How to host a Minecraft server on DigitalOcean (2026)

1Which Droplet

Minecraft runs the world on one core, so a fast core and enough memory matter most. DigitalOcean's Basic Droplets with Premium AMD cores have NVMe disks and faster cores than its Regular ones, for a few dollars more a month. The sizing guide works out what your group needs; this is the size it picks for each group.

Prices on 28 Sep 2026, before tax. Droplets are billed by the hour, up to these monthly prices.

2Create the Droplet

1. 1

   Create › Droplets

   In DigitalOcean's control panel.

2. 2

   Pick the region nearest your friends

   DigitalOcean has datacenters in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Closer means lower ping.

3. 3

   Pick Ubuntu 24.04 (LTS) x64

   Then Basic, CPU options Premium AMD, and the size from the table.

4. 4

   Add your SSH key or a root password

   Then Create Droplet. Its IP address shows once it's up.

Playkeeper also runs on Ubuntu 20.04–26.04, Debian 12–13, the RHEL family 9+ or Amazon Linux 2023, on x86_64 or 64-bit ARM. Droplets are x86_64.

3Open the ports

A Droplet has no Cloud Firewall until you add one, and a Cloud Firewall blocks everything you haven't allowed. Networking › Firewalls › Create Firewall: keep its SSH rule, add these as inbound rules for All IPv4 and All IPv6, then apply it to your Droplet.

If ufw or firewalld runs on the Droplet itself, the installer allows 8443, 25565 and 80 there for you.

4Run the one command

Log in as root over SSH, or in the Droplet Console, and run:

1. 1

   It checks the VPS first

   Then it lists every change it will make, and how to undo it, before it asks to go ahead.

2. 2

   Open the link it prints

   https://your-ip:8443/setup with a one-time code, good for 24 hours. The browser warns about the certificate: continue only if the fingerprint it shows matches the one the installer printed.

3. 3

   Create your admin account

   Then your first server: the newest Paper, with memory picked for how you'll play. Change picks others.

5A free address for your friends

Machine settings › Address gives the Droplet a free yourname.playkeeper.me name with a real certificate: the browser warning goes away, and friends join at a name instead of an IP address. Then New invite link on a server's Players tab: a friend opens it, types their Minecraft name and is on the allowlist.

6Keep copies off the Droplet

World › Backup rules › Copies somewhere else encrypts every backup on the Droplet, then sends it to S3-compatible storage or to another machine over SFTP. DigitalOcean's Spaces is S3-compatible, from $5 a month for 250 GiB: pick Other S3-compatible storage and enter its endpoint, like https://ams3.digitaloceanspaces.com, the bucket and an access key. A copy at another company, such as Backblaze B2 or Cloudflare R2 (both have presets), also survives a problem with your DigitalOcean account. Keep the recovery key somewhere other than the Droplet.

7What it costs

Playkeeper and its playkeeper.me address are free; the Droplet is the only bill. For 5–10 friends on Vanilla or Paper, a Premium AMD Droplet with 2 vCPU and 8 GB is $42 a month, billed by the hour (prices on 28 Sep 2026). DigitalOcean's own backups of the whole Droplet are optional, at 20% more a month for weekly ones. A new account starts with a $5 credit for 90 days.