Minecraft hosting comparison: eight hosts, pricing and policies side by side.
Pixly, Apex Hosting, Shockbyte, Aternos, exaroton, Minecraft Realms, BisectHosting, and Hostinger: one table prices 4 GB and 8 GB at each, one matrix covers features and hardware — every figure from the host's own published pages, and dated. In short: a fixed subscription bills the whole month; metered hosting bills the minutes someone's actually playing.
~10 hours to try · no card · instant setup
How to read this page
Every competitor number and policy comes from the host's own pages, checked on August 5, 2026 and linked under each table. Promos move often — follow each source for today's figure.
Pixly's fine print, up front: the trial is about 10 hours with no card; a sleeping server still pays a small storage fee; changing plan size takes a quick restart; mods come from Modrinth, not CurseForge; and accounts that haven't topped up are limited to the smallest sizes.
Each paid host has a deep-dive page: Pixly vs Apex Hosting, Pixly vs Shockbyte, Pixly vs BisectHosting, Pixly vs Hostinger, Pixly vs Minecraft Realms, and Pixly vs Aternos.
What eight hosts charge — and what costs extra
Both columns price the same server — 4 GB, then 8 GB. “Not published” means the host's own pages carry no figure. Competitor prices are U.S. list, August 2026; the two metered rows are estimated for the same ~10 hours of monthly play*.
The short list
- Zero budget: Aternos — genuinely free; you queue to start and it stops when empty. Pixly vs Aternos
- Lowest fixed price here: Shockbyte Budget — $1.99/mo for 1 GB undercuts every other fixed plan in this table. the Shockbyte comparison
- Pay-for-play: Pixly or exaroton — the meter runs only while someone's on; Pixly on its own dedicated machine, exaroton on shared cores. what a server costs
- CurseForge packs: BisectHosting — 2,300+ one-click installs; Pixly can't install CurseForge packs. the BisectHosting comparison
- The official route: Minecraft Realms — $7.99 a month for the Java Realm, you and up to 10 friends, no mods. Pixly vs Realms
| Host | 4 GB plan | 8 GB plan | Storage | Backups included | Domain & dedicated IP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pixly | ~$0.99/mo* 10¢/hr · 1 vCPU, nothing shared. | ~$1.49/mo* 15¢/hr · 2 vCPU, metered to the minute. | NVMe; grows with your world automatically. | Daily, past week kept — on every server. | Own pixly.gg address included; nothing extra to buy. |
| Apex Hosting | $14.99/mo vCPU not published; 1 GB starts at $3.99/mo. | $27.99/mo | NVMe SSD; size not published. | 1 automatic slot, overwritten daily; world files only. | Free apexmc.co subdomain; dedicated IP $4/mo add-on, 2-day wait. |
| Aternos | Free No size tiers; hardware specs not published. | n/a Nothing is for sale. | Not published. | Saved to your own Google Drive. | Free aternos.me address; connecting your own domain is free. |
| BisectHosting | $11.99/mo BisectOne, up to 8 shared vCores on every plan; 1 GB is $3.00/mo. | $23.99/mo | Unlimited disk, NVMe. | 2 slots in a 40 GB shared pool; daily, 3 days kept. | Free subdomain; dedicated IP price not published. |
| exaroton | ~$0.47/mo* 4 credits/hr while running · 2 shared cores; 100 credits = $1.17. | ~$0.94/mo* 8 credits/hr while running · 4 shared cores. | 10 GB per server. | To your own Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox. | exaroton.me address included; own-domain connect free. |
| Hostinger | $6.99/mo 1 vCPU — on a 24-month prepay; renews $11.99/mo. | $9.49/mo 2 vCPU — prepaid; renews $14.99/mo. | 50 GB NVMe (4 GB plan); 100 GB (8 GB). | Weekly automatic + one manual snapshot. | Dedicated IP included; free .cloud domain for a year. |
| Minecraft Realms | n/a One fixed tier: $7.99/mo Java, $3.99/mo Bedrock. | n/a No hardware tiers. | No figure published. | Automatic backups included; 3 world slots. | n/a — you join from the friends list, not an address. |
| Shockbyte | $15.99/mo Premium — the Budget line skips 4 GB; its 3 GB is $5.99, 6 GB $11.99. | $15.99/mo Budget; Premium is $31.99/mo. | NVMe SSD; no size figure. | Up to 3 stored; automatic backups must be scheduled by you. | Free subdomain; dedicated IP is a paid add-on — price shown in cart. |
Why exaroton's line is lower: a credit buys a slice of a shared machine — 0.5 shared cores per GB by its own docs — storage caps at 10 GB, and a lapsed storage fee ends in deletion. Pixly's rate runs a machine that's yours alone, on NVMe storage that grows with your world; at zero balance servers stop and a 7-day countdown starts — topping back above zero cancels it, and a paid account's world is never deleted for sitting idle.
* Estimated for ~10 hours of play a month: Pixly at your region's current hourly rate (the size grid below), exaroton at its published 1 credit per GB-hour with 100 credits at $1.17 — runtime that also covers its monthly storage fee.
