Terraria Server Hosting (2021)
Last updated: April 10, 2021
Jason Lawrence
To date I have tested 18 different providers to see who can really deliver the best Terraria Server Hosting.
If you want to privately host your own Terraria server then you have many choices of companies to pick from. Some of the companies are new and some are well established but it’s hard to tell when building a great-looking website is so easy nowadays.
I have set out to create this website to solve that very problem after having to switch between 3 different providers before I was happy.
You can see my basic process in the sidebar to the left (if you are on a desktop), it involves testing 18 different companies and summarising the top 8 below.
I rented a basic package from each, tested the performance of that server and queried the support staff to measure response time and helpfulness.
What do I look for in a Terraria server hosting company?
In order to rank these providers properly, I set up a spreadsheet that you can access and see as I update it.
In that spreadsheet, you can see the results from testing with real purchases, as I work through my process with each.
I and my friends from across Europe and North America connect to each server to test for lag and issues.
Then using these scores I rank the companies and summarise the top 8 Terraria server providers on this page below.
What are the most important things you should look for?
- The total cost per month
- The ease of setting it up
- Performance of your server under load
- Adding mods to your server
- The support-ticket waiting time
- Extra features in control panel
Who Are The 8 Best Terraria Server Hosting Companies?
Let’s jump straight into my findings, here are my top 8 Terraria server hosting providers listed with a summary of what I thought of them.
LOW.MS - The Cheapest Terraria Host
Ranks #1 of 8 Terraria hosts
The Positives
Team made up of experienced members who had left a different provider
A large catalogue of niche games
Competitively priced
The Negatives
A fairly new company
Control Panel
Video Tour Image SlideshowA relatively new game hosting company made up of founders and staff from another successful provider, LOW.MS has hit the ground running.
They have managed to create a huge catalog of games that they provider servers for with Terraria being one of them.
The support tickets I sent to test them out were answered in minutes, plus they were answered thoroughly to ensure I don’t make the same mistakes again.
I and my friends experienced zero lag on the server we tested, the game loaded beautifully and didn’t experience jitters at all.
The only letdown for this company is the possible server locations, though if you are in Europe, America or Australia you are fine.
They price themselves at the lower end of the market, amazing really when I consider how fast my server and the support was
GameServers.com - The Best Established Terraria Host
Ranks #2 of 8 Terraria hosts
The Positives
Back by a huge data-center company
Host lots of different games
Provide hosting directly to game companies
Possibly the oldest game hosting company
Servers in every region
They don't pay for their Truspilot account
The Negatives
High price compared to others
Outdated website
Control Panel
Video Tour Image SlideshowGameServers.com is the game hosting wing of a huge data-center and website hosting company with some clever people behind the scenes. They have been hosting games for individual clients and game publishers since the start of this century.
The prices of their game servers are on the higher end of the scale but they do have a strong platform, support team and relationships with the gaming companies.
Support, server maintenance and billing are all easy enough to navigate your way through but aesthetically have not aged well. They could do with a bit of a redesign as they are not selling their premium product very well at all.
Host Havoc - The Best Budget Host
Ranks #3 of 8 Terraria hosts
The Positives
Dynamic and friendly team
Focus on providing an amazing service for a few games
Value for money feature-ful game hosting
The Negatives
Relatively new provider compared to others on list
Less locations worldwide
Control Panel
Video Tour Image SlideshowA great all-round game hosting company with a friendly team who are focused on providing great support for a smaller number of games. The guys at Host Havoc were more than helpful and were very competitive compared to the others on this list.
My test Terraria server was fast and the control panel was easy to navigate through. Everything was set up quickly after I had purchased with no troubles.
I was able to pay with PayPal (massively important when paying for subscriptions online) and luckily I live in Europe so they had a data-center nearby for me to host my server.
They are known for hosting a lot of other sandbox/creative games like Space Engineers and have the experience to back these servers up with quality support and features.
GTX Gaming - The Best BIG Terraria Host
Ranks #4 of 8 Terraria hosts
The Positives
Experienced UK based team
Cover almost every game
Loads of server locations
The Negatives
Some regions require additional fee
Control Panel
Image SlideshowA UK-based game hosting company that seems to host every game imaginable at a competitive rate, GTX Gaming has a great Terraria server offering at an attractive price.
They aren’t the cheapest but seem to sit somewhere in the middle of the price range when compared to other providers on this list.
