What is the cheapest VPS that qualifies for game server?

Cloud VPS 4 · 4 vCPU · 8 GB at $6.39/mo (excl. VAT) meets the minimum requirements as of 5 Sept 2026.

How are these requirements chosen?

The minimums (8 GB RAM, 2 vCPU) reflect what the workload actually stresses — explained in the "what matters" section — and the ranking weights those dimensions rather than raw price.

How fresh is this list?

Prices are re-fetched from all 11 providers daily and this ranking recomputes automatically. Last refresh: 5 Sept 2026.

Best VPS for game servers.

September 2026 · re-ranked daily · 205 qualifying plans

Game servers are the classic RAM-plus-single-thread workload: worlds live in memory, ticks run on one or two cores, and lag is instantly visible to everyone connected. We filter the index to plans with 8 GB+ RAM, 2+ vCPU — 205 of 280 qualify today, with the top pick at $8.72/mo. Ranked by how much of the hardware this workload actually stresses each dollar buys.

What actually matters here

8 GB RAM to start: Vanilla Minecraft runs in 4 GB; modpacks and 10+ players want 8–16 GB. Valheim/Palworld sit in the same band.
Dedicated vCPU matters most here: Tick rate is single-thread-bound and constant — a throttled shared core is visible lag every second, not just at peaks. Note: public specs don't expose clock speeds, so check provider benchmarks for the final call.
Traffic and DDoS: Player traffic is modest, but public game IPs attract attacks — providers with DDoS protection included have the edge.

1
Contabo
Cloud VPS 6 · 6 vCPU · 12 GB
6 vCPU · 12 GB RAM · 200 GB SSD · value 99/100
✓ unmetered traffic
$8.72/mo
2
netcup
VPS 8000 G12 · 16 vCore · 64 GB
16 vCPU · 64 GB RAM · 2048 GB NVME · value 100/100
✓ unmetered traffic
$46.83/mo
vs #1 →
3
Contabo
Cloud VPS 4 · 4 vCPU · 8 GB
4 vCPU · 8 GB RAM · 100 GB SSD · value 99/100
✓ unmetered traffic
$6.39/mo
vs #1 →
4
Contabo
Cloud VPS 8 · 8 vCPU · 24 GB
8 vCPU · 24 GB RAM · 300 GB SSD · value 99/100
✓ unmetered traffic
$16.27/mo
vs #1 →
5
Contabo
Cloud VPS 12 · 12 vCPU · 48 GB
12 vCPU · 48 GB RAM · 400 GB SSD · value 98/100
✓ unmetered traffic
$29.05/mo
vs #1 →
6
Contabo
Cloud VPS 16 · 16 vCPU · 64 GB
16 vCPU · 64 GB RAM · 500 GB SSD · value 96/100
✓ unmetered traffic
$43/mo
vs #1 →
7
netcup
VPS 4000 G12 · 12 vCore · 32 GB
12 vCPU · 32 GB RAM · 1024 GB NVME · value 98/100
✓ unmetered traffic
$31.66/mo
vs #1 →
8
netcup
RS 8000 G12 · 16 dedicated cores · 64 GB
16 vCPU · 64 GB RAM · 2048 GB NVME · value 96/100
✓ dedicated vCPU✓ unmetered traffic
$69.70/mo
vs #1 →
9
netcup
RS 2000 G12 · 8 dedicated cores · 16 GB
8 vCPU · 16 GB RAM · 512 GB NVME · value 96/100
✓ dedicated vCPU✓ unmetered traffic
$20.93/mo
vs #1 →
10
netcup
RS 4000 G12 · 12 dedicated cores · 32 GB
12 vCPU · 32 GB RAM · 1024 GB NVME · value 95/100
✓ dedicated vCPU✓ unmetered traffic
$38.99/mo
vs #1 →

One-click stacks for this workload

Everything below runs on any VPS with manual setup — these providers ship it preinstalled from their official catalog (verified 20 Jul 2026).

Minecraft: one-click on Vultr, DigitalOcean, Linode, OVHcloud, Hostinger
Docker: one-click on Hetzner, Vultr, DigitalOcean, Linode, OVHcloud, Scaleway, Contabo, Hostinger, IONOS

Full stack-support matrix →

Frequently asked

What is the cheapest VPS that qualifies for game server?: Cloud VPS 4 · 4 vCPU · 8 GB at $6.39/mo (excl. VAT) meets the minimum requirements as of 5 Sept 2026.
How are these requirements chosen?: The minimums (8 GB RAM, 2 vCPU) reflect what the workload actually stresses — explained in the "what matters" section — and the ranking weights those dimensions rather than raw price.
How fresh is this list?: Prices are re-fetched from all 11 providers daily and this ranking recomputes automatically. Last refresh: 5 Sept 2026.