Choosing a game for your group's server

The right game for a server is decided by the group, not the game: how many people will play at once, whether they play together on fixed evenings or drop in alone, how much administration someone is willing to do, and what the monthly budget is. For two to ten friends who play together, co-op survival games - Valheim, Terraria, Don't Starve Together, Factorio, Satisfactory, Palworld - give the most for the least effort. For a persistent community of dozens, Minecraft remains the most flexible choice by a distance, with Project Zomboid and Garry's Mod as strong alternatives. For people who want matches rather than a world, Counter-Strike 2 and Team Fortress 2 servers are cheap and need no saves at all. Roleplay on FiveM is the most demanding of everything, in money and time. Match the game's natural group size and play pattern to your group first, then check the cost and the work.

The hardware side - memory, CPU and disk for every game - is in game server requirements by game. This post is about fit.

Start with the group, not the game#

Before comparing games, answer five questions about the people who will play.

1. How many at the same time? Not how many in the Discord - how many online together on a normal evening. Many games are built for a specific number and are worse above it.
2. Together or apart? Some groups always play as a group on set evenings. Others drop in at different times and want the world to have moved on. Persistent-world games suit the second; match-based games need enough people online at once.
3. What platforms? If anyone plays on Xbox or PlayStation, the list shrinks a lot. Cross-play on dedicated servers has the details.
4. Who will run it? Someone has to update the server, handle mods, restore backups and deal with the occasional argument. Some games need an hour a month of that; some need an hour a day.
5. What will it cost each month? Server costs vary by a factor of five or more between games, mainly because of memory. Divide the monthly price by the number of regular players and ask whether that is a reasonable share.

The answers will usually point at a category straight away. The sections below go through each.

Small groups of friends, two to ten players#

Co-op survival and building games are made for this. They have a world that persists, progress shared between friends, and player caps set around small groups.

Prices are the starting monthly price of a RE:NODE plan for that game at the time of writing; check the plan page before relying on them.

A few observations from running these:

• Valheim and Terraria are the safest first servers. Light on resources, cheap, easy to understand, and the worlds last for months. Both have deep mod scenes for when the group wants more. The Valheim guide covers the server end to end.
• Factorio is ideal for groups who play at different times: one person's work in the afternoon is the next person's starting point in the evening. It is also one of the most efficient servers to run for its depth.
• Satisfactory and Palworld need much more memory than their player counts suggest, which is why they cost several times more. Both are excellent; both are expensive for what a small group gets.
• Project Zomboid suits groups who enjoy slow, careful survival and do not mind dying. It scales further than most co-op games and has a big mod scene.
• Don't Starve Together is the most demanding to play and the cheapest to run.

If the group is two or three people who always play together, a server is a convenience rather than a necessity. The cheapest way to host a server for friends goes through when hosting from inside the game is enough.

Persistent communities, ten to a hundred players#

When the group is a community rather than a friend circle - people who do not all know each other, joining and leaving over months - the game has to scale, support permissions and moderation tools, and have a mod or plugin ecosystem that lets you shape it.

Minecraft is the default for a reason. No other game combines its range: vanilla survival, building, minigames, skyblock, roleplay, modded tech progression, all on the same basic server with plugins or mods. Paper and its plugins give you permissions, protection, economies and logging. It runs on modest plans for small communities and scales to proxy networks for large ones. The cost of that flexibility is choice: you have to decide what kind of Minecraft server it is. Paper, Fabric or vanilla and the Minecraft setup guide are the starting points.

Garry's Mod suits communities built around game modes rather than a world: TTT, DarkRP, Prop Hunt, sandbox building. It is cheap to run and lives on the Steam Workshop. The Garry's Mod setup guide covers the server.

Project Zomboid works for survival communities of twenty to fifty with a whitelist and a strong moderation culture. Servers often run for months with seasonal resets.

Unturned is a lighter, free-to-play survival option with RocketMod plugins, which helps when part of the community will not buy a game.

Palworld can host a community up to its slot cap, with the memory bill that comes with it.

For any of these, the community side - rules, staff, Discord, listing - matters as much as the game. Growing a game server community covers it.

Competitive and match-based play#

Some groups do not want a world at all. They want ten-minute rounds, scrims, practice and a scoreboard. Match-based servers are the cheapest to run, need no saves or backups worth speaking of, and are only alive when enough people are online at once.

The catch is population. A competitive server needs ten people at once for a 5v5, and a public community server needs enough regulars that a newcomer finds a game in progress. Small groups are often better served by a private practice server used on scheduled evenings than by trying to keep a public server populated. CS2 competitive match server config covers the scrim setup.

