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The state of Minecraft hosting in 2025: VPS vs bare metal insights
The game may be over a decade old, but Minecraft and its community continue to evolve, and with it, the infrastructure behind every multiplayer world.
Hosting Minecraft servers is no longer just a hobbyist endeavor. Today’s server admins are making serious decisions about cost, speed, and scalability.
To understand what matters most to Minecraft hosts and players in 2025, Liquid Web surveyed over 1,000 people who had either hosted and/or played on a Minecraft multiplayer server in the past 12 months.
These Minecraft hosts – typically individual players or small teams managing their own private or public servers – shared their hosting preferences, frustrations, and upgrade plans.
The result is a data-backed look into the choices driving the debate between VPS and bare metal hosting.
Key findings
- 38% of Minecraft server admins find server setup and management confusing, and 58% would take a short class or tutorial to learn more about it if a hosting provider, game platform, or educational site offered one.
- 1 in 4 Minecraft admins have lost players or friends due to crashes, lag, or downtime.
- Hidden fees are the No. 1 deal-breaker for Minecraft admins: 58% say they’d walk away.
- Over 1 in 10 Minecraft admins (13%) have changed hosting providers in the past 12 months.
- 58% of Minecraft admins say low latency is the most important factor when choosing a server.
Inside the hosting habits of Minecraft server owners
What does it actually take to run a Minecraft server in 2025? According to respondents, the hosting experience ranges from empowering to frustrating, especially for those starting out or scaling up.
Confusion around setup and management remains a major issue. Among all admins surveyed, 38% said the initial Minecraft server setup process and managing it afterward was confusing. These problems were more common among shared hosting (36%) than bare metal users (17%).
Many admins were eager to learn more. Over half (58%) would take a short class or tutorial on Minecraft server management, including 63% of bare metal server users and 59% of those on shared hosting.
Performance pain points are still pushing some players away. A quarter of Minecraft admins (25%) said they’ve lost friends or players due to server issues like lag, crashes, or downtime.
Among this group, those using shared hosting were the most affected, with 53% reporting player loss, followed by 29% of self-hosted users. Only 10% of VPS users and 8% of bare metal users said the same.
With its high scalability and resource capacity, bare metal is well-suited for demanding Minecraft environments where performance and player retention matter most.
Cost patterns showed a sharp divide between casual hosts (those with minimal technical knowledge) and advanced hosts (those comfortable with CLI, OS setup, and server performance tuning).
Nearly half of advanced hosts (45%) spend $25 or more per month on hosting, while just 11% of casual hosts spend that much. In contrast, over half of casual hosts (53%) reported hosting for free, compared to only 30% of advanced ones.
“The most striking insights center on performance, transparency, and education. Speed remains paramount, but there’s a clear appetite for educational resources and streamlined onboarding.”
Ryan MacDonald
Chief Technology Officer at Liquid Web
What do Minecraft hosts value most?
Hosting isn’t just about tech specs. Trust and transparency matter, too. Server admins made it clear that detailed pricing and strong support are critical to retention.
The top deal-breaker for Minecraft admins is hidden hosting fees. More than half (58%) said they would walk away from a provider if surprise costs cropped up.
While most admins (87%) didn’t change hosts in the past year, the 13% who did had good reasons: Performance issues (41%), better pricing (35%), and high latency (31%) were the leading causes.
In their own words, here’s why some Minecraft admins switched providers:
“It’s hard to get friends to stick around when the server crashes every other day. That’s why I finally switched. It wasn’t about cost, it was about keeping people together.”
Millennial survey respondent, male
“I stuck with my old host way too long. It was easier to keep tweaking than to start fresh, but in hindsight, I lost more time doing that.”
Gen X survey respondent, female
“Running modded servers eats resources fast. I used VPS at first, but it couldn’t handle our setup. Bare metal was the only stable choice.”
Millennial survey respondent, male
“I chose shared hosting because it was easy and cheap. I didn’t realize how much downtime would come with that decision.”
Gen Z survey respondent, female
“I’m not super technical, so setting up from home just felt safer. Even if it’s not the fastest, I know exactly what’s going on with my server.”
Millennial survey respondent, non-binary
“I’ve tried a few hosts, but honestly, support makes the difference. If something breaks at 2 a.m., I need to know someone’s there.”
Millennial survey respondent, female
Do different Minecraft server types need different hosting setups?
The kind of Minecraft server you run has a direct impact on the hosting environment you need. Performance-intensive setups like PvP arenas or modded worlds often outgrow basic plans, driving demand for scalable, high-performance solutions.
Latency was the top priority overall when choosing a server, with 58% of Minecraft admins ranking it as the most important factor. Among specific server types, modded worlds were most likely to be hosted on bare metal (50%) or VPS (47%), underscoring how performance and flexibility are critical for custom configurations.
PvP servers, which require fast response times and minimal lag, were most common among VPS users (28%). This points to a balance between affordability and speed, making VPS hosting a sweet spot for competitive communities.
Survival servers remained the most popular type overall but showed a strong presence among self-hosted users (66%), likely due to simpler setups and smaller communities.
What makes Minecraft admins and players quit?
When asked what might make them stop playing or hosting Minecraft altogether, respondents pointed to a mix of technical frustrations and community-related issues.
The top reasons were losing interest in the game (52%), dealing with ongoing server lag or instability (51%), and not having enough friends or players to make hosting worthwhile (49%). Other key factors included high hosting costs (45%) and difficulty finding a reliable hosting provider (28%).
What players need most
Minecraft admins in 2025 are more informed and more performance-conscious than ever. They want fast, reliable hosting that’s easy to manage and fairly priced, especially for large or modded servers. Whether they choose VPS for flexibility or bare metal for raw power, their priorities are clear: Keep latency low, fees transparent, and support responsive.
As server complexity grows and communities demand more from their digital worlds, hosts who can deliver performance without friction will earn long-term loyalty. For Minecraft admins, it’s not just about uptime – it’s about keeping their worlds alive.
“This study makes it clear that Minecraft hosts, regardless of VPS or bare metal, should consider these takeaways:
- Prioritize transparent pricing and clear communication
- Invest in educational resources and onboarding
- Optimize for low latency and performance
- Offer tiered support for different server types
- Leverage community testimonials
Achieve this, and you’ll win in your Minecraft hosting space.”
Ryan MacDonald
Chief Technology Officer at Liquid Web
Fair use statement
This content is based on proprietary research conducted by Liquid Web and is shared here under fair use for educational and informational purposes. If you reference any part of this article, please provide proper attribution with a link back to the study so your readers can see the findings in their entirety.
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