Factorio is a game unlike any other. Players push the boundaries of technology and resources to build the greatest machines possible, all while fighting away enemies to grow. There are many ways to play the game, and as a result, multiplayer can make for most of the fun.
But while players will bounce from server to server to find the gameplay experience they’re looking for, some will elect to create their own Factorio server instead.
To more easily create and maintain your own Factorio server, you should turn to an established video game server hosting service.
With that in mind, here are the best server host options for Factorio.
The Best Factorio Server Hosting
Here are the Garry’s mod server hosting services we will be covering:
- GTX Gaming (The Best in Show)
- ServerBlend (The Biggest)
- Nitrado (The Most Established)
- MS (The Most Potential)
- PingPerfect (The Most Coverage)
We analyze and compare the hosts above on the following criteria:
- Price
- Features
- Technical Support
- Server Size
- User Feedback
GTX Gaming (The Best in Show)
GTX Gaming is one of the most veteran names in video game server hosting, starting back in 2007. The company is one of the first to host servers for every new game, and has a long history of quality service, unique innovations, and fantastic hardware and technical support.
GTX Gaming is the best in show because of the many different aspects of server hosting it covers well. On top of the quality hardware for GTX Gaming’s server hosting, it’s often very competitive on price, offering an amazing value package.
GTX Gaming offers Factorio data centers in the following locations:
- Sydney, Australia
- Sao Paulo, Brazil (costs an extra £15 for initial setup)
- Quebec, Canada
- Paris, France
- Frankfurt, Germany
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Singapore
- London, United Kingdom
- Atlanta, United States
- Charlotte, United States
- Chicago, United States
- Dallas, United States
- Los Angeles, United States
- Miami, United States
- New York City, United States
- Seattle, United States
Price
GTX Gaming Factorio servers offer a very unique pricing setup.
Instead of charging per max player slot, servers are charged according to allotted memory.
Every GTX Gaming Factorio server offers the same 50 max player slot count, but you will decide how much memory will be allocated to the server every month, which will cost different amounts but starts at £4.49 for 1GB.
Features
GTX Gaming Factorio servers offer the following in-game features:
- Steam Workshop Support
- Full Mod Support
- Game Switching
- Host Migration Services (continuing old save data, extra cost)
Technical Support
GTX Gaming Factorio servers offer the following technical support features:
- Mobile Server Control Panel
- 24/7 Customer Support
- DDOS Protection
- Debranding
- Daily Server Backups
- Offsite Server Backups (30 days of data)
- Ticket-Based Customer Support
- Memory Customization Options (for an extra charge)
- Memory Allocation Customization Options (for an extra charge)
- CPU Clock Speed Custoization Options (for an extra charge)
- CPU Priority Customization Options (for an extra charge)
- SSD Customization Options (for an extra charge)
- VIP Priority Ticket Support Option (for an extra charge)
Server Size
GTX Gaming Factorio servers approach server size in a very unique way. There is only server size offered for Factorio, and that’s 50 max player slots. This approach gets even more unique when it comes to pricing per slot.
GTX Gaming doesn’t charge per player slot, instead choosing to charge for memory allotment to a server.
While this approach has no negatives for smaller servers, it does cap bigger servers at 50 max player slots.
User Feedback
User feedback for GTX Gaming has an incredible 4.8 stars over 801 reviews on TrustPilot, the second most reviews of any server host on this list.
This makes sense with GTX Gaming’s storied history in server hosting since 2007, but they’re still incredibly impressive numbers.
Most positive reviews cite very consistent server performance and incredibly fast customer service responses, most citing problems being fixed within minutes.
Most negative reviews, while rare, cite general performance issues (though still mention quick customer service response times to these issues).
ServerBlend (The Biggest)
ServerBlend are one of the best critically received server hosts in the industry, and are an absolutely fantastic choice for hosting Factorio servers.
ServerBlend builds from a foundation of excellent customer service across tickets with very fast response times and strong hardware and technical support to get the job done right the first time, even with a lack of mod-focused features.
ServerBlend offers Factorio data centers in the following locations:
- Sydney, Australia
- Montreal, Canada
- Roubaix, France
- Falkenstein, Germany
- London, United Kingdom
- Dallas, United States
Price
ServerBlend Factorio servers are priced at a flat $5.12 per month with no extra features, offering unlimited player slots.
This system of pricing is very unique, and means that instead of paying for max player slots, you’re really paying for extra memory to accommodate the extra max players you are bringing into your Factorio server.
You can also spend on other technical upgrades to theoretically equip your server to reach Factorio’s maximum multiplayer server population, 255 players.
