A Shockbyte alternative billed by the hour, with no monthly plan.
Shockbyte's premium tiers start at $3.99 a month for 1 GB and its budget line at $1.99 — and every one of those plans buys the whole month, played or not. Pixly has no plan to buy, daily backups come with every server, and crossplay and voice chat are on every size.
~9 hours to try · no card · instant setup
Pixly is a Shockbyte alternative with no monthly plan: an hourly rate billed by the minute while your server is awake, and no hourly charge once it sleeps, about five minutes after the last player leaves.
A month of RAM, or a meter that runs while you play
Shockbyte's whole catalog answers one question — how much RAM per month. Pixly drops the month entirely: no subscription, nothing to renew, and billing built for groups that play in sessions.
No hourly charge when idle
Your server sleeps after about 5 minutes empty. Nothing happens in a sleeping world, so no progress is lost, and a friend on the whitelist joining wakes it — the owner doesn't need to be online.
First month, then every month
Shockbyte's 30% first-month discount is real1 — and so is what follows: renewal at the listed rate, with renewals sitting outside its refund window2. Pixly skips the pattern, because there's no subscription to discount or renew.
Included on every size
Daily backups with 7 days of history, DDoS protection, and Bedrock crossplay and proximity voice chat as one switch each.
Weighing more than one host? The Pixly vs Apex Hosting comparison covers the premium end of subscriptions, BisectHosting — the other big per-gigabyte RAM host — has its own Pixly vs BisectHosting comparison, Aternos gets the free-hosting treatment in the Pixly vs Aternos comparison, and Mojang's own subscription server is covered in Pixly vs Minecraft Realms. Want the whole market in one scroll? The Minecraft hosting comparison sets every host against the others in two dated tables.
Pixly vs Shockbyte at a glance
Shockbyte figures below are its published U.S. prices and policies as of August 2026, taken from its plans pages13, knowledgebase4, and terms of service2. Competitor names are trademarks of their respective owners and are used here only for comparison.
| Feature | Pixly | Shockbyte |
|---|---|---|
| Billing model | An hourly rate metered to the minute; no subscription, and no hourly charge while your server sleeps. | Monthly RAM tiers from $3.99 for 1 GB; 30% off the first month, then the listed rate. |
| Empty server | Checks for players five minutes after everyone logs off and sleeps if it's empty; you're not billed hours for idle time. | Runs and bills all month whether or not anyone plays. |
| Renewals & refunds | Nothing renews — add funds when you choose, and simply stop any time. | Renews at the listed rate; 72-hour money-back guarantee once per customer on new orders; account credit is non-refundable and non-withdrawable. |
| Plan changes | Resize any time in the dashboard — one quick restart, then the meter runs at the new rate; nothing to claim back because nothing was prepaid to a plan. | Self-serve up or down any time; a downgrade's prorated difference comes back as account credit only via a Billing ticket, and a pending renewal invoice must be paid before any change. |
| Player slots | Uncapped — set any max players in settings; size guides what runs smoothly. | Unlimited slots; pricing is by RAM. |
| Mods & modpacks | In-panel search across CurseForge and Modrinth for mods, plugins and modpacks; pasted links and your own .mrpack or .jar uploads install too. | 3,000+ one-click packs from CurseForge, FTB, Technic, and ATLauncher. |
| Crossplay | One switch — Geyser and Floodgate are installed for you; one world for Java and Bedrock. | Documented do-it-yourself GeyserMC setup, or a separate Bedrock-native server. |
| Voice chat | One switch — Simple Voice Chat or Plasmo Voice, set up on the server for you. | Manual mod install5. |
| Backups | Daily backups with 7 days of history, on every size. | Scheduled backups, capped at 3 stored and 15 GB total. |
| Storage & hardware | Dedicated CPU and RAM, nothing shared; NVMe storage that grows with your world; 4 regions, with the fastest picked by a live ping. | Fair-use “unlimited” NVMe storage; worldwide locations, count not published. |
| Server address | A pixly.gg address on every server, or point a domain you own at the world — no add-on either way. | Subdomain creator included; a dedicated IP is a paid add-on. |
Two of those rows are where the money actually differs: what the bill does while nobody is playing, and what happens to it when the size changes mid-cycle. The next section works through both.
