Minecraft is one of the most frequently played games in the world. With an ocean of players and more than 200 million copies sold, this game is a real deal. Looking at its popularity, you must be aware of its gameplay and details so let’s miss that and jump to the main point. A record shows that Minecraft gets an average of 126 million monthly active users. This is the latest reading taken in 2020. With an ocean of players and such popularity, it would be quite nice to play and enjoy Minecraft with friends online. So, how can you make this happen?
Generally, you can find and join online servers that are already set and ready for players to join and play. However, the main thing is still not achieved here. You cannot play it with your friends. For that, you need to host your private Minecraft servers. Among all the choices for hosting providers, we will be looking at Shockbyte. In this article, we’ll be looking at what Shockbyte is, its properties, features, analysis, and its comparison with other prominent competitors. So, let’s jump straight to the main review.
Who Are Shockbyte? (And short review)
You must be familiar with game server hosting. In simple terms, you can rent your own private game servers to enjoy a private game with your friends. The servers are hosted and maintained by the hosting providers. Shockbyte is mainly a prominent hosting provider company from which, players can get their private servers. Shockbyte mainly deals in hosting services for a bunch of games but the most prominent one of them is for Minecraft. If we search for the best Minecraft server hosting providers, the list would have Shockbyte at the top. This is because Shockbyte specializes in providing the best quality Minecraft server hosting at affordable rates.
What makes Shockbyte so good? Is it really that good for Minecraft server hosting? We’ll be highlighting these points below as well. Firstly, let’s see why you should choose Shockbyte.
Competitors like ScalaHosting are serious contenders with ShockByte, however, ShockByte provides better prices as a whole.Why Choose Shockbyte
Why should you prefer Shockbyte over other hosting providers? The answer is quite straight forward. There are some factors that need to be totally up to the mark and cannot be compromised. When hosting a game server for a number of friends,
firstly there needs to be no lag. After that, the servers should be easy to set up and easy to join the other players. It should handle a number of players with ease and also support modes.
Lastly, hosting costs must be affordable. These are the most important factors that decide where a server hosting provider company stands. And when analyzing different hosting providers, most of them haven’t been up to the mark. However, Shockbyte has been found to be excellent and flawless when these factors are taken into account. This makes us choose Shockbyte over others for Minecraft server hosting. Now let’s have a detailed look at all the features Shockbyte provides to its users.
Shockbyte for Minecraft Server Hosting
Shockbyte has been one of the best server hosting providers for Minecraft. What makes them so good for Minecraft server hosting? The reason is that Shockbyte offers a number of features to their users and use special grade powerful hardware, even at a lower cost. Another thing is their experience in the field. Shockbyte has been providing Minecraft hosting services since 2013. With tens of thousands of customers served, they have an incredibly strong reputation among the Minecraft server community.
The following are some of the features the best hosting provider should have. Let’s see how does Shockbyte perform when talking about these features.
Adoptability
Adaptability is one of the most vital elements a hosting provider should have. With an advanced era of gaming, there are chances you have to upgrade or modify your services after a short while. Especially, with a game like Minecraft, you get to deal with a large number of mods and updates every day. This should have no effect on the hosting service. Your system should proficient enough to easily adapt all the modifications and changes on its own.
Shockbyte has been equipped with this feature. Firstly, they try to avoid any chances of system modification in the first place. Nevertheless, if they have to go through any update or modifications, the system remains unchanged and easily adapts to the modifications.
User Interaction and Navigation
User interaction is mostly neglected though it plays an important role in a system’s reputation. Your system must be easy to use. The user must not feel a burden navigating the system. The system must put a good first impression on a new user. In our case, it is the panel.
Stockbyte provides its users with the Multicraft server control panel. Multicraft is one of the most flexible and powerful control panel used frequently for hosting servers. It keeps the users happy by making the navigation easy for them.
Uniqueness
Uniqueness is another important factor considered while choosing the best server hosting. You can get good services and features in all the hosting providers but what makes the best hosting are the special features. The best server hosting providers offer special unique services and features to their users that are not commonly offered by others.
