How to Self-Host a Terraria, Factorio or Satisfactory Server on a VPS in 2026
Last updated: July 2026
Running a private co-op world for a handful of friends does not need a managed control panel or a per-slot game host. When the goal is to self host a game server VPS with full control over mods, versions and restart schedules, a plain KVM virtual server with root access is the cleaner, cheaper path. This guide walks through sizing and standing up dedicated servers for three of the best co-op sandbox titles of the moment — Terraria, Factorio and Satisfactory — on a VPS you own end to end.
Why self-host these titles on a VPS instead of a game panel
Terraria, Factorio and Satisfactory share a trait that makes them ideal VPS candidates: their dedicated server binaries are lightweight, well-documented and headless. None of them require a GPU, none need a graphical desktop, and all three are distributed either through SteamCMD or a simple download. That means a small Linux box with fast storage and a solid network is all the infrastructure they need. A general-purpose KVM VPS gives full root, so operators install exactly the version they want, layer in mods, and script their own backup and restart routines instead of waiting on a panel feature.
It is worth being precise about product scope here. X-Zone Servers offers KVM VPS plans today; a dedicated game-hosting product is launching soon but is not live yet, so there are no per-game managed plans to buy. For self-hosting the three titles below, the right home is the VPS range with full root — not a game panel.
Terraria: light on RAM, easy to keep online
Terraria's dedicated server (TerrariaServer or the community TShock build) is the most forgiving of the three. A typical small-to-medium world with a handful of players sits comfortably around 2GB of RAM, and it is single-threaded enough that raw core count matters little. The practical constraints are keeping the process alive across crashes and pushing world backups off the box on a schedule.
The Nano tier (2GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 40GB NVMe at EUR 4/mo) is enough to host a Terraria server VPS for a small group, though stepping up to Micro (4GB, 2 vCPU, 80GB) leaves headroom for TShock plugins and larger worlds without thinking about it. On a fresh Ubuntu or Debian install, the flow is: download the server build, open the game's port in the firewall, launch inside a tmux or systemd unit so it survives your SSH session, and add a cron job that copies the world file to a dated folder every few hours. Because X-Zone VPS plans deploy in under 60 seconds, the box is ready before the download finishes.
Factorio: CPU-bound megabases need clock speed, not RAM
Factorio inverts the usual assumption. Its dedicated server is famously efficient with memory, but the simulation is single-threaded and every belt, inserter and biter is recalculated each tick. As a base grows into a sprawling megabase, the bottleneck is per-core throughput and the server's update time per tick, not gigabytes of RAM. This is the classic Factorio server hosting VPS trade-off: you want strong single-thread performance and fast storage for save serialization rather than a large memory pool.
For early and mid-game bases, Micro (4GB, 2 vCPU) or Starter (8GB, 2 vCPU, 120GB — the popular pick) handle a full group without strain. When a base matures into thousands of assemblers, moving to Basic (16GB, 4 vCPU) or Pro (24GB, 6 vCPU) gives the headroom to keep tick time low even as complexity climbs. Factorio autosaves aggressively, so NVMe SSD storage genuinely helps: a slow disk shows up as a visible stutter every time the game writes a save. Full root lets operators tune the server settings file, install mods by dropping them into the mods folder (or scripting a mod-portal sync), and schedule a nightly restart cron to clear any accumulated slowdown.
Satisfactory: the memory-hungry one
Satisfactory's dedicated server is the heaviest of the trio. Unreal Engine's simulation of a large factory, with its conveyor networks and item logistics, wants real memory — plan for roughly 8GB for a comfortable multiplayer session, more as the factory scales across the map. It also benefits from several cores, since the engine parallelizes more of its work than Factorio does.
That points squarely at the Starter tier (8GB, 2 vCPU, 120GB) as the sensible floor for a Satisfactory dedicated server VPS, with Basic (16GB, 4 vCPU, 160GB) as the recommended choice for a busy group or an ambitious late-game save. The server installs through SteamCMD as an anonymous app, runs headless, and exposes its query and game ports over UDP. Root access is what makes the difference here — operators control the exact SteamCMD update cadence, pin or advance the experimental branch on their own terms, and wire in a restart cron so a long-running session does not leak memory over a week of uptime.
Matching a plan to the game
The table below maps each title to a starting VPS tier. These are comfortable defaults for a small-to-medium co-op group; scaling up a tier is a one-click resize when a world or factory grows.
| Game | Typical RAM need | Bottleneck | Suggested tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terraria | ~2GB | Uptime / backups | Nano (2GB) or Micro (4GB) |
| Factorio | Low RAM, high single-core | Per-tick CPU | Starter (8GB) → Pro (24GB) for megabases |
| Satisfactory | ~8GB+ | Memory & cores | Starter (8GB) or Basic (16GB) |
Across the whole range — from Nano at EUR 4/mo up to Business at EUR 58/mo — every plan ships 1 Gbps unmetered bandwidth, NVMe SSD, KVM virtualization and full root. Billing is hourly and capped at the monthly rate, so a weekend-only Satisfactory world costs a few cents per hour and nothing more when the box is idle and destroyed.
The parts every self host game server VPS setup shares
Regardless of which title runs on it, a well-run game VPS follows the same discipline:
- SteamCMD or direct download for the server binary, installed under a non-root service user.
- A process supervisor — a
systemdunit ortmuxsession — so the server survives disconnects and restarts cleanly after a reboot. - Scheduled restart and backup crons to roll saves off the box and clear long-uptime slowdown, which full root makes trivial to script.
- A tight firewall exposing only the game's ports, with SSH kept on key-based auth.
- DDoS protection, since public game ports attract volumetric attacks. X-Zone includes L3/4/7 DDoS mitigation on every plan at no extra cost.
Where you host it matters as much as the specs
Player ping is decided by physical distance to the datacenter, so the location choice is not cosmetic. A group scattered across Europe is usually best served from a central hub like Frankfurt or Amsterdam, while a mixed EU/US crowd may prefer an Ashburn node. X-Zone runs 12 datacenter cities across Europe and the US on a Tier-1 backbone, so there is room to place the box near the majority of players — weigh ping against reach when a group is spread out.
Verdict
Terraria, Factorio and Satisfactory are close to the ideal self-hosting candidates: headless, GPU-free and happy on modest specs, yet demanding enough in RAM, single-core speed or storage that the plan you pick genuinely matters. A root KVM VPS gives the control a game panel cannot — exact versions, custom mods, and your own backup and restart crons — for a fraction of managed pricing. X-Zone Servers covers the whole range from a EUR 4/mo Nano that comfortably runs Terraria to a EUR 16/mo Basic that handles a serious Satisfactory factory, every tier with NVMe, 1 Gbps unmetered, full root, included DDoS protection and sub-60-second deployment across 12 cities. For anyone ready to stand up a private co-op world in 2026, it is a fast, low-commitment place to start.