The checkout process was simple and allowed to even pay in Bitcoin! With lots of server locations to choose from I was able to get a European server close to my locations. If you do live outside of the EU or the USA then it seems you have to pay a bit of a premium, so check that during your own research.
Support was quick and helped me out when I send some test requests to them, as is expected from the price paid.
Ping Perfect - The Best UK Terraria Host
Ranks #5 of 8 Terraria hosts
The Positives
Support a community of Twitchers
Wide range of games
Lots of global locations
The Negatives
Support was a little slow
Looking at PingPerfect’s website you wouldn’t think much of these guys as it’s a little outdated. The game hosting that they provide though is of good quality and they got back promptly when queried with support questions when tested by myself.
The pricing was in the middle of the road compared to other hosts I tested but they do have a vast catalog of games that they provide private dedicated servers for though. This is handy just in case mid-month you get bored of Garry’s Mod and want to switch your server to a different game, maybe Minecraft if you are a big crafting fan.
You are able to pay with the usual payment methods, keeping things safe with PayPal as I recommend to many people.
Streamline Servers - The Best Global Terraria Host
Ranks #6 of 8 Terraria hosts
The Positives
Passionate about server performance
The Negatives
Usually pretty expensive
A company that is proud of its quest for serious server power, Streamline Servers offer some amazingly powerful Terraria servers. These guys aren’t on the expensive side of the spectrum either, with quite competitive prices, even for the smaller packages.
The support wasn’t that quick when I tested it but they did come back and help me out completely which is what I was left happy with. I fired 3 test support tickets at them and they knew the answers to all of them, it does seem like they know their system inside and out.
The other great thing about Streamline Servers is that they have loads of global locations for your Terraria server to operate from. They offer locations in the usual regions as well as the rarer ones like Asia and Africa.
GameHosting.co - Best Niche Specialist Terraria Host
Ranks #7 of 8 Terraria hosts
The Positives
Niche game provider
The Negatives
Not as established as bigger companies
I ignored the shady reviews left on their Trustpilot page and tried GameHosting.co for myself.
The service wasn’t as bad as some of them make out but then a lot of the aggression tends to lean towards the VPS packages the company offers, nothing to do with the game servers I’m testing.
The control panel was a bit clunky but my server was smooth when testing Terraria on it.
The support tickets took a while to get back but at least the support staff were friendly and knew their stuff about the game.
Unfortunately, they are lacking in data-center locations, not really a problem if you are in the EU or USA.
Nodecraft - Best Free Trial Terraria Host
Ranks #8 of 8 Terraria hosts
The Positives
Niche game provider
Large catalogue
The Negatives
Confusing pricing
With a beautiful custom website and control panel, I found my time testing Nodecraft pleasant.
It seems this provider offers some great features but you do have to pay a slight premium for them.
All in all considering the speed of my server and the support getting back to me I would say that they are good value for money.
What’s great about Nodecraft as well is, they offer many locations for your server to live all around the world, bringing down pings and reducing lag.
What about the other 10 providers?
I haven’t included the complete 18 providers on this page to keep it simple.
You can however see how they contended with the 8 above in my spreadsheet here, they have scoring and data to go with them too.
Really, you only need to look at the top 5 in this list to make a sensible decision in my opinion.
Important Terraria Hosting Features
Before choosing a provider above make sure you have checked to see if they have these important features as standard.
I cover more features in my Choosing a Terraria Hosting Provider guide but these are the most important 2.
Backups
There is nothing worse than logging onto a server to find that weeks of your creative work have been flushed away.
You never know what is going to happen, hardware or human error can cause data losses and backups are paramount with Terraria servers.
Mod Support
Terraria on its own is a great game but a lot of gamers like to mod their version and having that ability on your server is important.
Most companies have a built-in tool on their control panel but are sure to check before you hand over your cash.
What Next?
I hope that the above list of the best Terraria server hosting companies was useful, it took a lot of effort to put this site together so I hope it was worth it!
Don’t forget to research the companies thoroughly first and check reviews and videos of the control panel if they are available so you know what you are letting yourselves in for.
Now that you have found your ideal server hosting provider be sure to check out my guide on how to promote your new Terraria world to other people. It’s no good having an awesome server all to yourself!
My Hosting Review Process:
1. Find 18 popular Terraria Server Hosting providers
2. Buy a basic package and set it up
3. Run speed tests on server
4. Compare the features vs. cost
My Choices For Terraria Hosting