Features
ServerBlend Factorio servers offer the following in-game features:
- Full Mod Support
Technical Support
ServerBlend Factorio servers offer the following technical support features:
- DDOS Protection
- Debranding
- 24/7 Customer Support
- Ticket-Based Customer Support
- Email-Based Customer Support
- Skype-Based Customer Support
- Phone-Based Customer Support
- RAM Amount Customization Options (for an extra charge)
- CPU Priority Options (for an extra charge)
- Subdomain Option (for an extra charge)
- Server Transfer Service (free)
- Game Server Discord Bot (free)
- Server Setup Assistance/Mod Installation (one-time only, extra charge of $10.00)
Server Size
ServerBlend Factorio servers offer unlimited player slots.
This is an extremely rare approach to server sizing, limiting servers on functional ability rather than max player count. Factorio has a hard cap at roughly 255 players on a server at one time, and with ServerBlend Factorio servers, you can reach this cap and (theoretically) then some.
User Feedback
User feedback for ServerBlend is amazing at 4.9 stars over 331 reviews on TrustPilot.
Positive reviews cite very fast support answers and premium overall quality with little to no cases of major issues.
Negative reviews are almost non-existent, with the only real post being annoyed at an issue of false advertising.
While 331 is a fairly small sample size in comparison with other video game server hosts, this level of user feedback is utterly remarkable, and a huge point in ServerBlend’s favor.
Nitrado (The Most Established)
While some other Factorio server hosts have high numbers of reviews, Nitrado is the most established host in the business by a large margin.
The company has accomplished this by becoming official partners with many of the most popular multiplayer games today. And along with this, Nitrado has time and time again sprung to cover servers for other platforms beyond PC alone, separating them from the pack.
This won’t affect their Factorio servers, however, as it’s a PC exclusive.
Nitrado offers Factorio data centers in the following locations:
- Sydney, Australia
- Frankfurt, Germany
- Singapore
- London, United Kingdom
- Los Angeles, United States
- Miami, United States
- New York, United States
Price
Nitrado Factorio servers are priced more traditionally at $0.65 per slot (after an initial fee).
With the strange pricing Factorio receives from most server hosts, it’s hard to approximate where this lands in terms of value.
In comparison to end costs with other server hosts, it seems it places Nitrado around the middle of the pack, but where you will pay for slots with Nitrado servers, you’ll instead pay for extra memory from most other Factorio server hosts. This muddies the waters on pricing and value.
Features
Nitrado Factorio servers offer the following in-game features:
- Full Mod Support
- Mod Client
- Steam Workshop Support
- Game Switching
Technical Support
Nitrado Factorio servers offer the following technical support features:
- 24/7 Customer Support
- Skype-Based Customer Support
- Phone-Based Customer Support
- DDOS Protection
- Debranding
- Custom Subdomain IP (for an extra charge)
- MySQL Host
- Automated Server Backups
Server Size
Nitrado Factorio servers are between 4 and 100 max player slots.
This means Nitrado servers are slightly smaller than the average Factorio server host, which will only be a problem for big servers.
User Feedback
User feedback for Nitrado is fairly good at 4.2 stars over an industry leading 1499 reviews on TrustPilot.
Most positive reviews cite quality customer service experiences across the wide variety of customer service outlets Nitrado have, including Skype, phone, and more.
Most negative reviews cite a slow response from Nitrado’s customer support to tickets. This contrasts with the positive experiences many have with other branches of Nitrado’s customer support system, so we’d have to recommend you reach out to customer service in any of the many other ways besides tickets.
With a larger sample size than any other video game server hosting service, there’s certainly more to draw on from user feedback. But while Nitrado has fewer stars than most competition, it’s established as the biggest in the industry for a reason: offering services other companies can’t.
Low.MS (The Most Potential)
As one of the new video game service hosts in the industry, Low.MS has had a very impressive start.
Only operating since 2016, you’d think this service would lag behind some of the veterans, but with some very solid hardware, data center support, pricing, and customer service options, Low.MS is almost always a competitive option for any game.
Low.MS offers Factorio data centers in the following locations:
- Sydney, Australia
- Helsinki, Finland
- Nuremburg, Germany
- Warsaw, Poland
- Singapore
- London, United Kingdom
- Ashburn, United States
- Bend, United States
- Dallas, United States
- Los Angeles, United States
- Miami, United States
Price
Low.MS servers are priced at £0.12 per slot, but the only size offerings are 50 and 51 max player slots.
This pricing scheme is quite peculiar, though Factorio stands out as a game server hosting services approach differently. This price is extremely cheap per slot, but where some other servers are only charging for memory allotment, value gets a big confusing.
It’s hard to expect this overall pricing to be a bad value, but there’s not a simple way to answer if it’s the best or just above average when it comes to price.
