If you’re a parent, the following video does a really good job of explaining how to do it. Setting up a free server takes some computer know-how and is not something we expect children under 15 to be able to do on their own. It’s a monthly subscription that you pay for the quality of service provided by Microsoft. The servers are provided through Microsoft and will provide a reliable connection. It starts at $7.99 so that you can play with 11 people.

Minecraft Realms is a service provided by Microsoft, where you can purchase your own server through Microsoft for a fee. If you’re interested in custom modding your own Minecraft world with friends you will need to pursue a custom server option like the one above or the options below. After that, you can explore with running a Spigot server, which is what we run our Minecraft server on, and it allows a wide variety of plugins - for example, language filters, discord integrations, and a wide variety of other options This part does take quite a bit of research, and you might leave it up to your child to figure out fully.Īt the moment Minecraft Realms does not support mods, but it does have a solid amount of custom games/worlds made by Microsoft and other people who play in Realms. A Vanilla server is simply one that runs the game without major modifications. If you are a parent looking to set your child up with a server for the first time, I’d recommend keeping it “Vanilla”. Prices on Apex are affordable, starting as low as $4.99 a month. If your child is familiar with Minecraft and OP controls, we’d recommend Apex.

They have a control panel that allows adults and kids to pretty easily manage their server, see chat logs, and make whitelists of permitted users.

Our top choice for a paid server is Apex Hosting.

Mods in minecraft realms