Valheim Server Hosting on Your Own KVM VPS

Pick Valheim as the game of our Game Server, choose a plan and pay. We build the VPS (KVM, NVMe, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS); about six minutes after boot the panel is ready, and the server then downloads Valheim's dedicated server from Steam (a few minutes more) and starts. You get:

• A dedicated Valheim server named "My Valheim Server" with a world called "Dedicated", listed in the game's server browser, with crossplay on and a random 10-character join password.
• Pterodactyl, an open-source (MIT) web panel, at an HTTPS address like game-k3x9q2.devoster.app, with a console, file manager, SFTP on port 2022, two backup slots and schedules. You are its admin and log in with your email and a generated password shown in the Devoster dashboard.
• Ports 2456 to 2458 (UDP) open on your dedicated IPv4 address.

The software is free; you pay only the VPS plan, with 10% off yearly. The server comes with full root, free nightly backups kept 3 days plus one snapshot, 1 Gbps with unlimited bandwidth and network-level DDoS protection from the datacenter. Already have a Devoster VPS? You can reinstall it with the Game Server from VPS Control at no charge. Other apps are on the One-Click Apps page.

Valheim is a trademark of Iron Gate AB. Devoster is not affiliated with or endorsed by Iron Gate AB or its publisher, Coffee Stain.

• The join password: it is the PASSWORD field in the server's Startup tab in the panel. Change it there if you like (Valheim wants 5 to 20 characters) and restart.
• On Steam: Start Game, pick a character, Join Game, then Add server, and enter your server's IP address (or its devoster.app address) with port 2456. Then type the join password.
• Crossplay: crossplay is on, so the server also registers a join code, shown in the console when it starts. Players on Xbox or the Microsoft Store version join with that code.
• Hide it from the list: set PUBLIC_SERVER to 0 in the Startup tab and the server leaves the community list; players still join by address.

Valheim allows at most 10 players in one world. That limit is the game's, not the plan's.

The plan's RAM is fixed for the game and never reclaimed by the host. About 768 MB stays with the panel and Ubuntu; the rest is the server's memory limit. A Valheim server uses close to 3 GB even when idle, and more as players explore.

These are estimates, not guarantees: large bases, many explored biomes and mods all cost more. One thread does most of Valheim's work, so more vCPUs help less than more RAM. After upgrading your plan, raise the server's memory in the panel's admin area.

• Game updates: the server updates itself from Steam every time it starts. We also watch Steam, and when a new Valheim build ships, the Valheim servers are restarted to update, so players on the new version can still join. Valheim's server has no chat command, so there is no in-game warning first; the world is saved as it stops.
• Daily restart: the server also restarts early each morning. Change or switch it off in the Schedules tab.
• World saves: the game saves every 30 minutes and keeps 4 of its own world backups, set by the BACKUP_* fields in the Startup tab.
• Panel backups: two backup slots in the panel, kept on the VPS, so download the ones that matter now and then. Nightly VPS backups (kept 3 days) and your snapshot cover the whole server.

• In-game admins: add a player's Steam ID to adminlist.txt under .config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/ in the file manager.
• Bring your world: upload its .db and .fwl files over SFTP into the worlds_local folder next to it, set WORLD in the Startup tab to the world's name, and restart.
• Mods: the server is vanilla Valheim. If you add mods yourself, every player needs the same ones.
• Friends in the panel: the panel can't send email (outbound mail is blocked on our VPSes), so create a friend's account in the admin area with a password you give them, then add them from the server's Users tab.
• Your responsibility: the VPS is unmanaged; you have full root, and what you install is yours to run.