Shockbyte offers the most affordable rates to its customers. They present their users with a bunch of plans and packages. This makes the user easily choose the best package for himself. Including this, they provide a free subdomain with which, you can create a custom IP with your server name. Many other unique services are offered as well that differentiates Shockbyte from others.
Reputation and Customer Reviews
Nowadays every online application is judged by its reputation and its customer reviews. In fact, customer reviews are the only way to know where your application stands.
Shockbyte offers complete liberty and freedom to its users. Pre-existing users and customers are their first priority. Their reputation in the market is not that well maintained as compared to other hosting providers but they are still working hard to make it better.
Quality of Service
Lastly, it is the quality of service that ranks your hosting company. Prominent hosting companies have a large number of users using their services all the time. Even a small defect can affect a large number of users. Therefore, the quality of service cannot be compromised.
Shockbyte offers the best services to its users. We’ll be discussing all the services in detail. In a brief way, Shockbyte servers have a 100% uptime. They have data centers in multiple locations for lag-free data coverage. Including this, they offer 24/7 customer support to prevent any inconvenience. They also offer a Service Level Agreement to compensate their users in case of any service failure or disruption.
Now, let’s have a detailed look at the features and services offered by Shockbyte.
Shockbyte Services and Features
Storage
As mentioned above, it is important to maintain the quality of service when dealing with a large number of users at the same time. For that, Shockbyte uses SSD NVMe for their storage. These devices are considerably fast as compared to regular SSDs and greatly affect their performance in a positive way. Shockbyte has been the only hosting provider to use SSD NVMe for storage. This makes their services faster and unique as compared to other hosting providers as well. Now coming to the storage limit, Shockbyte offers unlimited storage to their users that means the user can handle any mod or any game version without worrying about the storage limit.
Safety and Protection
Protection and safety are vital to maintaining when hosting your own private server. If you are a Minecraft player then you would definitely hate losing your data. For that, Shockbyte offers DDoS protection in their servers. They use a special set of techniques and tools that monitors incoming traffic on the servers in order to resist and prevent a DDoS or DoS attack. Shockbyte conducts DDoS mitigation after every short period of time. They also provide compensation to their users in case of failure in protection from DDoS or DoS attacks. The compensation and details are provided in the SLA.
Network Coverage
Network coverage is extremely important when choosing a hosting provider. In the case of Minecraft, it is possible you get the best coverage in your area but the friends for whom you are hosting, end up getting the worst coverage in their areas. Therefore network coverage is quite important.
Stockbyte has intelligently placed data centers in almost every region of the world. This makes them provide lag-free coverage all over the world. When buying server hosting, the users can choose from Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Asia-Pacific. They also provide an “Other” option by the selection which, the system automatically selects the best option for the user. This makes the user get 100% server uptime and ultra-low latency rate.
Memory and Processing
When discussing server hosting, technical factors play a vital role and matter a lot. Processing and memory are the most important of all the technical factors and the whole system depends on these. Shockbyte facilitates its users by using special grade high-end hardware in their machines. Shockbyte uses Intel® Xeon™ CPU’s that make processing, an easy task. For the memory, they use high-grade DDR4 ECC RAM’s that makes their services free of lag and memory losses. Therefore, no matter how large your Minecraft server is, you’ll get the best performance out of it.
Control Panel
The Control panel works as the front end of the system offering control to the user from a single page. Having a user-friendly control panel is a compulsory thing for any hosting provider. Shockbyte offers Multicraft, which is easy to set-up and is one of the most flexible and user-friendly control panels of all. Multicraft provides ease of use and gives a good experience to Shockbyte users.
Customer Support
Customer support is an essential element to maintain not only for hosting companies but in generic terms as well. Shockbyte keeps that in mind and provides 24/7 customer support to its users. The users can reach them with email.
Secondly, they also offer an online chatbot for solving the queries of their users. Apart from this, you can solve your queries yourself by looking at the tutorial videos and the knowledgebase provided on their website page. Also, they provide a F.A.Q page as well to clear the doubts of new visitors.
