Crossplay Minecraft server hosting, one world for Java and Bedrock.
Java and Bedrock Edition use different servers, so they can't normally play together — a Java Edition server running Geyser and Floodgate is what lets them, and on Pixly that pair installs from one switch. Your friends join on the edition they already own: PC and Mac on the Java address, phones, tablets, Windows and consoles on the Bedrock one. Nobody buys Minecraft a second time, and nobody but you pays for the server — from $0.07/hr, and only for the hours it's online.
~10 hours to try · no card · instant setup
How Minecraft crossplay actually works
Crossplay isn't a setting inside Minecraft. It's an ordinary Java Edition server with two open-source pieces in front of it: Geyser, which translates Bedrock's protocol, and Floodgate, which handles Bedrock logins. Both are built by the GeyserMC project, which states plainly that it isn't associated with Mojang or Microsoft.
Geyser translates at the door
Geyser emulates a Java client, so your server sees a Bedrock player as an ordinary Java player and the world stays a plain Java world. It only works in that direction: Geyser can't put Java players onto a Bedrock server.
Floodgate handles the login
With Geyser alone, every Bedrock friend would still need a paid Java Edition account. Floodgate is a second, separate plugin that removes that requirement, so they sign in with the Microsoft account already on their console or phone. GeyserMC is blunt that the shortcut — running Geyser in offline mode instead — is dangerous and against Mojang's EULA, which is why Pixly installs the pair together.
One switch instead of a stack of jars
Doing this by hand means matching Geyser and Floodgate builds to your server software, pointing Geyser's auth setting at Floodgate, and repeating it after Minecraft updates. On Pixly, turning on "Bedrock cross-play" in Settings adds both to the server's install list and wires that setting for you; they arrive on the next start and stay current without you touching a file.
How to let Bedrock players join your Java server
On Pixly the whole answer is three moves: turn on Bedrock cross-play in Settings, restart, and hand out the second address.
Flip the switch, then restart
Turn it on and restart; the server picks up Geyser and Floodgate on the way back, and the Connection card gains a second row — a Bedrock address with a port, beside your ordinary Java one. No file manager, no uploads, and nothing installed on anybody's device.
Java Edition — PC and Mac
Friends on the Java game use the plain address, something like cozyglade-7x.pixly.gg, added once under Multiplayer → Add Server and good for every restart after. The two lines under your name in that list are yours to style — the Minecraft MOTD generator writes them visually.
Bedrock Edition — phone, tablet, Windows
Bedrock friends use the second row: the same name, plus the port shown next to it. On their device's Servers screen they add that address and port once, and your world then sits in their list like any other. From there, joining is one tap.
Consoles need one extra step
Xbox, PlayStation and Switch have no in-game field for typing a server address — Mojang gives console players a curated Featured Servers list instead. GeyserMC documents the workarounds people use to get around it: a DNS service such as BedrockConnect, or a companion app on a phone that publishes the server to the console's friends list.
Bedrock players need a port number too
Java players join with just the address. Bedrock players need the address and a port number, and every Pixly world gets its own. Both are on the server's Connection card, ready to copy.
What everyone has to own, and who pays
Does each friend need a second copy of Minecraft, and does each friend cost money? No, and no.
Nobody buys Minecraft twice
A Bedrock friend joins with the copy they already have, because Floodgate authenticates them against their Microsoft account rather than a Java one. A Java friend uses their usual Java account. There's no second purchase anywhere in this — the whole bridge lives on the server.
One person pays for the server
Pixly bills the account that created the world, by the hour, for the hours the server is online — there's no per-player charge. The maximum player count is a field you set yourself rather than a number attached to a plan.
A Realm can't do this
Mojang's own answer for its hosting is that "Realms is cross-platform, but it's only available within the same game edition" — a Java Realm admits Java players, a Bedrock Realm admits Bedrock players, and mixing the two is the specific thing Geyser exists for. The Minecraft Realms alternative page compares them side by side.
