A Minecraft Realms alternative with mods and crossplay.
Realms is $7.99 a month, flat, for you plus ten players on the stock game. Pixly is for the groups that want more: mods, a bigger crowd, a pinned version, or PC and console friends in one world.
~9 hours to try · no card · instant setup
Pixly is a Realms alternative for the day your group wants mods, more than ten players, a pinned version, or PC and console in one world — with no subscription, billed by the hour. Realms welds those values in place, and there is no bigger Realm to switch to.
Where Realms stops fitting
Most people hunting for a Realms alternative have already hit one of four walls: no mods, ten players, forced updates, or two editions that can't mix. Before the walls, it is worth being clear about what each side is actually buying.
What a Realm gives you
One subscription, zero setup, run by the people who make the game. Your Realm stays online for invited friends whether you're there or not.
Where the walls are
Every Realm runs the stock game, holds ten friends at most, updates itself on Mojang's schedule, and admits one edition only. None of that is a bug — it's the design. It just stops fitting when a group grows past it.
What Pixly adds
Pixly is the knobs: loaders and plugins, sizes from 4 GB to 128 GB of RAM, any pinned version, both editions together, and proximity voice chat. Daily backups and DDoS protection come on every plan, and it bills by the hour only while the world is awake, with nothing to renew.
Comparing other hosts too? The Pixly vs Aternos comparison covers the free, ad-supported side, and the Pixly vs Apex Hosting comparison covers monthly subscription hosts; the budget end of those plans gets the same look in the Shockbyte alternative comparison. For the widest view, the Minecraft hosting comparison covers all ten hosts, Realms included.
Where the two products actually differ
Realms figures below are Mojang's published U.S. prices1 and limits2 as of August 2026 — both editions, since the two Realms products differ more than most comparisons admit. Competitor names are trademarks of their respective owners and are used here only for comparison.
| Feature | Pixly | Realms (Java) | Realms Plus (Bedrock) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price model | Pay per active hour; no hourly charge when idle. About 9 hours to try, no card. | $7.99 USD flat per month. | $7.99 USD flat per month ($3.99 for the two-player tier). |
| Players at once | No slot cap — you set the max; plan sizes keep roughly 10 to 100 players smooth. | You + 10 players. | You + 10 players (you + 2 on the cheaper tier). |
| Plan sizes | 4 GB to 128 GB of RAM; switch sizes whenever your group changes. | One plan — no sizes or hardware tiers exist. | Two player tiers ($3.99 / $7.99 per month); no hardware sizing. |
| Mods & plugins | Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, and Quilt mods or Paper plugins, searched across CurseForge and Modrinth. | None — uploaded maps and built-in community content only. | Marketplace Add-Ons; no Java-style loaders. |
| Minecraft version | Pin any release; update when your group chooses. | Follows the current release (latest snapshot opt-in). | Follows the current release. |
| Crossplay | Java + Bedrock crossplay as one switch — Geyser and Floodgate installed for you. | Java Edition players only. | Bedrock devices only; Java can't join. |
| Voice chat | Proximity voice chat as one switch. | Not available — no mods. | No built-in voice feature. |
| Server address | Own pixly.gg address, or point a subdomain you own at the world. | None — Java players join from the Realms menu by invite. | None — Bedrock players join by invite or from the Friends tab. |
| Charging players | Allowed within Mojang's Usage Guidelines.3 | Not allowed — the EULA bars any financial benefit from letting people play on your Realm.3 | Not allowed — same EULA terms. |
| World in / out | Upload a save archive from the dashboard; export available on paid accounts. | Upload from the client (4 GB max); Download Latest anytime. | Upload or download a save from the device you play on. |
| Backups | Daily automatic backups with 7-day history, on every plan. | Auto-saves every 30 minutes; retention thins out by ~4 months. | Same schedule, plus manual saves on Bedrock. |
| Worlds | One world per server; run as many servers as you like. | 3 world slots, one active at a time. | The same 3 slots; picking another slot swaps the map for everyone. |
On the Pixly side, the larger plan sizes unlock after a first top-up. The sections below work through those rows one wall at a time, in the order most groups hit them.
