rust, Minecraft, Ark, Arma, Garry’s Mod, L4D2, and Team Fortress etc. Unlike Vultr, their servers are based on 3rd-gen AMD Ryzen processors which are great for gaming. The maximum bandwidth they offer is 1GB per second, without compromising performance.
Data centres of OVHcloud are located worldwide to ensure low latency gaming. Another great feature you will find here it is SLA certified and possess public IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. If need you can rent extra IPv4 servers. To back up your game files and data it comes with 500 GB of storage.
7. Citadel Servers
With games like 7 Days to Die, Killing Floor 2, Sniper Elite 3, Don’t Starve Together, Counter-Strike Source, Interstellar Rift, Minecraft etc Citadel Servers can be your server of choice for all your gaming needs. They offer a powerful TcAdmin control panel, which makes managing everything much easier and the servers are built with the latest hardware and networking technology which runs on SSD with 1 Gbps bandwidth.
All of the servers comes with DDoS protection and you can ask for help 24/7. Across 4 continents, their servers are located at 20 places to ensure lag-free experience in all the major region. Just like Amazon GameLift, if you are opt-in for at least 12 months you will get a 10% discount on their pricing.
8. So you Start
Ending the list, ironically we have So You Start. You can host games like Minecraft, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress 2 and services like TeamSpeak and Mumble on their servers which are equipped with DDoS protection, 100 GB back up storage. Although the speed is a little low as 250 Mbps, the connection is uninterrupted and if you live closer to their servers, it will not be a huge issue. So You Start also support third-party add-ons like failover IPs, Express KVM IP, Backup+.
Their servers are based on Intel i5 or i7 and 16-32 GB RAM & SSD storage. Their data centres are hosted by OVH data centres, which are located in Canada and France. So mostly you will be able to use their service from Europe and North America. You can ask for support 24/7 and the servers are maintained frequently keeping security and capacity in mind.
Wrapping Up
As mentioned earlier, gaming is a big thing in the twenty-first century. As more people are getting involved, companies are trying their best to provide a great connection with stability with lag-free experience. All of the mentioned servers are your best options to choose from and you can try multiple of them to choose the best one which suits your need. So good luck and have fun.
