Palworld has taken the online gaming world by storm since its launch in January 2024. Since then, many of us have been keen to capture as many Pals as possible while teaming up with our mates. To get the most benefit from your multiplayer experience, it makes sense to set up a dedicated server so 32 of you can play together without any hassle.
The best dedicated server can offer some options but it’s a smart move to seek out the very best Palworld server hosting around to enjoy a secure experience, as well as one that’s as lag-free as possible and plenty of fun too.
If you’ve already used some of the best Minecraft server hosting, you’ll notice familiar names here with many services expanding to the latest craze of Palworld.
As with Minecraft, you need to consider factors like RAM, bandwidth, storage, and vCPUs before committing to a Palworld server. Many Palworld server hosts focus on player slots over the RAM available, unlike with Minecraft and other games, but it’s useful to have some extra hardware guidance. To help you narrow things down, we’ve checked them all out to find out what’s best for your needs and your budget.
Below, we’ve picked the best Palworld servers, evaluating speed, DDoS protection, security, reliability, and uptime guarantee.
Top 3 best Palworld server hosts in 2024
Best Palworld server hosting services 2024 in full
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Best Palworld host overall
Shockbyte has a reliable reputation as one of the best specialist game server providers. With a penchant for Minecraft along with Ark: Survival Evolved, Rust, and many others, it’s jumped on the Palworld bandwagon.
The service currently offers two plans -- Lamball and Grizzbolt. Lamball offers 12 player slots for $12 per month while Grizzbolt is $20 per month for 32 player slots. Prices decrease the longer you commit for so you could pay as little as the equivalent of $9 per month for Lamball.
Whichever plan you choose, you get DDoS protection, unlimited bandwidth, NVMe storage, a 100% network uptime guarantee, and 24/7 support. Support can be a little slow at times but there are extensive tutorials to cut down on your need for it.
When ordering, you can choose a server location that works for you (with some incurring an additional cost) as well as adjust the CPU priority.
Read our Shockbyte review
Best high-end Palworld hosting
Expensive it might be, but ApexHosting is an ideal choice if you have lofty plans for your Palworld server. 11 different packages are available with up to 32GB of RAM available if you can afford it. Said plan costs $77.99 for the first month before rising to $103.99 but there are cheaper plans too starting from $16.87 for the first month.
In all cases, up to 32 player slots are available, there’s full DDoS protection, automated backups, and one click installers for those new to server admin. A free subdomain is also bundled in while you can pay extra for premium support.
ApexHosting looks a little basic at first but it has all the essentials you could need. Pivotally, the company has extensive game server hosting experience with many other game servers available such as Valheim, Minecraft, Rust, and other major titles, so it’s good at keeping up with modern trends.
Read our ApexHosting review
Best for customization
Fairly affordable and offering plenty of flexibility, G-Portal is a good bet particularly for those seeking a smaller plan. 30 days of four slots for you and a few friends costs $5.14 for the month, with the price steadily increasing to $36.64 for 32 slots for a month.
More conveniently, you can pick a server location, as well as adjust how many slots you need. While Palworld only allows for up to 32 players, it’s useful if there’s a different number in between 4 and 32 that you need. It’s even possible to sign up to just three days for a quick burst of playing.
Unusually, G-Portal isn’t forthcoming about server details but it generally offers a reliable service and servers are available quickly. It also performs particularly well when it comes to customer service thanks to speedy support. For a cheap and flexible option, G-Portal is pretty good even if its website isn’t always the clearest.
Best simple Palworld host
There’s an instantly warm approach to Scalacube which makes it highly accessible for newcomers to server management. There’s only a choice of three plans but they’re laid out in a straightforward manner with player slots of either 12, 24, or the maximum 32 that can play Palworld on one server right now. Then, it’s a matter of picking a server location and opting whether to purchase a dedicated IP or stick with a free subdomain instead. Prices range from $12 per month for the most basic plan ramping up to $22 for 32 player slots.
Such simplicity continues throughout the Scalacube experience. The custom control panel is easy to use while there’s uptime guaranteed 24/7 along with support available at all hours of the day.
