Pixly vs BisectHosting: a BisectHosting alternative that sleeps.
BisectHosting is one of the best-liked hosts in Minecraft — an official CurseForge partner selling monthly plans at roughly $3 per GB. Pixly is a BisectHosting alternative with no plan to rent: your server meters an hourly rate while it's awake and sleeps when it's empty. What follows is meant to be fair to both.
~10 hours to try · no card · instant setup
A month you rent, or minutes you meter
BisectHosting's BisectOne plans run about $3 per gigabyte — 1 GB at $3.00 and 8 GB at $23.99 a month as of August 2026 — and the product around them is genuinely well regarded. What Pixly changes is the billing model: the meter runs to the minute while your server is awake and stops when it sleeps.
The meter stops with the last player
Once everyone logs off, a five-minute check confirms the server is empty and it goes to sleep; from there your world costs a small storage fee, nothing more.
Nothing to forfeit when you resize
Plan changes here aren't billing events. There's no prepaid month to carve up, so moving down a size never leaves money locked behind.
Where BisectHosting fits better
An always-on community — especially one living in a CurseForge modpack — gets real value from Bisect's flat bill, one-click pack library, and well-reviewed support.
Comparing more than one host? The Pixly vs Apex Hosting comparison tells the same meter-versus-month story at higher prices, Shockbyte's budget RAM tiers hold the low-price corner of the subscription market, Hostinger's 24-month prepaid plans front-load the commitment instead, and the pay-per-hour Minecraft server hosting page carries the live rate for every size and region. The Minecraft hosting comparison sets all eight hosts against each other in two dated tables.
BisectHosting and Pixly at a glance
The BisectHosting column reflects its live BisectOne pricing, help-center guidance, and terms as they stood on August 4, 2026.
| Feature | Pixly | BisectHosting |
|---|---|---|
| Billing model | Your plan's hourly rate, metered minute by minute — no monthly plan to rent and no cycle to schedule around. | BisectOne monthly tiers at roughly $3 per GB — 1 GB $3.00, 8 GB $23.99 a month (August 2026); prepaying a quarter, half-year, or year lowers the effective rate. |
| Empty server | Five minutes after the last player leaves, a check confirms it's empty and the server sleeps; storage is the only charge until someone joins. | The month costs the same full or empty — a continuously running server with no sleep or usage-based option. |
| Plan changes | Either direction, whenever you like; a quick restart brings the new size up and billing follows the hardware that's actually running. | Self-serve both ways; an upgrade bills the prorated difference and takes a server restart to apply — downgrades earn no credit or compensation. |
| Renewals & refunds | There's no renewal to refund — add funds when it suits you, and unspent balance just waits in your wallet. | 72-hour money-back for new customers; renewal refunds full within 1 day, half within 3 days, then none; account credit can't be withdrawn or transferred. |
| Mods & modpacks | Paste a Modrinth link — mods, plugins, or a whole pack assemble on the next start; Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, and Quilt supported, matching Java picked for you. | 2,300+ one-click CurseForge modpacks through its automated installer; CurseForge's officially partnered host; two instance slots to swap packs. |
| Crossplay | Bedrock crossplay is a settings toggle — the bridge configures itself the next time the server starts, with a Bedrock address of the server's own. | Java and Bedrock both hosted; Geyser on a Java server is a manual install — download the jars, upload them to the plugins folder, allocate a port, edit the config. |
| Backups | Automatic daily backups keeping the last seven days, included on every server. | Two configurable backup slots in a 40 GB shared pool, plus daily backups with three days of history. |
| Hardware & locations | A dedicated VM per server — CPU and RAM yours alone, on NVMe storage, in a region you pick with a live ping badge. | Access to up to 8 vCores on largely Ryzen hardware, unlimited NVMe disk, 21 locations with free swaps. |
| Support | Support in Discord from the people building the platform. | Advertises support at all hours, an average ticket reply under 15 minutes, and 2,000+ help articles. |
| Best fit | Evening-and-weekend crews who'd rather not fund empty hours. | Always-on communities — especially CurseForge modpack servers — that want one flat, predictable bill. |
Sources: BisectOne pricing page, BisectHosting upgrade & downgrade guide, BisectHosting terms of service, BisectHosting Geyser install guide, BisectHosting on Trustpilot. Prices and policies checked August 4, 2026.
