Picking the right Valheim server plan for your crew

The guide to choosing a Valheim server plan: Lite, Standard, or Pro, sized for your group, your mods, and how serious you are about the world.

#Which Valheim server plan is right for you?

A Valheim server plan is just how much RAM and CPU you're paying for each month; we don't cap player slots. Three tiers cover every realistic Valheim group: Lite for a small vanilla crew, Standard for the default friend group with a sensible mod list, and Pro for big modded worlds with the full 10-plus regulars.

Quick reference:

We don't cap player slots on any plan, and Valheim itself officially supports up to 10 concurrent players. You're paying for headroom, not bigger lobbies.

#Lite: small vanilla crew

Lite is the right pick if you're two to four friends, playing the base game with maybe a quality-of-life mod or two. It runs vanilla Valheim comfortably and stays responsive when you're all out exploring the same biome.

Where Lite starts to feel tight: pile on a mod list (ValheimPlus + EpicLoot + a handful of content mods) and try to hit 10 players at the same time. You'll see longer load-ins when people enter new zones, and the occasional hitch when someone sails into freshly generated terrain. Doable, but not the smooth experience you probably want.

#Standard: the default pick

Standard is what most groups land on. Four players with a serious mod list, 10 players with light QoL mods, 6 players with EpicLoot and a few content packs: all comfortable. This is the tier where "modded Valheim" stops being a compromise.

If you're not sure where you fit, pick this one. It handles growth and the dashboard upgrade to Pro is a one-click move later if your world gets ambitious.

#Pro: heavy mods, big base, full lobby

Pro is for the groups going all-in. Full 10-player lobby plus a chunky mod stack (think ValheimPlus, EpicLoot, Jewelcrafting, Therzie content, Better Trader, the works), or a single huge base with hundreds of build pieces, dropped items, and active portals. The extra 2 GB over Standard goes a long way when memory pressure starts compounding.

You don't need Pro for 10 vanilla players. You need it when your mod folder has more than 15 entries or your central base has filled half a biome.

#A note on domains

Every Valheim plan gets a free address. Lite and Standard sit on yourname.hostdservers.com; Pro gets the shorter yourname.hostd.it at no extra cost. The address is set when the server provisions, so the right time to pick your tier with hostd.it in mind is at checkout.

#A few things worth knowing before you commit

• Lite + heavy mods + 10 players is the one combination we'd steer you away from. It can run, but you'll feel it.
• Pro is plenty for any normal modded Valheim server. Valheim isn't an open-ended sandbox in the Minecraft sense; the engine has a ceiling, and Pro sits well above the day-to-day load.
• You can upgrade or downgrade any time from the dashboard. The world, mods, and address stay put.

#Next steps

• New to the address format? See Connecting to your Valheim server.
• Planning to mod from day one? Read Installing Valheim mods with BepInEx and Thunderstore before you pick a plan.
• First time setting any of this up? Start with the general first server walkthrough.

Written and maintained by the Hostd engineering team. Last updated 2026-05-20. Notice a mistake? Tell us.