Vanilla Bedrock Server Hosting

What is a Vanilla Bedrock server and who is it for?

A Vanilla Bedrock server runs Bedrock Dedicated Server (BDS), the server software Mojang publishes for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, the version played on phones, tablets, Windows and consoles. Because it is not a third-party reimplementation, the rules are identical to what players see in their own worlds. Redstone clocks, iron golem farms, raids, the Nether and the End all work the way they are supposed to.

That makes BDS a natural fit for groups of friends sharing a survival world, parents setting up a safe world for their kids, school or club servers, and small communities that want light content through add-ons. What BDS does not have is a traditional plugin API. If you need server-side plugins for minigames, economies or kits, look at PocketMine-MP, Nukkit or PowerNukkitX, or at LeviLamina, which loads native mods on top of BDS. If you want real vanilla gameplay, customized only through behavior packs, function files and the Script API, this is the right server.

How much RAM does a Bedrock server need?

BDS is a native compiled program rather than something running inside a Java virtual machine, so its memory footprint is fairly modest. What actually drives RAM use is how many chunks stay loaded, how many entities live in the world and how many players are online. The tick-distance setting in server.properties accepts values from 4 to 12 and directly enlarges the simulated area around each player, while view-distance controls how far players can see.

In practice the 4 GB Bronze plan comfortably carries a friends world of up to ten people. Add-ons, a large explored map or a higher tick-distance make 6 to 8 GB the more relaxed choice. Past a certain point the bottleneck becomes the CPU, not memory. Every plan up to and including Diamond has 4 vCores, Emerald has 6 and Xtreme has 12. For servers that regularly go beyond 40 players, pick a plan that adds cores rather than just adding RAM.

How do you install add-ons, behavior packs and Script API packs?

Add-ons are how Bedrock does server-side customization. A .mcpack or .mcaddon file is really a zip archive. Extract it, upload the behavior pack into behavior_packs and the resource pack into resource_packs, then add the pack_id and version from each pack's manifest.json to the world's world_behavior_packs.json and world_resource_packs.json. After a restart the pack is attached to the world.

If everyone must download your resource pack, set texturepack-required=true. Some add-ons depend on experimental toggles, and the easiest way to get those is to create the world in the client with the toggles enabled and upload it. For Script API packs, server-only modules such as @minecraft/server-net must be allowed in config/default/permissions.json before they load. You can move files with the panel's file manager, though SFTP is easier for large packs and whole worlds.

Managing server.properties, the allowlist and updates

Most settings live in server.properties: server-name, gamemode, difficulty, allow-cheats, max-players (10 by default), level-name and level-seed. With online-mode on, every player must be signed in with a Microsoft account, and we recommend keeping it that way for any public server.

To control access, set allow-list=true and add names from the console with allowlist add PlayerName. Permission levels are stored in permissions.json, and the op command promotes a player to operator. If you want a consistent copy of the world while the server is running, use save hold, check save query until the files are ready, then run save resume.

The issue owners hit most often is a version mismatch. When Mojang ships a new Bedrock release, phones and consoles usually update on their own and can no longer join a server on the older BDS build. After every client update you need to move the server to the matching BDS version, and you should always take a backup first. If you are not sure how, our support team can walk you through it.

How do players join, and can console players connect?

On Android, iOS and Windows it is simple: open Play, go to the Servers tab, tap Add Server and enter the IP address and port shown in your panel. Bedrock talks over UDP, and BDS defaults to port 19132, but the port assigned to you may differ, so always share the value from the panel.

Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch are a different story. On consoles the Servers tab only lists Mojang's featured partner servers, and there is no field for a custom address. Console players work around this with community-made tools. The most common is a DNS redirect such as BedrockConnect, which opens a custom server list. Another route is a phone or PC app that advertises your server to a console on the same network as if it were a LAN game. These tools are not made by Mojang or by us, so weigh the network risks before using them. Once connected, console players share the same crossplay world as everyone on mobile and PC.