Service Level Agreement:
SLA Introduction:
To ensure complete user satisfaction and value, Shockbyte offers a Service Level Agreement. SLA is mainly placed in order to compensate the user in case of service disruption or faults. However, it is only valid for the following types of hosting:
- Minecraft Server Hosting.
- Minecraft Pocket Edition Server Hosting.
- TeamSpeak Server Hosting.
SLA Coverage:
Following services are covered and compensated by SLA:
- Network:
Shockbyte ensures 100% network coverage and performance to its users. If the service shows any disruption for 5 consecutive minutes then it will be covered by the SLA.
- Hardware:
Shockbyte claims to use the best machines for their services. If anytime, their machines are unable to perform well, then it will be covered by the SLA.
- DoS or DDoS Attacks:
Shockbyte claims to provide the best protection against DoS and DDoS attacks. If they are unable to mitigate any DDoS attack then it will be covered by the SLA.
Non-Compliance Claims:
If the user faces a downtime, an equivalent extension per each minute will be provided to the affected system by Shockbyte. For claiming compensation, the user must create an SLA claim from their account. There is a definite time of seven days for which the user can get the compensation. Shockbyte will investigate and check all the claims before awarding the user.
Additional Services and Features:
Apart from the other services, Shockbyte also offers some bonus services to all its users for free. The following is a detail of these services.
Enjin:
Shockbyte provides 45 Days of the Enjin Advanced plan to all the users. The offer is provided with all the Minecraft server hosting plans. For those who don’t know about it, Enjin is the most popular solution for Minecraft server website hosting. Enjin offers many features such as a donation store, vote for diamonds, and much more. In short, if you’re a Minecraft player then this is like sugar on a cake for you.
Games Available with Shockbyte
There is a commonly found problem with many hosting providers. Minecraft is a large scale game with a number of mods. In most cases, the hosting fails to support a specific Minecraft mod or server. For that Shockbyte keeps their system updated and aware of any incoming mods or servers and assures that they support every Minecraft server version and mod. Their hosting supports every Minecraft server version including Vanilla, Forge, Spigot, Sponge, BungeeCord, and others. They also support all Bedrock Edition (MCPE) server types such as Bedrock Dedicated Server, PocketMine-MP (PMMP), NukkitX, and more.
The majority of games available on Shockbyte are limited and general stick to the ‘block’ type games like Hytale and Tekkit. If you’re looking for a more wide game hosting company something like GameServers offers plenty of games currently.
Games available on Shockbyte:- Arma 3
- Rust
- Ark: Survival Evolved
- Hytale
- Valheim
- Minecraft (Java and Bedrock Edition)
Buycraft with ShockByte
Including Enjin, Shockbyte also offers a 30 Days package of Buycraft Premium to its users. The package is offered with all Minecraft server hosting plans. Some intro about Buycraft, it is the most popular web-store solution for Minecraft Servers, allowing you to accept donations for your server to make easy funding for your server. Therefore, if you are a Minecraft streamer and are planning to gather funds then here is a nice chance for you to avail.
Setting Up Minecraft Server Hosting with Shockbyte
How can you set up your private Minecraft server and make it ready to go? It is not an easy task as it seems, especially if you haven’t done this before. However, as mentioned above, Shockbyte has placed a bunch of tutorials and guides for their users that include all the steps and details. They have also placed video tutorials on the website to assist users. Including this, the users also have the option of customer support to assist them through every step. Still, let’s give a brief look at how it’s done.
Generally, you have to go through the following steps for making your Minecraft server ready to go.
- Firstly, you have to choose a suitable plan for your server. Shockbyte offers a number of plans to its users. We’ll be going through these plans below. You can choose any plan you like.
- After you choose a plan, you have to register and pay for it. This will make you claim your own Minecraft server and services offered in the plan.
- You have the server, now the next step involves setting up your Minecraft server. This is mostly done automatically by the system itself. You just have to follow the steps and provide the details.
- After setting up the server, you will also get a unique username and password. Now you can get access to your server control panel.
- Log in to your control panel by entering the username and password.