Features
Low.MS offers the following in-game features:
- Full Mod Support
- Steam Workshop Support
- Automatic Mod Updates
Technical Support
Low.MS offers the following technical support features:
- Discord-Based Customer Support (live chat)
- Ticket-Based Customer Support
- DDOS Protection
- Debranding (for an extra charge)
- Server Location Switching
- Automatic Server Restarts
- Ping Test
- Dedicated CPU Thread Options (for an extra charge)
- SSD Type Options (for an extra extra charge)
- Dedicated IP Option (for an extra charge)
- Additional RAM Options (for an extra charge)
Server Size
Low.MS offers Factorio servers with either 50 or 51 max player slots only.
This can strain the smallest servers, but with Low.MS’ pricing scheme for Factorio, it’s not much of a financial loss overall.
User Feedback
User feedback for Low.MS is quite strong at 4.7 stars, but this is over a small sample size with just 149 reviews on TrustPilot.
Most positive reviews cite very positive experiences with customer service personnel over in-game issues with servers. This paints the portrait that while Low.MS servers may have occasional hiccups, buyers are choosing them time and time again because of their competitive pricing and customer support quality.
Most negative reviews cite performance issues like lag, faulty instant setups, and disconnections. Because of the little number of overall reviews, though, it’s hard to connect this as a common occurrence.
PingPerfect (The Most Coverage)
PingPerfect started hosting video game servers in 2012, and has since been a major competitor in almost every big multiplayer game (and even some niche titles).
The strength of PingPerfect starts with their top-of-the-line data center coverage. It’s hard to find a place on the globe PingPerfect can’t reach with quality ping, because there are simply so many data center locations you can use.
On this strong base of coverage PingPerfect adds some quality technical support features and customer support services.
PingPerfect offers Factorio data centers in the following locations:
- Sydney, Australia
- Sao Paulo, Brazil
- Montreal, Canada
- France
- Germany
- Netherlands
- Warsaw, Poland
- Moscow, Russia
- Singapore
- Cape Town, South Africa
- London, United Kingdom
- Atlanta, United States
- Chicago, United States
- Dallas, United States
- Kansas, United States
- Los Angeles, United States
- Miami, United States
- New York, United States
- Phoenix, United States
- Seattle, United States
- Louis, United States
Price
PingPerfect Factorio servers are priced at a flat $5.56 with no extra hardware purchases, and no limitation on max player slots (a trend really only possible in Factorio).
Instead of paying per slot, you’re purchasing the needed memory allocation and hardware support to run a server with higher than average population sizes.
Much like the other hosts on this list, this pricing system muddies the waters on who is actually the best value. It will really come down to the needs of your individual server on a case-by-case basis.
Features
PingPerfect Factorio servers offer the following in-game features:
- Full Mod Support
- Discord-Based Server Control Options
- Automatic Mod Updates
- Steam Workshop Support
Technical Support
PingPerfect Factorio servers offer the following technical support features:
- Automatic Backups
- Automatic Game Updates
- DDOS Protection
- Debranding
- 24/7 Customer Support
- Email-Based Customer Support
- Ticket-Based Customer Support
- Location Switching
- Free Web Hosting
- SSD Options (for an extra charge)
- Additional Memory Options (for an extra charge)
- CPU Priority Options (for an extra charge)
- Server Transfer Services (for a $9.72 one-time extra charge)
- Teamspeak Server Options (for an extra charge)
Server Size
As we’ve mentioned, there is no maximum server size for PingPerfect servers, though Factorio servers are capped at 255 players.
As a result, servers are priced at a flat rate instead of per maximum player slot.
User Feedback
User feedback for PingPerfect is fairly good at 4.5 stars over 537 reviews on TrustPilot.
Positive reviews cite almost exclusively fantastic customer service experiences giving credit to individual customer support reps that offer great solutions fast.
Negative reviews cite very trying circumstances caused by specific incidents with customer service staff. While most are from years back, and most positive reviews cite extremely positive support experiences, these could raise red flags about which experience you’ll receive.
PingPerfect’s TrustPilot remains under review for some specific reviews being flagged by the company. Until review is complete, we won’t know the results of this investigation or why these roughly 10 reviews were flagged all in a row. Until this situation resolves, it’s something to think about.
Starting your Factorio server
There’s always something to improve or build on in Factorio, and similarly you can apply the same philosophy to setting up your own Factorio server.
It’s important to navigate the available server hosting services to find the right fit for you, your server, and how you want to play the game. It can also be the difference between overpaying.
Once you choose the right host for you, it’s time to customize your setup to best support your server with potential hardware upgrades and extra services available from most server hosts on this list.
After you customize your server, it’s time to jump in-game and select mods/goals for your server.
Once you’ve got everything down it’s time to hop in-game and begin building the most impressive and powerful machinery you can from the ground up. That also means clearing out hostile enemies to reach new resources and territory to expand your power.