You can rent a “Minecraft server” from a dozen one-click hosts, but the moment you want a bigger modpack, more players, or to stop paying per slot, you hit a wall. Hosting Minecraft yourself on a cloud VPS removes those walls: full root access, any modpack you like, no per-player pricing, and a box you can use for other things too. This guide covers how much server you actually need and how to get it running.
Why a VPS instead of per-slot Minecraft hosting
Dedicated “Minecraft hosting” panels are easy, but they trade control for convenience:
- Per-slot pricing gets expensive fast as your community grows.
- You’re locked to their modpack list and their Java version.
- You can’t use the machine for anything else — a Discord bot, a map-render web page, a second game server.
A KVM VPS gives you a real Linux machine with dedicated RAM and vCPU that won’t be borrowed by neighbours — which is exactly what Minecraft’s single-threaded main loop needs. You install the Java version you want, run any server software, and scale up when the player count grows. (If you’re new to the concept, see our guide on what a KVM VPS is.)
How much RAM does a Minecraft server need?
RAM is the number that matters most for Minecraft. CPU single-thread performance matters too, but RAM is what you’ll run out of first. A rough sizing guide for Java Edition:
| Players & content | RAM | Fits our plan |
|---|---|---|
| Vanilla, 1–5 players, few plugins | 2 GB | VMBOX KVM VPS 2048 (2 vCPU, 2 GB) — € 8/mo |
| Vanilla or light plugins, 5–15 players; small modpack | 4 GB | VMBOX KVM VPS 4096 (3 vCPU, 4 GB) — € 11/mo |
| Plugin-heavy or medium modpack, 15–30 players | 8 GB | VMBOX KVM VPS 8096 (4 vCPU, 8 GB) — € 18/mo |
| Large modpack, big community, 30+ players | 16 GB | VMBOX KVM VPS 16096 (6 vCPU, 16 GB) — € 32/mo |
Two rules of thumb: modpacks roughly double the RAM a vanilla server of the same player count would need, and leave ~1 GB for the operating system — don’t hand the entire box to the Java heap. Prices above are ex-VAT; you can also build a custom VPS and dial in the exact RAM if you land between sizes.
Java Edition vs Bedrock (and crossplay)
- Java Edition is the PC version — the one with the huge mod and plugin ecosystem (Forge, Fabric, Paper/Spigot plugins). This is what most self-hosters run.
- Bedrock Edition is the console/mobile/Windows-10 version. It runs fine on a VPS too, using the official Bedrock dedicated server or PocketMine-MP.
- Want both on one server? Run Paper with GeyserMC + Floodgate so Bedrock players can join your Java server. One VPS, both audiences.
Use Paper, not vanilla
For anything beyond a tiny private server, run Paper instead of the vanilla server jar. It’s a drop-in replacement that’s dramatically more efficient under load, supports Bukkit/Spigot plugins, and exposes tuning options vanilla doesn’t. For modpacks you’ll use Forge or Fabric instead, matched to the pack.
Step-by-step: a Paper server on a fresh VPS
This assumes a Debian or Ubuntu cloud VPS. SSH in as root, then:
- Install Java. Recent Minecraft needs Java 21:
apt update && apt install -y openjdk-21-jre-headless screen - Create a dedicated user (don’t run the server as root):
adduser --disabled-password --gecos "" minecraft su - minecraft && mkdir server && cd server - Download the Paper jar for your Minecraft version from papermc.io and save it as
server.jar. - Accept the EULA — start once, then set
eula=truein the generatedeula.txt. - Start it with sensible memory flags (here for an 8 GB box, leaving room for the OS):
For production, use the community-standard “Aikar’s flags” for garbage-collection tuning — they noticeably reduce lag spikes on larger servers.java -Xms6G -Xmx6G -jar server.jar nogui - Open the firewall for the default port (Java: TCP 25565, Bedrock: UDP 19132).
- Keep it running with
screen/tmuxfor a quick start, or better, a systemd service so it auto-restarts on reboot and crash.
Don’t skip backups
A Minecraft world is a folder — which means backups are simple and non-negotiable. Snapshot the world/ directory on a schedule (a nightly tar + copy off-box works), or push it to S3-compatible object storage so a corrupted world or a bad mod update is never fatal. Object storage in the EU with no egress fees is a cheap insurance policy for something your players care about.
A note on latency and location
Minecraft is sensitive to latency — high ping shows up as rubber-banding and delayed block breaks. If your players are in Scandinavia or Europe, hosting in an EU data centre keeps ping low for them. Internetport’s VPS instances are hosted in Sweden, which is well-placed for Nordic and wider European play, and every plan comes with a 1 Gbit/s port so a full server of players isn’t fighting over bandwidth.
The short version
- RAM is the number that matters — size it to your player count and whether you’re running modpacks, and leave ~1 GB for the OS.
- Run Paper (or Forge/Fabric for modpacks), not vanilla, once you have real players.
- A cloud VPS beats per-slot hosting for anything you want to grow — full control, no per-player pricing, no lock-in.
- Back the world up, and host near your players for low ping.
Ready to spin one up? A cloud VPS from Internetport deploys in under 60 seconds, runs any Minecraft server software you like, and scales from a 2 GB starter box to a 16 GB modpack machine whenever your community outgrows it.