- After doing this, you have crossed the hard part. Now, all you need to do is select a server, provide other details and you are good to go.
- These steps provide a general view of setting up your personal Minecraft server. For detail, you can rely on customer support, guides, and tutorials.
Pricing, Plans, and Packages:
Shockbyte offers a number of plans and packages for Minecraft server hosting. There is a total of 12 plan types offered by them. The plans vary with the amount of RAM used and the number of slots in the server. The pricing also increases gradually as we go to higher plans. The lowest one starts from 1GB with 20+ slots and goes all the ways to 16GB RAM. Let’s have a look at all the plans and their detail below.
Pricing Plans:
Plan Name | RAM | Number of Slots | Price |
DIRT | 1 GB | 20+ | $2.50 |
SAND | 2 GB | 40+ | $5.00 |
COBBLESTONE | 3 GB | 60+ | $7.50 |
IRON | 4 GB | 80+ | $10.00 |
GOLD | 5 GB | 100+ | $12.50 |
REDSTONE | 6 GB | 120+ | $15.00 |
DIAMOND | 7 GB | 140+ | $17.50 |
EMERALD | 8 GB | 160+ | $20.00 |
OBSIDIAN | 9 GB | 180+ | $22.50 |
SPARTAN | 10 GB | 200+ | $25.00 |
ZEUS | 12 GB | 240+ | $30.00 |
TITAN | 16 GB | 320+ | $40.00 |
Utilities and Add-ons
All the plans have the following compulsory features:
- Control Panel: Multicraft
- Drive: NVMe SSD
- DDoS Protection: Guaranteed
- Disk Space: Unlimited
- Bandwidth: Unlimited
No matter you choose the smallest plan or the largest one, it will have all the above features. As for billing, Shockbyte offers four options to the users. You can pay monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, and annually for your plan. The choice of server location is also decided by the user. The user can choose one of the five given server locations.
There are two features offered by Shockbyte as add-ons.
Dedicated IP
A dedicated IP is an IP that is reserved for only your server. Besides a shared IP address, that is used for more than one system, you can have a unique IP address for your server. This means is your server can run on port 25565, the default Minecraft port. The user can avail of it by paying an extra $15/month.
Server Management
This is a rather useful add-on and should be preferred. By selecting this add-on, Shockbyte will install and configure plugins, mod packs, and custom jars for you. In this, way you don’t have to manage and look after your server. In return, you have to pay $15/month.
Flaws in Shockbyte
Based on customer reviews and experiences, it has been seen that the customer support department needs a bit of improvement. Shockbyte customer support was not up to the mark till 2019 and most of the time, their response time was drastically late. However, the good thing is that they have covered their flaws to a greater extent in 2020.
ShockByte Reviews from Customers
As discussed earlier, no matter which system you run or visit, its true reputation can only be judged by the experience and opinions of its users. Shockbyte also offers its users to freely comment on their experiences and reviews. User reviews show that Shockbyte has been maintaining its reputation quite well. However, there are some flaws mentioned as well. Let’s highlight some of them as well.
Final Thoughts on Shockbyte
Overall, Shockbyte is one of the best choices for all types of Minecraft server hosting. It has all the features of the best hosting provider. It has uniqueness, quality of service, ease of use, adaptability, and other special features. They offer plenty of services to their customer. The users can enjoy, unlimited storage, 100% server uptime, fast processing, powerful hardware, superb network coverage, a user-friendly control panel, and a lag-free experience. They use the special Multicraft control panel for their servers that are powerful and easy to use for the users.
Their servers are mod-friendly as well. You can install any Minecraft mod on your server. The servers are fast and powerful and they can easily hold as many as 320 clients in each one. They also offer premium subscriptions to Enjin and Buycraft with their packages.
The special thing about their services is the costs and pricing. Shockbyte’s rates are the most affordable and cheapest ones in the market. In addition, Shockbyte offers a number of pricing plans from which the customers can choose.
Now you can enjoy your very own Minecraft server hosting with any mod you like. You can have all the above features at a very affordable rate.