Mod support means you can set up a more varied server than standard and it’s simple to implement too. Automatic backups can be established for a fee or you can choose to keep on top of it yourself.
Read our ScalaCube review
Best premium Palworld hosting
BisectHosting is one of the pricier Palworld server hosting companies around but it offers a lot of different plans. All plans offer instant setup, 24/7 support, DDoS protection, automated updates, and plenty of server locations. The cheapest plan is $29.99 with 10GB of RAM with the price steadily increasing to $53.78 for 22GB of RAM.
Not sure where to begin? Reassuringly, BisectHosting will guide you once you enter a few details in like how many players you want to be on the server at once along with where the server should be located.
A recommendation is given but you can always downgrade or upgrade. At all times, your server is simple to manage with Bisect Hosting thanks to a control panel that’s clearly laid out. It doesn’t take long to figure out what each option does and the constant support helps when there’s a gap in your knowledge.
- If you're torn between two Minecraft server hosts, check out our detailed comparison of ScalaCube vs Shockbyte.
- Sign up for ScalaCube Minecraft server hosting
Best Palworld server hosting free trial
Refreshingly, Nodecraft has a free trial with all its plans. It’s only 24 hours long but it’s a reasonable starting point and it doesn’t affect the fairly generous seven day money-back guarantee. The 24 hours gives you the chance to see if the custom control panel appeals to you. It’s a little complicated for novices but it’s powerful and offers all you could need.
The cheapest plan -- Nano -- costs $9.98 per month and provides 2GB of RAM, 10GB of SSD storage and 20GB of cloud backups. The premium plan -- Omega -- increases that to 8GB of RAM, 40GB of SSD storage, and 80GB of cloud storage. All the plans come with unlimited player slots, automation, one click installer, and a free subdomain and dedicated IP.
That all makes for a fairly tempting bunch of features. The control panel gets a little complex but looks super stylish. Spend some time with it and you’ll be just fine but bear in mind that some prior experience definitely helps here.
What is a Palworld server?
A Palworld server is effectively any server you connect to for playing the game. However, there are some distinctions. A community server is publicly listed for anyone to share and join. A dedicated one with a dedicated IP is a private one for just you and your friends. Dedicated servers can only be set up on the Steam version of the game, not the Xbox game.
You don’t actually need to sign up for a Palworld server host as you can host it directly from your PC but it can be demanding on your hardware, more complicated than using a host, and less convenient too.
What’s the minimum requirement for a Palworld server?
The absolute minimum requirements are a dual-core CPU, 8GB of RAM, and enough storage space for an installation. In reality, more is more. If you want more than two players to play online at once, your PC will feel the strain with the bare minimum spec. 16GB or 32GB of RAM is a much better number to aim for, along with a quad-core processor.
Palworld server hosting pros and cons
Finding the best Palworld server for your needs involves some trade-offs. You can set one up for yourself through your PC, but it requires more knowledge than signing up for a host, and potentially opens you up to security risks.
Alongside those security risks and the chances of a breach if you use your own connection, your bandwidth will suffer too and you may struggle to use your connection for anything other than your Palworld server, unless you’re exceptionally lucky.
That’s why it makes sense to use game server hosting as the third-party manages the hardware logistics for you and often automates much of the trickier processes. The downside being that you’ll have to pay a monthly fee for the pleasure.
How to choose the best Palworld server hosting service for you
Wondering what to look for in a Palworld server hosting service? The process isn’t as complex as you might think. Here’s an overview of what to keep an eye on.
Hardware: Many Palworld server hosts advertise how many player slots they can cater for rather than processing power, but you can still look out for RAM and CPU allocations. All these specs help contribute to the best experience.
Pricing: Palworld servers vary wildly in price, especially while they’re fairly new. None are exceptionally cheap but it’s good to shop around, and be aware that sometimes, you get what you pay for. Also, consider how advanced a plan you really need for your aims.
Easy setup and support: Setting up a Palworld server isn’t as easy as loading a game but it doesn’t have to be complicated either. Look for a Palworld server host with a strong reputation for being simple to set up and, ideally, one with great support that responds efficiently.