Fine print: Apex takes 25% off the first invoice and Shockbyte 30% off the first month; Hostinger's card prices are a 24-month term paid upfront — $167.76 for 4 GB, $227.76 for 8 GB — and renew higher. exaroton's storage fee is 10 credits a month, minus every runtime credit.
Sources: Apex Hosting pricing page, Apex Hosting terms of service, Shockbyte premium plans page, Shockbyte budget plans page, Shockbyte plan-change article, Shockbyte terms of service, Aternos homepage, Aternos stop-countdown article, exaroton pricing article, exaroton homepage, Minecraft Realms product page, BisectOne pricing page, BisectHosting upgrade & downgrade guide, Hostinger Minecraft hosting page, Hostinger Game Panel upgrade guide, Apex Hosting features page, Apex Hosting dedicated IP guide, Apex Hosting backup guide, Shockbyte hardware page, Shockbyte dedicated IP article, Shockbyte automatic backups article, Shockbyte subdomain guide, Aternos backups article, Aternos custom domains article, exaroton hardware article, exaroton backups article, exaroton custom domains article, Hostinger dedicated IP article. Prices and policies checked August 5, 2026.
On a fixed plan, money only flows one way
Every fixed-plan host here lets you change plan size; the fine print shows the direction of the money — going up costs cash now, coming down returns credit at best, never cash. Bisect's own FAQ answers “Will I get credits if I downgrade?” with “Downgrades do not qualify for credits or compensation. It is recommended to schedule the change near the end of the billing period.” Hostinger documents upgrading, and nothing about downgrading a game server (August 2026).
Metered hosting removes the event: nothing is prepaid to a size, so resizing isn't a billing transaction. The guide to what a Minecraft server costs runs both models against real play patterns.
Start small — size up when it matters
A fixed plan sizes you for the busiest night of the month, then idles that hardware the other twenty-nine days. On Pixly the plan is a setting: pick the new size, a short restart applies it (a sleeping server picks it up at the next wake), and the meter follows the hardware actually running. Bigger for Friday, back down Monday — the bigger rate bills only the hours it ran; nothing prepaid to forfeit.
Which host does what, at a glance
A check means built in as a switch; “manual” means you upload and configure it yourself; “not documented” means the host's help center has no guide — all checked August 2026. Pixly's side goes deeper on the modded Minecraft server hosting and crossplay Minecraft server hosting pages.
| Feature | Pixly | Apex Hosting | Aternos | BisectHosting | exaroton | Hostinger | Minecraft Realms | Shockbyte |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sleeps when empty, wakes on join | Yesautomatic, both ways | No sleep option | stops when empty; manual start, queue | No sleep option | YesAutoStop + AutoStart | No sleep option | No — always-on subscription | No sleep option |
| Plan size moves both ways | Yesa setting, not an invoice | credit locked on downgrade | n/a — no plans | no credit on downgrade | Yes2-16 GB | upgrade only is documented | one size | credit back by ticket |
| The machine underneath | own machine — CPU and RAM not shared | shared vCores — count not published | not published | up to 8 shared vCores | shared — 0.5 cores per GB | own KVM VPS — 1-8 vCPU | not published | not published |
| Locations | 2 US (Oregon, N. Virginia) | worldwide — count not published | not published | 21 locations, free swaps | North America and Europe | 9 locations | no location choice | US, Europe, Asia, Australia — no count |
| Bedrock crossplay on one server | Yesone toggle | one-click panel installer | one-click panel install | manual, 14+ steps | one-click panel install | not documented | not possible — same edition only | manual jar install |
| Proximity voice chat | Yesone switch | manual mod install | manual; can't run with Geyser | manual, 17+ steps | manual; can't run with Geyser | No feature or guide published | Not available — no mods | manual mod install |
| Mods & modpacks | Modrinth; .jar and .mrpack uploads | CurseForge modpack library | built-in library | CurseForge — 2,300+ packs | built-in library | manual, over SFTP | No mod support | CurseForge, FTB, Technic, ATLauncher |
| MOTD editing | visual editor | config field + restart | styled editor | panel field | not documented | panel field | n/a | server.properties file |
| Getting a server | type a name — no order form | web checkout; 'Instant Setup' | signup, then a start queue | 10-step order flow | signup; no card for the trial | prepaid term, then Create Instance | in-game | web checkout; 'Instant Setup' |
| Commitment | none — a wallet you top up | monthly or quarterly | none — free | monthly; prepay discounts | none — credits | 24 months upfront | monthly subscription | monthly, quarterly, or annual |
Voice chat is the clean sweep: none of the seven other hosts documents a built-in proximity voice feature, and on Aternos and exaroton a voice mod and the Geyser bridge can't share each server's single spare port — crossplay and voice are an either/or there.