Roleplay, simulation and social servers#

FiveM roleplay is the most popular and the most demanding category. It needs a Cfx.re licence key, a framework, a database, scripts that cost money and time, and a staff team. It suits an organised group that wants to build a community as a project, not friends who want a quick evening. Starting a roleplay server is a realistic look at the work.

Garry's Mod DarkRP is roleplay at a fraction of the effort and cost, with a lower ceiling.

Arma 3 and DayZ suit milsim and hardcore survival groups who are happy to manage missions, mods and Steam Workshop downloads. Both need a Steam login for the server install.

Driving and simulation - Euro Truck Simulator 2 convoys, Assetto Corsa races, BeamMP sessions - suit groups that meet for organised drives and races. Servers are light; the work is in curating content, such as track and car lists, so everyone has the same files.

Skyrim Together and RimWorld multiplayer are niche but well loved by small groups who already play those games heavily, with mod parity as the main headache.

How much running each one takes#

Effort varies far more than cost. A rough guide to the weekly administration time a game needs once it is set up:

Most of the heavy categories are heavy because of mods. A vanilla server in almost any game is a small job; it is the fortieth mod that turns it into a hobby of its own. Plan the mod list with the person who will maintain it.

What can rule a game out#

A few practical constraints decide things before taste does.

• Credentials the server needs. CS2 and Unturned need a Steam game server token; FiveM needs a Cfx.re key; Don't Starve Together needs a Klei token; BeamMP needs an auth key; Arma 3, DayZ, Project Zomboid and 7 Days to Die need a Steam login to install. On RE:NODE these servers are created immediately and the install waits on the Setup tab for the credential. Use a spare Steam account for the ones that need a login.
• Platforms. A group with console players is limited to games with cross-play on dedicated servers.
• Location and latency. Shooters and racing games are sensitive to distance; building games are forgiving. A server in Germany suits players across Europe. Choosing where your server lives covers the rest of the world.
• Memory-hungry games on a small budget. Palworld, Satisfactory, 7 Days to Die and The Isle start at higher tiers because their servers need several gigabytes even when empty.
• Mod requirements on every client. Fine for PC friends, a problem for public servers where newcomers will not install a pack to try you out.

Costs, compared honestly#

Starting prices on RE:NODE at the time of writing range from $3 a month for Terraria and Counter-Strike 1.6 to around $20 for Palworld, Satisfactory, 7 Days to Die and Sons of the Forest. The difference is almost all memory: a Terraria world fits in half a gigabyte, while Satisfactory's smallest sensible server needs eight. How much does a game server cost explains what drives the price and how longer terms change it.

Per player, the picture flattens. A $20 server shared by eight friends is $2.50 each; a $5 server for one person who invited nobody is $5. Choose the game the group will actually play, then pick the smallest plan that runs it well and grow when the graphs say so. Moving up a tier on RE:NODE changes the limits of the server you already have rather than rebuilding it, so starting small costs nothing later.

Try before committing#

The cheapest test is the game itself. Play a session hosted from inside the game, or a co-op invite, before renting anything. If the group plays three evenings in a row, rent a server for a month; if they stop after one, you have saved the money. Monthly billing is more expensive per month than three, six or twelve-month terms, and it is the right choice until the group has proved it will keep playing.

FAQ#

What is the best game for a server with a few friends?

For most small groups, Valheim or Terraria: cheap to run, easy to set up, worlds that last for months, and room for mods later. Factorio is the best choice for groups who play at different times, and Palworld or Satisfactory if the budget allows.

Which game is best for a large public community?

Minecraft, by a wide margin, because it supports almost any style of server and has mature tools for permissions, protection and moderation. Garry's Mod and Project Zomboid are good alternatives for communities built around game modes or survival.

Which games need the most server memory?

Among the games RE:NODE hosts, Palworld, Satisfactory, 7 Days to Die, Sons of the Forest and The Isle need several gigabytes even with few players, so they start at higher tiers. Modded Minecraft and FiveM roleplay also grow large with their mod and script lists.

Can I run more than one game on one server?

Each game server on a panel host is its own server with its own plan. If you want several games on one machine, a VDS with your own setup does that at the cost of doing the administration yourself; multiple game servers on one VDS covers the approach.

Is a server worth it for only two players?

Often not, if both of you always play together and one machine can host. A server pays off when you play at different times, when the host's computer struggles, or when the world should not depend on one person being online.

How do I choose between two games the group likes equally?

Pick the one with the lower administration effort and the lower memory needs, run it for a month, and see whether people keep logging in. The best server game is the one the group still plays in week six.