How to Host a Vintage Story Dedicated Server

If you've been playing Vintage Story solo for a while, there's a good chance you've hit that point where you want to share your world with friends. Maybe you've finally figured out bronze casting and you want to show off your setup, or maybe you just want someone else around when the temporal storms roll in. Either way, you're going to need a dedicated server.

I've helped a lot of people set up Vintage Story servers over the years, so let me walk you through what's actually involved – and help you figure out whether to run one yourself or let someone else handle it.

Why You Want a Dedicated Server (Not Just "Open to LAN")

Vintage Story has a built-in multiplayer option where you can open your singleplayer world to LAN or direct connections. That works fine for a quick session, but it falls apart pretty fast if you're trying to run anything ongoing.

The big one is crops. Vintage Story has realistic seasons, and your crops need time to grow. If the server only runs when you're playing, your farm is basically frozen in time whenever you log off. Same deal with temporal storms – they're on a cycle, and that cycle only advances when the server is ticking.

A dedicated server runs 24/7. Your friends in different timezones can hop on whenever they want. Your crops grow while you sleep. The world feels alive.

There's also the practical side – when you host from your own game client, your PC is doing double duty running both the client and the server. Vintage Story's custom engine is pretty well optimised, but once you start adding mods, that overhead adds up.

Self-Hosting: What You're Getting Into

You absolutely can run a Vintage Story server on your own hardware. It's not the hardest game server to set up. But let me be honest about what's involved.

Hardware requirements. The base server needs around 1 GB of RAM, plus roughly 300 MB per player you expect online at once. That sounds modest, but mods change the equation fast. I've seen modded servers with 10+ mods comfortably eating 4-6 GB. You also need an SSD – this became basically mandatory since version 1.20. The world generation and chunk loading hammers the disk, and running on a spinning drive will give you awful chunk loading times.

Network stuff. You'll need to forward port 42420 (both TCP and UDP) on your router. If you've never done port forwarding before, it's not terrible, but it varies wildly by router model and ISP. Some ISPs use CGNAT, which means port forwarding straight up won't work without calling them. You'll also want a static IP or a dynamic DNS service, otherwise your friends' server address breaks every time your IP changes.

Uptime and maintenance. If your PC restarts, the server goes down. Power outage? Server's down. Windows update at 3 AM? Your friend in Australia just got kicked mid-temporal storm. You'll also need to handle your own backups, updates, and crash recovery.

Security. Running a public-facing server on your home network is a thing you should think carefully about. You're exposing a port to the internet through your home IP address.

None of this is insurmountable. If you've got a spare Linux box, decent upload speed, and you enjoy tinkering with this stuff, go for it. But if any of that sounds like a headache, renting is the better call.

What to Look For in a Host

Not all game server hosts are created equal. Here's what actually matters for Vintage Story specifically.

RAM-based pricing. Vintage Story's resource usage scales mainly with RAM – player count and mods both push it up. A host that charges based on allocated RAM lets you pick the right tier for your setup. If you're running vanilla with 3-4 friends, you don't need to pay for a beefy plan. If you're running 20 mods with 15 players, you need room to scale up.

SSD storage. Non-negotiable since v1.20. Any host still putting game servers on HDDs in 2026 is behind the times. World saves can get large too, especially if your players like to explore, so check what storage is included.

Mod support. This is where a lot of generic hosts fall short. Vintage Story has over 5,000 mods on mods.vintagestory.at and being able to install them easily is a big deal. Some hosts give you a panel with curated mod lists, which saves a ton of time versus manually uploading files.

Automatic backups. World corruption can happen. Crashes can happen. Mods can conflict and break things. If your host doesn't do automatic backups, you're one bad update away from losing everything.

DDoS protection. If your server is public or even semi-public, you'll want this. It's one of those things you don't think about until someone decides to be a nuisance.

Getting Started with LOW.MS

We tick all those boxes, so let me walk you through how it actually works.

First, head to our Vintage Story server page and pick a plan based on how much RAM you need. If you're not sure, start smaller – you can always upgrade later without losing your world.

Once your order goes through, your server spins up pretty much immediately. You'll get an IP address and port (42420 is the default for Vintage Story). Pop that into the multiplayer server browser in-game – Direct Connect, paste in yourip:42420, and you're in.

Your server management happens through the LOW.MS Control Panel. From there you've got everything you need:

• Web Console for running commands without being in-game
• Configuration Files for tweaking server settings (I'll cover the important ones in my settings guide)
• Mod Manager for browsing and installing curated mods with a few clicks
• File Manager for direct access to your server files when you need it
• Cloud Backup and Cloud Restore for peace of mind
• Scheduled Tasks for automating restarts or backups on a timer

Basic Admin Setup

Once you're connected to your fresh server, there are a few things worth doing straight away.

Give yourself admin privileges. In the server console (either in-game if you're the first player, or through Web Console in the panel), run:

/op YourPlayerName

This gives you full admin access. You can then use /rolepriv commands to set up permissions for other players if you want different access levels.

Set a server name and description that'll show up in the server browser:

/serverconfig name "My Vintage Story Server"
/serverconfig description "Survival with friends"

If you want a private server, set a password:

/serverconfig password YourPassword

Beyond that, I'd recommend playing for a bit on default settings before you start tweaking things. The defaults are honestly pretty solid for small groups. When you're ready to dig into configuration, check out my server settings guide for the stuff that actually matters.

And if you're planning to run mods – which, let's be real, you probably are – have a look at my best server mods list for some good starting points. There's also a more detailed walkthrough in our getting started knowledgebase article if you want step-by-step instructions.

Running a Vintage Story server is one of those things that's way more rewarding than it sounds on paper. There's something genuinely great about logging in to find your friends have been busy building, farming, and stockpiling supplies while you were away. Temporal storms hit different when there's a group of you huddled in a base together.