Most fixed-plan hosts publish no per-plan vCPU figure, while every Pixly plan is its own virtual machine — CPU and RAM no neighbor can touch. Locations cut the other way: BisectHosting advertises 21, Hostinger nine, and Pixly runs 2 US regions. Your browser pings both at creation and flags the faster one; a group far from the US should pick a host with a nearby location.
Sources: Apex Hosting service terms, Shockbyte premium plans page, Aternos homepage, exaroton homepage, exaroton pricing article, Minecraft Realms product page, BisectOne pricing page, BisectHosting Geyser install guide, CurseForge server affiliation FAQ, Hostinger Minecraft hosting page, Hostinger modpack install guide, Apex Hosting pricing page, Apex Hosting Geyser installer guide, Apex Hosting voice chat guide, Apex Hosting MOTD guide, Shockbyte Geyser article, Shockbyte voice chat article, Shockbyte MOTD article, Shockbyte plan-change article, Aternos Geyser article, Aternos voice chat article, Aternos MOTD article, Aternos server-creation article, Aternos queue article, Aternos stop-countdown article, exaroton Geyser article, exaroton voice chat article, exaroton server options article, BisectHosting voice chat guide, BisectHosting MOTD guide, BisectHosting beginner's guide, BisectHosting upgrade & downgrade guide, Hostinger MOTD and icon guide, Hostinger Game Panel get-started guide, Hostinger Game Panel upgrade guide, Hostinger Game Panel help category, Apex Hosting features page, Shockbyte hardware page, exaroton hardware article, Hostinger VPS hosting page. Prices and policies checked August 5, 2026.
An order form vs a name box
BisectHosting's own beginner's guide walks ten ordering steps before the panel login arrives by email; Hostinger adds a prepaid term, a Create Instance screen, and a Minecraft EULA pop-up. Apex Hosting and Shockbyte advertise instant setup through a web checkout; Aternos asks a signup, then a start queue at busy times.
Pixly's flow is a name box: type a name and the server exists — asleep, with its own address, no location picker, no billing-cycle dropdown. Four optional guided steps: whitelist your account, choose who can join (the Bedrock crossplay switch lives there), pick vanilla or a modpack, copy the address. The first start builds the server — that one takes minutes.
What the first player sees
A sleeping Pixly server stays on the multiplayer list with your own MOTD, icon, and version — whatever you paint in the MOTD editor. Never set one? It reads "🌙 Server sleeping, join to wake up!".
Clicking Join is the wake switch. The joining player gets a real answer, not a timeout — the disconnect screen reads "🚀 Server is waking up! Please try again in a few minutes." — and the tile flips to a waking-up status while the machine boots; no queue, nothing for the owner to do. Bedrock wakes the same way.
Then one retry: refresh the list, click Join again, and you're in. A recently played world resumes from a saved memory image in 15–30 seconds; asleep a day or more, it restores its storage first — the few minutes the kick message means.
Which host for which player
A comparison that never sends anyone elsewhere isn't one. Each of these is a genuine best fit.
Zero budget: Aternos
Aternos says it plainly: “We are free, and we will always be free for everyone at any time.” The trade: a queue at busy times and a stop countdown when the server sits empty.
Metered, Aternos-style: exaroton
From the same team, exaroton burns one credit per GB of RAM each hour, with auto-stop and auto-start. Mind the 10 GB storage cap, the recurring storage charge — a lapse means deletion — and the 16 GB RAM ceiling.
First-party and simple: Minecraft Realms
For a small vanilla group that wants the official thing: one $7.99/mo Java plan, you plus 10 players, no mod support. Outgrow any of those walls and there's nothing bigger to switch to.
Always-on, one flat bill: Apex Hosting
A community hub that genuinely never sleeps gets real value from a flat, predictable invoice — exactly the shape Apex sells, with a one-click modpack library alongside.
The tightest fixed budget: Shockbyte
The lowest fixed prices here start at $1.99/mo on its Budget line, and its pack installer spans CurseForge, FTB, Technic, and ATLauncher.
CurseForge modpack homes: BisectHosting
The official CurseForge partner host: 2,300+ packs install in a click, rated about 4.8 of 5 on Trustpilot. A pack published only on CurseForge is better off there — Pixly can't install it.
Root on your own machine: Hostinger
A KVM virtual server with dedicated RAM, full root access, and large NVMe disks — a very low effective rate if you'll administer the box yourself for a 24-month term.
Switches, not tickets: Pixly
Bedrock crossplay and proximity voice are each one switch, the MOTD editor paints your server list entry in place, and plan size moves both ways whenever you like. The meter runs only while someone's on: five minutes empty and the world sleeps, paying just its storage fee until the next join.
Live rates for every plan and region are in the grid below; the pay-per-hour Minecraft server hosting page explains the metered model end to end.
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 — an affordable, budget-friendly alternative that works out cheaper than a flat monthly plan for the way you really play.
Eight-host comparison questions
Try the metered side
See what a meter does to your bill — about 10 hours to try, no card; the grid above shows your region's live rate.
No card to start
Competitor names are trademarks of their respective owners and are used here only for comparison.