Which server types support crossplay
Geyser lives inside the server as a plugin or a mod, so it needs server software with somewhere to attach. Settings tells you before you commit: when a type-and-version combination can't work, the toggle is disabled with the reason spelled out, rather than failing after a restart.
Plugin worlds — the Paper family
Paper, Purpur, Pufferfish, Leaf, and Folia run Geyser and Floodgate as two ordinary plugins. This is the most common crossplay setup: survival that plays like vanilla for your group, plugins for everything else, and every device in the same world.
Modded worlds — the loaders that qualify
On Fabric, NeoForge, and Quilt the same two pieces install as mods, so a modded world and crossplay aren't either-or. Everything that runs server-side — worldgen, mechanics, datapacks — applies to the whole group, whatever edition they're on. The modded Minecraft server hosting page digs into loaders and packs.
Where it doesn't run
Vanilla and Forge sit this one out: the stock Mojang jar has no loader for the bridge to live in, and Geyser publishes no build for Forge. Both are a Settings change away, and switching server type keeps your world in place.
One thing the toggle handles quietly: Geyser has to be taught each new Minecraft release, so a crossplay server often sits a version behind while Java launchers update themselves on day one. While your pinned version trails the latest release, Pixly slots ViaVersion in beside the bridge so already-updated Java friends still connect, and drops it again once you catch up.
What crossplay can't smooth over
Geyser is remarkably good and it is still a translation. GeyserMC publishes its own list of things it cannot fix, and the useful version of this page repeats that list rather than hiding it.
A short list of Java details Bedrock can't show
GeyserMC's own limitations page names them: clickable links in chat, the glowing effect, custom enchantments, banner layers past the sixth, invisible item frames, custom anvil and smithing recipes, and anything that depends on tab-completion. Everything else — building, exploring, redstone, commands, farms — behaves as it does on Java, because the server treats a Bedrock player as an ordinary Java one.
Bedrock names arrive with a prefix
Floodgate marks Bedrock accounts with a prefix — a dot by default — and replaces spaces in gamertags with underscores. So a Bedrock friend is not the name you'd type from memory, and commands aimed at the raw gamertag miss. Copy the name out of the player list instead.
Java resource packs don't cross over
A Java resource pack doesn't convert to Bedrock by itself, and the community converter only handles packs up to Minecraft 1.17. A shared look across both editions means shipping a Bedrock pack alongside the Java one.
Mods only reach Bedrock if they run entirely on the server
Mojang's own feature chart lists mods as Java-only and marks them "Not Included" on Bedrock, and anything that adds blocks, items or entities has to be installed on a player's own game to be drawn. So server-side mechanics, plugins and datapacks apply to everyone, while a pack full of custom blocks looks right on Java and shows stand-ins on Bedrock.
It's Java hosting underneath
Pixly runs a Java server with a Bedrock bridge, not native Bedrock hosting. A group that plays Bedrock exclusively and wants its exclusive behaviour — Bedrock redstone, marketplace content — is better served elsewhere. For mixed groups, the Java-with-bridge model is the one that gets everybody in.
Crossplay is included on every plan: a crossplay world is priced like any other Pixly server, from $0.07/hr while it's online, with no hourly charge once it sleeps and only a small storage fee continuing. The live grid below shows every size and region; the pay-per-hour Minecraft server hosting page explains the billing model in full, and the cost guide works out what a Minecraft server costs per month at real play patterns.
Pick a size. Pay for time you play.
Pixly’s pay-per-hour Minecraft server hosting only charges you for the hours your players are actually online. For a group that plays evenings and weekends, that makes a dedicated server affordable at a fraction of a flat monthly plan.
Servers run in United States — Portland, Oregon and Ashburn, Virginia; Europe — Frankfurt, Germany.
Crossplay hosting questions
Get every device into one world
Create a server, turn the crossplay switch on, and share two addresses. Start with about 10 hours of play to try it, then pay for the time you play.
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