Cheap per gigabyte is not cheap per month
Shockbyte's sticker prices are low per gigabyte. A flat month bills the same whether your group played every evening or twice.
What the flat month buys
Take the 3 GB plan Shockbyte tags most popular, at $11.99 a month1. That buys every hour of the month, including the hundreds nobody plays.
What the meter buys
Three two-hour evenings a week is about 25 active hours a month — a couple of dollars on Pixly's smaller sizes, because the hundreds of hours your world sits empty stay off the hourly bill.
Changing size mid-month is a different kind of event on each side, too. Shockbyte's switch is self-serve, but the money only moves one way.
- An upgrade — “upgraded immediately after your payment is received” on a prorated invoice4.
- A downgrade — “you can receive a prorated credit refund of the extra amount you've paid… by submitting a ticket to our Billing Department”4.
- What lands back — account credit, non-refundable and non-withdrawable under its terms2.
On Pixly a resize is a setting: a brief restart, and the meter simply starts running at the new plan's rate — there's no prepaid month to carve up.
The plans below carry the real hourly rate for every size and region — run it against the evenings your group actually plays.
Servers run in United States — Portland, Oregon and Ashburn, Virginia; Asia Pacific — Singapore; Europe — Frankfurt, Germany.
The cost guide works through what a Minecraft server costs at real play patterns, side by side with subscription pricing.
Two modpack ecosystems, and which one is yours
Both hosts install modpacks for you; they draw from different catalogs, and that difference decides more switches than any other row in the table.
Shockbyte's one-click library
One-click installs from a curated library of 3,000+ packs, browsable by loader.
Pixly's catalog search
Search CurseForge and Modrinth together from the Mods tab — or paste a link — and mods, plugins, and modpacks are built onto the server at its next start, with the build pinned so updates never land uninvited. The modded Minecraft server hosting guide covers loaders, RAM, and versions.
Shockbyte's library spans CurseForge, FTB, Technic, and ATLauncher. Pixly searches CurseForge and Modrinth live, so mods, plugins and whole modpacks install from either catalog, plus pasted links and your own .mrpack or .jar uploads.
Crossplay: assembled by hand, or part of the setup
Mixed Java-and-Bedrock friend groups can end up on either host — what differs is how much of the bridge you build yourself.
- On Shockbyte — the documented path is installing GeyserMC yourself, as a plugin or mod on your Java server, then keeping it working through version updates.
- On Pixly — crossplay is one switch: Geyser and Floodgate are installed for you on crossplay-capable types, and ViaVersion is added whenever your pinned version trails the newest release. The crossplay Minecraft server hosting guide explains how it works.
Getting a world out of Shockbyte, step by step
Your builds are yours: Shockbyte documents world export, and Pixly accepts an uploaded save. The whole move is a download, a zip, and an upload.
Moving a Java world across
- Download from Shockbyte. Connect over SFTP or open the panel file manager and download your world folder — Shockbyte's own guides cover the export, including moving to another server.
- Upload it into Pixly. Create a server on the same Minecraft version, open the Backups tab, and upload the zipped world. It's imported while the server is stopped, and the next start loads your map.
- Hand out the new address. Whitelist your friends — whitelist, ops and bans apply without a restart — and share the address the new server came with.
Do it while the plan is still active. Shockbyte's terms give a 1-day grace period after a missed renewal, suspend the server until it's paid, and delete files 30 days after that2 — so download your world before it lapses, not once it has.
