Factorio Server Hosting – Headless Dedicated Server

What do you get with a TheCrewHost Factorio server?

You get Wube's official headless server: the same Factorio build your players run, minus the graphics, online around the clock so the team can log in whenever it suits them. Your game lives in the saves folder and loads on every start. The Factorio version is chosen with a variable at install time, whether that is the latest stable release, the experimental branch or a specific build number your mods need.

One server can host a pure vanilla 2.0 run, a Space Age campaign across planets, or a modded world built from mod portal packs. You can upload an existing single-player save as a .zip and continue it in multiplayer, or let the server generate a brand-new map.

We also list three related options. Factorio-ModUpdate is this server plus a script that refreshes your mods on reinstall, Factorio ARM64 is a template made for ARM hardware, and Clusterio links several Factorio servers into one cluster. If what you want is a solid multiplayer factory, this standard page is the one to order.

How much RAM and CPU does a Factorio server need?

For most groups, CPU speed decides how big the factory can grow and RAM decides how many mods and planets fit. Factorio targets 60 updates per second (UPS), and the bulk of each update runs on one thread, so a single fast Ryzen 9 9950X core does more for a megabase than extra cores do. That is why going from 4 to 12 vCores on the higher plans barely moves UPS.

Memory grows with explored map area, entity count, Space Age surfaces and the size of your mod list. A fresh vanilla map is light and sits comfortably in 4 GB; a late-game base spread over several planets, or a list of a few dozen mods, is where 8 GB and above starts to make sense. Big overhaul packs are the main reason to go past 12 GB.

One honest caveat: Factorio multiplayer is deterministic, which means every connected player's computer simulates the whole map as well. If a teammate's PC cannot sustain the map's UPS, that player will struggle no matter how fast the server is. Server hardware sets the ceiling, and players' machines need to reach it too.

Which files control a Factorio dedicated server?

Three JSON files in the data folder do most of the work. server-settings.json holds visibility (public or LAN), the game password, user verification, who may use commands, autosave behavior and whether the game pauses while nobody is online. Server name, description, max players, factorio.com username and token, autosave interval and slots, AFK kick time and game password are managed through the panel's startup variables and written into server-settings.json on every start. Change those in the panel; a manual edit to the same keys gets overwritten on the next boot.

map-gen-settings.json and map-settings.json only matter when a new map is created. Ore frequency, size and richness, cliffs, water, the starting area, enemy bases, pollution, evolution, biter expansion and the map seed all live in these two files. On the standard template, if the save named in the Save Name variable does not exist, the next start generates a fresh map from them. Tune the settings first, then back up and rename or remove the old save.

How do mods and Space Age work on the server?

Mods sit in the mods folder as .zip files, and mod-list.json decides which ones load. Upload them through the file manager or SFTP, mark them enabled, restart, and read the console for dependency errors. The server and every player must run exactly the same mods at the same versions, but you rarely need to pass files around: when someone joins with a missing or outdated mod, Factorio offers to fetch the matching versions from the mod portal. Mods that are not on the portal still have to be shared by hand.

Space Age is part of the headless download. Its three built-in mods, space-age, quality and elevated-rails, are switched on or off in mod-list.json like any other mod. With Space Age enabled, everyone who joins must own the expansion; a group where only some have bought it can disable those entries and play the base 2.0 game together.

Swapping mods partway through a save can trigger migrations or remove entities from the map, so back up before every change. If your list is long and updates often, the Factorio-ModUpdate variant takes the manual downloading off your hands.

How do you handle admins, saves and UPS day to day?

Start by promoting yourself: type /promote followed by your Factorio username in the panel console, and the server records it in server-adminlist.json. Admins handle players with /kick, /ban and /unban, while the allow_commands setting limits what everyone else can run. For a private group, a game password combined with require_user_verification, which requires a valid factorio.com account, keeps strangers out.

Before you stop or reinstall the server, run /server-save so the latest state is on disk; the panel's automatic backups keep a copy that is separate from the in-game autosave slots.

As a base grows, every autosave holds the game for everyone while the file is written. A longer autosave interval helps, and so can the experimental non_blocking_saving option, which forks the process on Linux to save in the background; try that one on a backed-up copy first. When UPS starts to slide, the fix is usually inside the factory: fewer active entities through beacons and modules, trains instead of very long belts, and keeping pollution under control.

How do players join your Factorio server?

Players open Multiplayer, pick Connect to address and enter your server's IP and port. Factorio uses UDP port 34197 by default, but your server may be assigned a different one, so copy the exact address shown in the panel.

To show up in the public server browser, set visibility to public in server-settings.json and enter your factorio.com username plus the token from your factorio.com profile in the panel variables. Everyone who connects needs the same Factorio version as the server. Steam updates players' games on its own, so update the server when a new release lands; on the standard template the version is downloaded on reinstall according to the Factorio Version variable, so take a backup first.

The datacenter is in İstanbul, so players in Türkiye connect with low latency, and friends in Europe, the Middle East and the Caucasus generally get a good connection as well.