Making Your Own Minecraft Server

Minecraft has had multiplayer in various forms since 2010, and as the game grows larger and more popular, the demand for custom servers increases. There are many ways to set up a functional Minecraft server. This allows players to choose the option that suits them best.

If you want to play with friends and family, then a local server will not always cut it. But can you make your own Minecraft server, and what options are the best for each situation?

LAN Servers

A local server is one of the built-in options within Minecraft itself. You can play seamlessly with people on the same internet connection as you, which usually means enjoying the game with folks within the same house or office.

Creating these is not hard—you can do it straight from the pause menu—but as mentioned above, it has the limitation of who you can play with based on the participants’ location. Thankfully, there are ways around this, even if they are not always going to be completely reliable.

There is a range of software options out there that allow you to form LAN connections with people situated elsewhere. While they might be laggy and slow in some cases, they can still be a quick way to play with somebody using LAN options.

Third-Party Hosts

While you can use third-party hosts to play together, they often come with limitations or issues that you might not prefer to work around. On the other hand, some of them may be invaluable for getting a server up quickly.

Many of these also allow you to install a range of mods for Minecraft and modpacks on the servers and might even have their own special features that let you modify the server itself to suit your needs. All of this depends on the host, of course.

Some are free, and some are paid. So it is up to you to decide which hosting options are best for you. A free server host can be an excellent way to throw together a server quickly and start playing, even if you are playing with friends in other countries.

Hosting Yourself

If you want complete control of your Minecraft server, then hosting it for yourself is usually the best option. However, this takes some more time to set up, with the benefit of allowing you full access to every part of your server.

This means that you can install whatever addons you want, tweak settings as you please, and do almost anything with the server itself. The only downside is having to set it up from scratch, which can be tricky to do for the first time. Once you get the hang of creating a server, though, it becomes much easier to tweak the settings at your leisure.

Thankfully, there is a wide range of tutorials online to help with this task. If you need to know how to access a Minecraft server via the internet or install modpacks onto your custom server, then there are countless places to learn the specific details of what you need to do. If you get stuck, just look up the solutions to whatever you are struggling with, and there will always be somebody online who can help.

Minecraft Realms

If you simply cannot be bothered to set up a server yourself, look for third-party hosts or play via LAN, there’s always Minecraft Realms or Realms Plus. Microsoft charges a small monthly (or annual) subscription fee to let you play the game on your own personal server with family and friends.

The signup and setup processes are ridiculously simple. Do note that Legacy console editions of the game such Minecraft: Xbox One Edition do not work with Realms. Only Minecraft for Windows, and Minecraft: Java and Bedrock Edition support Realms.

Wrapping up

So there you have it—trying to enjoy Minecraft in multiplayer with friends and family is not so hard after all, is it?