Coalstack vs Paid Minecraft Hosting

The short version

A paid host rents you a slice of a machine in a data centre. You pay every month, usually by how much memory you want, and in return the server is always on, on a fast connection, with a company behind it.

Coalstack is software for a PC you already own. There is no rent. The cost is that the server is only up while that PC is, and that you do some of the setup yourself.

Where a paid host wins

• It is always on. Friends can play at 3am when your PC is asleep or you're away from home.
• Nothing of yours is in the path. No router, no home upload speed, no home address, and usually DDoS protection from the provider.
• Someone else fixes the hardware. Drives fail and power cuts happen on their side, not yours, and there is a support team to ask.
• You don't need a spare PC. A laptop that goes in a bag every day can still own a server.

Where Coalstack is different

• No monthly bill. Hosts commonly charge per GB of RAM per month, and a modded server wants several GB, so it adds up over a year. Coalstack's free tier doesn't expire, and Plus is a one-time purchase.
• Your PC may be stronger than a starter plan. Budget plans give you a small slice of memory and CPU. A spare gaming PC can offer more of both, so check what a plan includes against what your machine has.
• You keep the files and the controls. Worlds are folders on your disk, backups go where you choose, and you aren't held to a host's panel.
• You can still reach it from anywhere. Conduit lets you check and control your servers from coalstack.net or your phone, and Wake on join starts a server when someone joins.

What running it yourself really costs

Electricity, for a PC that is on while people play. Wear on that PC. Time spent when a router won't cooperate. If your group needs the server up all day and nobody has a PC to spare, the host's monthly fee buys real convenience, and some people run both: a host for the main world and Coalstack for experiments. See the server guide to try it before you decide.

Which should you use?

A paid host if the server must be up around the clock, you don't want to touch networking, or no one in the group has a PC that can run it.

Coalstack if you have a PC that can stay on while people play, you would rather not pay monthly, or you want to own your worlds and mods.

Hosts vary in price and features, so this page doesn't name one. Check a provider's current plans before you compare costs.