Mods are the wall most switchers hit first
"Realms alternative with mods" is the search that brings most people here, because this wall is absolute: there is no way to attach Forge, Fabric, or a plugin to a Realm on the Java side4. The modded Minecraft server hosting guide shows the whole Pixly-side story; here's the short version.
What Java Realms can run
The stock game, uploaded maps, and the built-in catalog of community minigames. Mojang's own docs go further and recommend not using mods with Realms at all4 — the client-side workarounds people attempt aren't supported.
What Bedrock Realms can run
Marketplace Add-Ons — resource and behavior packs that reskin mobs, tweak rules, or add mechanics. They're real and they work on a Realm, but they're a curated storefront, not the open modding scene Java players mean by the word.
What Pixly runs
The loader of your choice on any moddable server type — Paper, Purpur, Pufferfish, Leaf, Folia, Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, or Quilt — with mods, modpacks, and plugins installed from CurseForge and Modrinth search, a pasted link, or your own .jar or .mrpack upload. The server fetches everything itself on the next start, and changing your mind later is a Settings change, not a new product.
Ten players, and a version you don't choose
The subtler walls show up months in: the friend group outgrows the head-count, or an update lands mid-project and changes the game under a build. Realms fixes both knobs; hosting hands them back.
- The cap is the cap — a Realm admits you plus ten simultaneous players. Invites are nearly unlimited, seats aren't, and no Realms tier raises it2. Pixly caps nothing: you pick the max in settings, and moving up a plan simply adds hardware comfort for bigger crowds — resizable without moving the map or changing its address.
- Updates arrive on Mojang's clock — Realms tracks the current Minecraft release. There's no setting to hold a version, and Mojang notes older game versions aren't supported on it2. The one direction it bends is forward: Java Realms can opt into the latest snapshot.
- Pinning is the point of hosting — your server stays on the release you pinned until you change it: finish the base before an update rewrites terrain, or hold the exact version your pack expects. When a pinned crossplay server trails the newest release, ViaVersion is added automatically so auto-updated Java launchers still connect.
The Java and Bedrock split Realms can't cross
Realms crossplay stops at the edition boundary: Java Realms connect Java players on PC; Bedrock Realms connect phones, consoles, and Windows. A mixed friend group has to pick which half gets left out — that choice is the fourth wall.
Two products, no bridge
Buying both subscriptions doesn't help: the two Realms run separate worlds in separate formats, and a Java player can never walk into a Bedrock Realm or the reverse.
One world, every device
Pixly runs Java underneath with the Geyser and Floodgate bridge auto-installed in front, so the PC crew and the console-and-phone crew share a single map on one address.
The crossplay Minecraft server hosting guide explains that machinery and its limits. The one that matters here: bridged Bedrock players see a very close translation of a Java world rather than native Bedrock behavior, so redstone, farms and commands work exactly as they do on Java.
Getting a world out of Realms, step by step
Your builds are yours on both platforms — Mojang provides a download on each edition, and Pixly accepts an uploaded save. The steps below are the July-2026 paths from Mojang's help center2.
Moving a Java Realm onto Pixly
- Download the save from your Realm. In Minecraft, select your Realm and choose Configure, then World Backups, then Download Latest. The world lands in your singleplayer saves folder on disk, ready to zip — that archive is the whole map, builds and all.
- Upload the archive into Pixly. Create a server on the same Minecraft version, open the Backups tab, and upload the zipped world. It's imported onto the server's own storage while stopped, and the next start loads your map. Whitelist friends — it applies without a restart — and share the new address.
Bedrock is the exception. The world's slot menu offers Download World straight to your device, and that copy is worth keeping — but Bedrock saves use Bedrock's own format, which no Java server can open. Mixed groups moving to crossplay start a fresh map together.
Flat fee or pay by the hour
A flat fee is a bet that you play a lot. Hourly billing is a bet that you don't.
- A flat fee against hourly billing — $7.99 a month is simple. Hourly billing answers with arithmetic: a server that's busy most of every day can cost more than the flat fee, while three two-hour evenings a week is about 25 hours a month, a couple of dollars on the smaller sizes.
- Try the difference on trial hours — 9 hours to try, no card, which is enough evenings to feel dedicated hardware, install a pack, or flip on crossplay before deciding whether the walls were worth leaving.
