We handle the servers. You handle the fun.

No. Everything happens in your web browser, and you never touch a settings file, a command line, or your home router.

You choose a game and a size, and we handle the rest — installing it, keeping it running, and giving you an address to share. If you can join a friend's server, you can run one here.

Minecraft — both Java and Bedrock editions — several ready-made Minecraft modpacks, Valheim, and Project Zomboid, with more being added.

The games page has the current list, and each game has its own page showing what it costs to run and what you can change about it.

You pay for the hours your server actually runs. There's no monthly subscription, no minimum, and no contract to get out of — a server that ran for three hours this month costs you three hours.

We add up what you've used at the end of each calendar month and charge your saved card once, for that total. You can see what you've run up so far at any point in your account.

Almost entirely, and this is the one thing worth understanding properly. Stopping a server stops the expensive part — the computing power it uses while people are playing.

What carries on is a much smaller charge for keeping your world saved and waiting for you. That's the trade: your world is still there next weekend, and you're paying a little to hold onto it rather than paying to run a server nobody is using.

If you want a server to cost you nothing at all, delete it. Download your world first if you might want it back — deleting is final.

Yes, and your world is not affected. Server size is just how much power it's given to run with — bigger costs more per hour and copes with more players or heavier modpacks.

So you don't have to get it right first time. Start with the size we suggest for your game, and if it feels sluggish with everyone online, move it up. If you've gone quiet, move it down and pay less.

Three ways, and all of them reach us. Our Discord is usually the quickest for "how do I" questions, because other players answer too. There's a contact form that asks the right follow-up questions for whatever's gone wrong, so we're not stuck emailing you back for basics. And you can always just email help@aki-labs.com.

Whichever you use, tell us the name of the server and roughly when the trouble started — that's normally enough for us to go and look at it before we reply.