About $3 per gigabyte — for every hour of the month
An 8 GB BisectOne plan is $23.99 every month whether that month held forty play sessions or two (August 2026 pricing, monthly billing). Prepaying a quarter, six months, or a year brings that rate down further — real savings for a server that genuinely runs around the clock, and more money committed up front for one that doesn't. There's no sleep mode and no usage option: the product is a server that stays on.
Pixly starts from the opposite end. The plan's hourly rate is metered to the minute and runs only while the server is awake; after roughly five empty minutes it falls asleep, and your world sits on its storage fee until the next join, when it wakes in about a minute. The plans below show the live hourly rate in your region — set it against the evenings your group actually plays.
The guide to what a Minecraft server costs sets the two billing models against each other at several real play patterns.
Resizing: schedule it, or just do it
BisectHosting handles plan changes better than many fixed-plan hosts: upgrades and downgrades are self-serve at any time, changes take effect immediately, and an upgrade simply bills the difference prorated for the days left in the cycle — then, per its guide, “restart the server to apply the plan change.” The catch is the money on the way down. Its 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.” On a prepaid month — or a prepaid year — sizing down mid-cycle means the difference is simply gone.
On Pixly there is no cycle to schedule around, because resizing isn't a billing event. Choose a bigger plan for the event weekend and drop back after; a short restart applies it (a couple of minutes, world untouched — on a sleeping server it happens silently at the next wake), and the meter switches to the new plan's rate once the new hardware is running. Nothing was prepaid, so nothing is forfeited. Larger sizes unlock after your first top-up.
Two pack libraries, and who does the crossplay work
Either host gets a modded server running; what separates them is which pack library is yours and who builds the bridge when Bedrock friends join. The modded Minecraft server hosting guide goes deep on Pixly's side, and crossplay Minecraft server hosting walks the Java-plus-Bedrock bridge end to end.
Modrinth from a pasted link
Paste a link and the mod, plugin, or full pack installs on the server's next boot; your own .jar or .mrpack uploads cover the rest, with the right Java picked automatically.
Bedrock friends, one toggle
Flip the switch and the Geyser bridge with Floodgate comes up configured at the next launch, with a Bedrock address ready to share. Phones, consoles, and the desktop crowd land in the same world.
Bisect's CurseForge partnership
BisectHosting is the official CurseForge partner host: 2,300+ CurseForge packs install in one click, FTB is a partner too, and the Instance Manager swaps between two installed packs.
Say it without hedging: if your group's modpack is published only on CurseForge, its better home today is BisectHosting. Pixly installs from Modrinth alone, and a CurseForge-exclusive pack simply isn't installable here unless its author also ships a .mrpack.
When BisectHosting is the right call
Keep Bisect if…
The server truly runs day and night, the community lives in a CurseForge pack, and one flat bill with prepay discounts is the shape you want.
They've earned the reputation
Around 4.8 of 5 on Trustpilot across tens of thousands of reviews, a sub-15-minute average ticket reply claim, and visible charity work with Gamers Outreach. None of this page argues they're a bad host.
Sessions point here
Evenings-and-weekends play, with the server sitting empty in between, is exactly what per-minute metering is for.
Every plan's rate for your region sits in the live grid below, and the Minecraft hosting billed by the minute page explains metered billing front to back.
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.
BisectHosting comparison questions
Minutes, not months
If the server sits empty most of the week, stop renting the whole month. Start with a ~10-hour trial and see your region's real hourly rate.
No card to start
Competitor names are trademarks of their respective owners and are used here only for comparison.