Draft. The sizes, prices and settings below are generated from this game's own configuration and are accurate. The wording around them is still being reviewed, so this page isn't listed in search yet.
All games / RimWorld
RimWorld server hosting
Your colonies run on your own PCs. The server keeps the planet you share.
About RimWorld on Instances
RimWorld has no multiplayer of its own. RimWorld Together adds it, as a mod everyone installs: each of you runs your own colony on one shared planet, and you trade, raid and send each other aid across it.
None of that colony simulation happens on the server. It keeps the planet — saves, maps, settlements, the marketplace — and passes along what you do to each other, which makes it one of the lightest servers we run. The sizes are built around what little it does do.
Four sizes, and why
Prices are for London; other regions differ by up to a quarter. You can change size later without starting a new world.
-
Small · 1-8 Players
$0.05/hour
- vCPU
- 0.5
- Memory
- 2 GB
A group of friends sharing a planet. Half a vCPU is plenty, because every colony runs on its own player's PC.
-
Medium · 9-20 Players
$0.08/hour
- vCPU
- 1
- Memory
- 3 GB
A bigger group, up to twenty — the player limit a new server starts with.
-
Large · 21-50 Players
$0.14/hour
- vCPU
- 2
- Memory
- 4 GB
A community server. This many people connected at once is where a second vCPU earns its keep.
-
Community · 51-100 Players
$0.15/hour
- vCPU
- 2
- Memory
- 6 GB
A public server, up to the hundred-player limit. The same two vCPU as Large, with more memory for more saves moving at once.
How we picked them
- Nothing is simulated on the server. Each player's game runs their own colony, and the server stores saves and maps and relays trades, raids, aid and chat between players. That is why the smallest size is half a vCPU.
- Processor use follows how many people are connected, not what they are doing. The server checks every open connection about a thousand times a second, whether anything has arrived or not, so a hundred idle players are a real load. It also zips every colony into a backup each hour, which takes longer the more colonies there are.
- Past two vCPU it gets worse, not better. In our tests the same hundred idle connections cost twice as much spread over four cores as over two, so the largest size stops at two vCPU and adds memory instead.
- Memory follows the saves in flight. A colony's save and map cross the server whole, held in memory while they are stored or sent on, and a modded late-game colony makes a big save. Each size leaves room for many at once, such as everyone saving on their way out.
What you can change
Set from the instance's configuration page. The limits below are the ones the server actually enforces — they're read from its own schema.
| Setting | What it does | Accepts |
|---|---|---|
| Server name | How the server appears in the in-game browser and the player list. | 4–32 characters |
| Port | The TCP port players connect on. Leave it be unless you have a reason not to. | 1024–65535 |
| Password | Everyone joining needs it; leave it empty for an open server. A new server starts with one, because whoever joins first creates the world and becomes its admin. | Up to 32 characters |
| Player limit | How many can be connected at once. Someone still logging in counts. | 1–100 |
| List publicly | Lists the server in RimWorld Together's in-game browser, so players can find it without the address. Listing sends RimWorld Together's own service the server's name, address, player names and mods. | On or off |
| Description | Shown beside the server in the browser, if it's listed. | Up to 128 characters |
| Discord link | An invite to your Discord, shown beside the server in the browser. | Up to 256 characters |
| Workshop link | A Steam Workshop link to the server's mods, shown beside the server in the browser. | Up to 256 characters |
| Server image | An image for the server's listing in the browser. | Up to 256 characters |
| Message of the day | Sent to each player as they join. Leave it empty for none. | Up to 128 characters |
| Join and leave messages | Posts in chat as each player joins or leaves. | On or off |
| Server saves only | Players always resume from the server's copy of their colony, even if they have their own, so an edited or older save can't be brought back. | On or off |
| Raids | Lets players raid another player's colony, fought on the copy of its map the server keeps. | On or off |
| Events | Lets players set off events in another player's colony while its owner is online. | On or off |
| Aid | Lets players send colonists to help another player's colony, if its owner is online to accept them. | On or off |
| Trade | Lets players trade with, or send gifts to, another player's colony while its owner is online. | On or off |
| Caravans | Shows each player's caravans on everyone else's world map as they travel. | On or off |
| Market | A shared marketplace where players post items for anyone on the server to buy. | On or off |
| Guilds | Lets players found guilds, invite others and rank their members. | On or off |
| Sites | Lets players build sites on the world map that produce rewards over time. | On or off |
| Roads | Lets players build roads across the shared world map. | On or off |
| Rivers | Syncs the planet's rivers, so every player sees the same ones. | On or off |
| Pollution | Spreads each colony's pollution onto the shared planet, where every player sees it. | On or off |
| Leaderboard | Ranks colonies by wealth, for everyone on the server to see. | On or off |
| Map viewing | Lets players look at another player's colony, from the copy of its map the server keeps. | On or off |
| Rollback | Lets players roll their own colony back to an earlier save. | On or off |
| Scenario editor | Lets players use RimWorld's scenario editor. | On or off |
| Admins | Usernames made admin each time the server starts, separated by spaces. A name only counts once that player has joined, and removing it doesn't take admin away. | Up to 256 characters |
Ready when you are
Pick a size, name your world, and it's running in a couple of minutes. Stop it when you're done and the billing stops with it.