How Much Does a Hytale Server Cost? Free, at Home or Rented

The short answer

Free, if you're fine with starting the server when you're going to play. On your PC, no rent but you pay the electricity: a desktop PC on day and night is about €10.51 a month with electricity at €0.16 per kWh. And rented, you mostly pay for RAM: at NapNodes, €2 per GB a month, from €8 (4 GB) to €16 (8 GB).

For a small group, 4 GB: €8 a month, which split four ways is €2 each. Each player also needs their own copy of Hytale.

What really sets the price

RAM, and it depends on the loaded world: view distance and players exploring each on their own. Ten together in the same base load far less than ten spread across the map. The official manual puts the minimum at 4 GB; the rest, in the RAM guide or with the RAM calculator.

Whether that RAM is really yours. A cheap plan can be cheap because the machine has sold more RAM than it has (overselling): fine until everyone plays at once. Always ask if it's reserved.

What to pay for your game

These are NapNodes plans, to have concrete numbers, and they're a guideline: it depends on how you play.

· A small group: Village, 4 GB: €8 a month (up to 5 players).

· More people exploring at once: Kingdom, 6 GB: €12 a month (5–10 players).

· Communities, mods or lots of loaded world: Empire, 8 GB: €16 a month (10–20 players).

Disk goes with RAM (the Village plan comes with 20 GB) and the price is the same at renewal.

On your PC: no rent, but electricity isn't free

There are two ways without paying anyone. Opening your world with a code from the pause menu: free and ready in a minute, but only while you're playing (how to play with friends). And the official dedicated server, also free, on a PC that stays on (how to set it up).

With the dedicated one you pay the electricity, about €10.51 a month on a desktop PC on day and night (the electricity calculator works it out with your computer and your bill). It needs at least 4 GB of memory just for itself and UDP port 5520 open on your router (with CG-NAT, some ISPs won't let you). And you update it yourself: Hytale is in early access, changes version often and, if the server falls behind, nobody can join.

Truly free: what you pay in other ways

NapNodes has a free Hytale server with 4 GB of RAM and the same processor as the Village plan, and 15 GB of disk, no card and no end date. You start it from the panel, it stops after an hour with nobody on and, if nobody plays for 7 days in a row, it's deleted (with an email warning 2 days before). If there's no free RAM at that moment, you wait your turn. It has no panel backups.

Paying for Village gives you a world that's always on, no queues, 20 GB of disk and backups of a world that's been going for weeks. It's still the same server, with the same world and already linked: how to move from free to a plan. Every option without paying, in free Hytale server.

How to pay less (without it running worse)

1. Try the free server first

   It has the same RAM as the small plan: in a few days you'll see how many people really join and whether you fall short.

2. Lower the view distance

   It's what saves the most RAM with lots of people spread across the map. The manual recommends not going above 12 chunks (how to change it).

3. Start with the plan you need

   Going up is done from the panel: the new RAM arrives on restart, with nothing to reinstall.

4. Pay quarterly

   Three months at once are 10% cheaper: the Village plan is €21.60 a quarter instead of €24.

5. Use the code WELCOME

   Your first payment is half price (50% off), once per person, also when moving from the free server to a plan: the first month of the Village plan, €4.

6. Split it

   Split four ways, the Village plan is €2 a month each. And if you invite a friend with your “Invite a friend” link and they buy a plan, you get a month of your plan as credit (how it works).

Costs you don't see in the price

Before paying, check three things: whether the price goes up at renewal, whether there's a minimum term and whether they charge extra for what you should already have, like backups or downloading your world.

At NapNodes there's no minimum term, renewal is the plan's price, backups (2 you make and restore yourself, plus one automatic daily) are included and you can download your world whenever you want. The first time you buy, you have 72 hours to get a full refund.

Frequently asked questions