Realms' one-month trial is for new subscribers only, and its page notes the subscription "continues automatically at the then-current monthly price unless cancelled."1 Pixly's trial is a bundle of hours on the smallest size — no card, and nothing that renews, because there's no subscription to begin with.
The live grid below shows every plan and its region rate.
Server stehen in USA — Portland, Oregon und Ashburn, Virginia; Asien-Pazifik — Singapur; Europa — Frankfurt, Deutschland.
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.
Pixly vs Minecraft Realms questions
What people ask when a Realm has stopped fitting the group they play with.
Is Pixly a good Minecraft Realms alternative?
Yes, when your group wants mods, more than ten players, a pinned version, or PC and console together. Pixly is real hosting with every one of those knobs, billed by the hour only while the world is awake, so casual play doesn't cost server-rental money.
Can you use mods on Minecraft Realms?
Not on the Java side: there's no way to put Forge or Fabric on a Realm, plugins aren't available either, and Mojang's own guidance recommends not using mods with Realms at all. Custom content there means an uploaded map and the built-in community catalog. Bedrock Realms can activate Marketplace Add-Ons, which change gameplay but are a different, smaller toolbox. On Pixly you pick the loader and install from CurseForge and Modrinth, searched together in the panel.
Can more than 10 players join a Realm at once?
No — the cap is you plus ten simultaneous players on Realms for Java and on Realms Plus (you plus two on the cheaper Bedrock tier), however many friends you invite. There's no bigger Realm to upgrade to. Pixly has no such policy limit: the max-players setting is yours to control on any plan, sizes decide the hardware underneath — comfortable for around 10 on the smallest, well past 100 on the biggest — and a resize keeps the same world and address.
How do I move my Realms world to Pixly?
For a Java Realm: in Minecraft, open Configure for your Realm, then World Backups, then Download Latest — the world lands in your singleplayer saves folder. Zip that world folder, create a Pixly server on the matching Minecraft version, upload the archive from the Backups tab, and start the server. Bedrock Realm worlds are stored in Bedrock's own format, which a Java server can't open — for those groups a Pixly crossplay server means a fresh map, joined from the same devices.
Is Pixly cheaper than Minecraft Realms?
It depends on hours. Realms costs a flat $7.99 a month (as of July 2026) no matter how much anyone plays. Pixly bills per active hour, and idle time carries no hourly charge, only a small storage fee for your world's data. A server kept busy most of the day can pass the flat fee, while a group that plays a few evenings a week on a small plan typically lands around a couple of dollars a month.
Can Java and Bedrock friends share one Realm?
No. Realms is cross-platform only within one edition: a Java Realm admits Java players, and a Bedrock Realm connects Bedrock devices — phones, consoles, Windows — with no path between the two. Pixly is a Java server with Bedrock crossplay: one switch installs the Geyser bridge, so friends on either edition walk into the same map from whatever they own.
What happens to a world when the subscription ends?
Mojang gives you 18 months to download a Realm world after the subscription expires — so download before you cancel rather than relying on that window. Pixly has no subscription to lapse: you top up a wallet, hours are billed as they happen, and your server and its daily backups stay put as long as the balance stays positive, even through months of not playing.
Can I resize a Realm the way I can resize a Pixly server?
No — Minecraft Realms has no plan sizes to move between. Java Realms is one $7.99-a-month tier with a you-plus-10-players cap, and Bedrock has just two player tiers ($3.99 and $7.99), so if your group outgrows a Realm there is nothing bigger to switch to. Pixly plans are hardware sizes from 4 GB to 128 GB of RAM, and you can move up or down whenever you like (larger sizes unlock after a first top-up). The change applies with a quick restart and billing follows the new size by the minute.
Footnotes
Minecraft Realms product page — checked August 4, 2026. ↩ ↩
Java Realms creation FAQ — checked August 4, 2026. ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
Minecraft End User Licence Agreement, Minecraft Usage Guidelines — checked August 5, 2026. ↩ ↩
Mojang on Java Edition mods — checked August 4, 2026. ↩ ↩
Past the walls, still pay-as-you-play
Bring your Realm world or start fresh — mods, crossplay, and your version, billed per hour. Start with ~9 hours to try, then pay for the time you play.
No card to start