When per-minute billing pays off
Play that comes in sessions — evenings, weekends, school-holiday bursts — leaves a server empty most of the month, and a flat plan bills every one of those empty hours. On Pixly the server sleeps through them with no hourly charge, and wakes when a friend on the whitelist joins.
Every size and region rate is in the live grid above, and the pay-per-hour Minecraft server hosting page explains the billing model in full.
Pixly vs Shockbyte questions
What people ask when they are comparing a Shockbyte RAM tier against a meter.
How is Pixly's billing different from Shockbyte?
Shockbyte sells monthly plans priced by RAM — its 3 GB plan is $11.99 a month as of July 2026, whether anyone plays or not. Pixly has no subscription: you top up a Wallet and are charged by the minute only while the server is awake. While it sleeps, a small storage fee for the world is the only charge. Nothing happens in a sleeping world, so it resumes exactly where your group left it.
Which is cheaper — Shockbyte or pay-per-hour hosting?
It depends on hours played. A server that's full for the bulk of each day can cost more metered than flat. A few evenings a week — about 25 active hours a month — lands around a couple of dollars on Pixly's smaller sizes, well under a comparable monthly plan.
Does Pixly have unlimited player slots like Shockbyte?
Yes — Pixly doesn't cap player slots either. The max-player count is yours to choose on every size, and the per-size player figures are guidance for how many people the hardware handles smoothly, not a limit. That's true of hosting generally: on any host, the real ceiling is the machine underneath and the setup running on it, which is why Shockbyte prices by RAM rather than by seat too.
Does Pixly run CurseForge modpacks like Shockbyte?
Yes — the Mods tab searches CurseForge and Modrinth together, and mods, plugins and whole modpacks install from either catalog on the server's next start. Shockbyte's one-click library also draws on FTB, Technic and ATLauncher; on Pixly, pasted links and your own .mrpack or .jar uploads work alongside both catalogs.
Can I move my Shockbyte world to Pixly?
Yes, for Java worlds. Shockbyte supports downloading your world over SFTP or its panel file manager, and documents the export for exactly this moving-to-another-server case. Zip the world folder, create a Pixly server on the same Minecraft version, and upload the archive in the Backups tab — the next start loads your map.
Shockbyte has a 72-hour refund — what's Pixly's equivalent?
Pixly has no plan purchase to refund: the trial is about 9 hours of play with no card, and after that it's small top-ups as you go, with nothing that renews. Shockbyte's 72-hour money-back guarantee applies once per customer account and covers new orders only — renewal payments aren't refundable under its terms.
Does Java + Bedrock crossplay work the same on both?
Both can get you there; the path differs. Shockbyte documents installing GeyserMC yourself, as a plugin or mod on your Java server. On Pixly, crossplay is one switch: Geyser and Floodgate are installed for you on crossplay-capable types, with ViaVersion added when a pinned version trails the newest release — no server-side work before phones and consoles can join.
Can I change size mid-month on Shockbyte or Pixly?
Yes on both — the difference is what happens to your money. Shockbyte lets you switch plans in its panel at any time, but the prorated difference from a downgrade comes back only as account credit after a ticket to its Billing department, credit that can't be refunded or withdrawn, and if your next renewal invoice has already been generated you must pay it before changing plans (per its knowledgebase and terms, August 2026). On Pixly there is no cycle and no credit to claim back: change size in the dashboard, restart once — minutes, with your world untouched — and the new rate applies from the moment the new hardware is up.
Footnotes
Shockbyte premium plans page — checked August 4, 2026. ↩ ↩ ↩
Shockbyte terms of service — checked August 4, 2026. ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
Shockbyte budget plans page — checked August 4, 2026. ↩
Shockbyte plan-change article — checked August 4, 2026. ↩ ↩ ↩
Shockbyte voice chat article — checked August 5, 2026. ↩
Pay for the hours, skip the month
Bring your Shockbyte world or start fresh — your version, your mods, billed per hour only while someone's playing. Start with ~9 hours to try and see your real rate.
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