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Based in March 2013, Shockbyte’s mission assertion has been to supply “premium providers at unbeatable costs” and it largely meets these lofty targets. The Australian-based firm is now one of many longest-running Minecraft server internet hosting suppliers. Whereas it’s expanded its providers to different video games equivalent to Undertaking Zomboid, ARK: Survival Developed and — most not too long ago — Palworld, Minecraft is the massive one right here and the one we reviewed.
Promising 13 server places scattered world wide, 24/7 buyer assist, 100% uptime, full FTP entry, and assist for just about each mod you’ll be able to consider, Shockbyte sounds fairly irresistible on paper. With a watch on whether or not it could possibly be one of many best Minecraft server hosting suppliers, right here’s how we discovered the Shockbyte expertise from setup to enjoying on the server.
Plans and pricing
Shockbyte provides 12 completely different plans, plus a customized plan if in case you have particular wants. All of the plans supply 24/7 buyer assist, 100% uptime, full FTP entry, DDoS safety, and full mod assist. The place plans differ is how a lot RAM they provide in addition to the variety of participant slots. There’s good selection right here with the choice to improve any time as wanted. To assist clients know what to purchase beginning out, Shockbyte additionally has just a few really useful plans for sure wants equivalent to greatest for modding or the newest model.
The most cost effective plan is the Filth plan with 1GB RAM and eight participant slots at $2.50 per 30 days. That ramps as much as the Titan plan at $40 per 30 days with 16GB of RAM and limitless participant slots with a 300 suggestion. Reductions can be found for committing to quarterly, six month-to-month, or annual plans.
Such a reduction means the Filth plan drops to only $22.50 for the 12 months which works out as glorious worth for teaming up along with your mates on a personal server. All servers use NVMe SSDs with limitless disk area and bandwidth. Deciding which plan to purchase largely comes all the way down to what number of gamers you count on to play directly and RAM concerns.
Shockbyte provides a 72 hour refund coverage so there’s simply sufficient time to check issues out for those who’ve made a mistake along with your wants. Cost is accepted by way of credit score or debit card together with PayPal and Paymentwall strategies. Whereas signing up, you’ll be able to select so as to add on a most well-liked location, buy a devoted IP, and organize server administration choices, all for a payment. Meaning the value can enhance a good bit relying on what you want with options like a devoted IP costing $5 per 30 days whereas server administration prices $15 per 30 days. Whereas the associated fee can ramp up, a minimum of it’s pretty clearly laid out so that you all the time know what you’re paying for and why.
Ease of use
Beginning out with a Minecraft server with Shockbyte is fairly speedy. When you wrap up the buying course of, you’re given two username/password combos. One is for the consumer aspect of issues whereas the opposite is for the management panel. Entry to the latter can then be shared with different customers who you wish to have management over issues, though you’ll have to get in contact with assist to get it arrange.
The opening a part of the control panel has you ready to decide on the server sort you need. A close to by no means ending selection of Bedrock or Java server varieties can be found with suggestions highlighted.
On the left hand aspect is the extra advanced set of choices in addition to the very best methods to watch your server. Chat and console are pretty self explanatory with the latter a great way of dipping in to test all is nicely.
Dive into the Recordsdata part and that’s the place issues get slightly extra sophisticated. The Config Recordsdata part provides server settings equivalent to if you wish to arrange whitelisting, change the sport mode or issue, in addition to disable or restrict numerous settings. It’s clearly laid out with drop-down packing containers permitting you to rapidly change issues. The responsiveness is quick with the vast majority of actions not requiring a server restart though Shockbyte recommends doing so as soon as a day.
If you wish to add any modpacks or plugins, the Shockbyte interface is simple to use. There are quite a lot of plugins to select from whereas you should utilize full FTP entry so as to add something that hasn’t already been considered. Once more, including from the plugin listing is simple and takes moments. It’s all designed in a means that makes the method so simple as potential, even for those who don’t have prior server admin expertise.
For these customers who do have extra superior expertise, there’s an appropriately titled Superior tab too. Right here, you’ll be able to arrange instructions, scheduled duties, add further ports, startup parameters and MySQL databases. It’s fairly complete stuff meaning Shockbyte is pretty good at catering for each novice customers that merely need the fundamentals proper as much as those that know precisely what they’re doing.
Velocity and expertise
Shockbyte provides servers throughout Europe, North America, Singapore and Australia, with the latter two requiring an extra cost every month. The Minecraft server I used was primarily based in Europe, very similar to myself, and I discovered the ping to be fairly dependable. A gentle 30-35 ping meant no points with lag and that continued whereas including gamers to the server.
As promised by Shockbyte, there was no downtime both with the Minecraft server all the time able to go. It’s a dependable pressure for normal gamers.
Throughout my time enjoying on the server and gathering collectively some pals, the expertise didn’t dip in high quality. Every day restarts and never cramming the server with mods and plugins is bound to assist right here however as a common, normal Minecraft expertise, it really works nicely out of the digital field. That’s additionally the place the extent of ease concerned in including or eradicating mods, in addition to merely restarting the server actually helps maintain issues ticking alongside healthily.
Help
Help is two-fold with a ticketing system and intensive tutorials. The tutorials are the true standout right here. It seems like there’s a YouTube video for actually the whole lot you may presumably want whereas establishing a Minecraft server. A full playlist is out there or you’ll be able to dip in for particular person queries. Every tutorial is clearly laid out and not than it needs to be. Whether or not you merely want steerage on which server sort to select from otherwise you wish to set spawns, handle whitelists, or learn the way scheduled duties can profit you, it’s lined right here with no padded out filler.
It’s a really helpful useful resource with issues backed up by a Data Base which solutions many queries, adopted by direct assist. Once I contacted assist by sending off a ticket, I used to be impressed to get a response inside an hour. The observe up, nonetheless, took a good whereas longer. Cynically, paying helps. It’s potential to pay $3 to bump your ticket to the entrance of the queue which feels slightly unsavoury however alternatively, Shockbyte is fairly low cost elsewhere.
Speaking of funds, it’s additionally potential to pay $15 per 30 days for the corporate to handle your server together with controlling and establishing mods and plugins. With the various tutorials accessible, it’s hardly essential for most individuals but it surely could possibly be helpful when beginning out.
Ultimate verdict
Shockbyte is a superb worth technique to snap up a Minecraft server that isn’t a lot problem to arrange and preserve. Ideally fitted to novices but additionally anybody who needs to maintain prices down, you may get straight on with establishing your Minecraft server fairly rapidly, proper all the way down to putting in some mods or plugins with out having to delve too deeply.
The place issues falter is a bit, is the added prices and occasional assist quibbles. Somewhat inconsistent with pace isn’t a dealbreaker for everybody in terms of needing help from assist and the YouTube movies actually assist, however for those who run into a significant drawback, feeling obliged to pay an additional $3 will grate.
Equally, added prices for options like a devoted IP or server administration are clear however one thing to concentrate on when totting up the precise worth you’ll be paying.
Neither of those points will have an effect on everybody although and for probably the most half, Shockbyte works nicely. Its 100% uptime and speedy servers imply you and your mates will simply be capable of take part at any time with none issues. It matches properly into that ‘it simply works’ mentality that everybody appreciates about know-how. It additionally makes the method much more accessible than server administration ever was up to now.