Shockbyte got here into existence in March of 2013 with a mission to make server internet hosting for video games like Minecraft “simple and reasonably priced” to everybody in search of an action-packed journey or just to improve their gaming abilities. Headquartered in Victoria (Australia), Shockbyte has been considered one of many pioneers and prime server hosting providers for the titans of multiplayer gaming like Minecraft, Rust, ARK: Survival Evolved and some others.
Although initially centered on Australia, Shockbyte is current on three continents right now: Europe (the UK, Germany, France and Poland), Asia (Singapore) and North America (the USA and Canada).
The visible type of Shockbyte’s primary web site corresponds with the type of sport that performed a significant function in making them well-known. Even Shockbyte’s workers has been remodeled into much-appreciated pixelated Minecraft-like characters, which is totally wonderful. The identical destiny befell Shockbyte’s official weblog which is filled with varied articles Minecraft followers are positive to seek out fairly attention-grabbing. The weblog itself appears lively sufficient, with a number of articles popping out each month.
As for social networks, they’re at the moment current on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, Discord and most notably YouTube, because it’s provided with excellent step-by-step video tutorials many customers will certainly discover useful. Since Twitter and Facebook operate as assist channels as effectively, if you’re a fellow-user, be happy to succeed in out to them at any signal of bother.
Plans and pricing
To make your gaming desires come true, Shockbyte gives twelve different plans (most of them are named after completely different blocks of sources from Minecraft), three of that are premium (“Spartan”, “Zeus” and “Titan”).
All plans embrace a 100% uptime assure, safety in opposition to DDoS attacks, 24/7 assist and a free subdomain. The variety of GBs of RAM you’ll get and a lot of slots (which is definitely a advice, because the quantity is limitless with all plans) depends upon how deep you might be keen to dive into your pockets. The most pocket-friendly pan is labeled as “Dirt”, it prices $2.50 monthly and comes with 1GB of RAM and 20+ slots. On the opposite finish, the costliest one begins at $40 a month and contains 16GB of RAM and use of NVMe SSDs, which needs to be six instances quicker than a daily (SATA) SSDs.
If not one of the pre-designed plans meet your wants, you possibly can create a customized one, which is all the time a good selection to have.
At this second, there are two free trials supplied with all Minecraft server internet hosting plans. One is “45 Days of the Enjin Advanced” plan, which is able to help you create a Minecraft server web site with options corresponding to donation retailer, vote for diamonds and rather more. The different one is “30 Days of Buycraft Premium”, which is the best-known webstore resolution for Minecraft servers.
Instead of a typical 30-day money-back assure (many of the different hosts have spoiled us with), Shockbyte offers one legitimate for 24-day solely, so be sure you check them as quickly as you possibly can and notify the assist, if wanted.
As for strategies of cost, Shockbyte accepts credit score/debit playing cards, PayPal and Paymentwall.
Ease of use
It doesn’t matter if you’re in search of a community server for a few avid gamers otherwise you need to collect a bunch of 10 or extra, ShockByte will get you lined. Plenty of plans are on the supply and beginning with any of them is as simple as it will possibly get. If you aren’t right here due to Minecraft (which is the web site’s favourite), few different video games can be found (Rust, ARK: Survival Evolved and Valheim) and two of them needs to be coming quickly (Hytale and Arma 3).
If Minecraft is what you need, you possibly can select between classical PC and Bedrock version (which is a more sensible choice for cross-platform gameplay). Since all plans are introduced in an easy-to-understand approach, choosing one ought to pose no downside. After this, you’ll proceed to your cart, the place you’ll be requested to pick a billing cycle, forex, server location, and resolve if you’d like a devoted IP (which is able to price you $5) or server administration providers (which go for $15 monthly). This service ensures that ShockByte’s technical group will set up and configure all plugins, mod packs and buyer jars for you. However, since ShockByte offers a handy one-click installer, it can save you up some cash and do it by yourself with no hitch.
To end your buy, in case you don’t have an account with ShockByte already, you’ll need to create one by filling out a well-recognized kind together with your private knowledge (nothing out of the strange). We advise studying Terms of Service by way of and thru, since a lot of complaints clients had with ShockByte’s providers might have been prevented provided that they’ve carried out so.
Thanks to the moment setup function, after the cost is full your server needs to be up and working in lower than a minute. The management panel ShockByte contains inside its Minecraft plans is named Multicraft, which is an easy-to-use and one-stop-solution for all features of your Minecraft server. The management panel for Rust and Ark are primarily based on Multicraft, so that you shouldn’t have a lot bother discovering your approach round.
With ShockByte’s one-click installer you can also make use of any of forty completely different modpacks (together with Forge, Feed the Beast, ATLauncher, Technic Modpacks, Vanilla and so forth). The identical goes for quite a lot of plugins, which might be put in by way of the “Plugin List” function within the management panel or you possibly can manually add them by way of FTP. All in all, as quickly as you become familiar with Multicraft, you’re able to embark on a fantastic journey.
Speed and expertise
Shockbyte makes use of NVMe SSDs, which means their pace needs to be six instances quicker than customary SSDs and twelve instances quicker than HDDs, which is lightning quick. With the pace efficiency of Shockbyte’s servers in thoughts we examined the efficiency of their primary web site, which needs to be utilizing SSDs at a minimal. After checking it out with GTmetrix (our pace testing software of selection), we acquired fairly excellent news. The general rating wasn’t image good, however was shut sufficient with an A (94%).
Since Shockbyte offers a top-of-the-class 100% uptime assure lined by SLA, are you able to anticipate your server to run round the clock with no hint of downtime? Not precisely, however you have to be compensated accordingly for each 5 minutes of downtime, which ought to barely ease the ache of being kicked out of the sport when you had been eliminating your existential dread by punching a tree. To check this out, we monitored the uptime of their primary web site with out relaxation for a month by utilizing UptimeRobot as our software. Not surprisingly, not a single second of downtime was discovered on our document, thus justifying Shockbyte‘s assured 100% uptime assure.
Support
As there isn’t a rose with no thorn, neither is Shockbyte a number with no fault, significantly in the case of its buyer assist, it appears. After investigating what Shockbyte’s customers consider them, essentially the most complaints had been linked to responsiveness of their assist group, so we had been compelled to verify this out for ourselves. Already ready to attend some time, we threw them a few questions by way of chat and acquired our reply in just a little over half-hour, which isn’t too unhealthy. However, we’re fairly conscious that somebody with a extra advanced situation is perhaps much less lucky than we had been.
In addition to reside chat, Shockbyte’s technical group might be reached by way of assist ticket. Since its assist isn’t well-known for being lightning quick, you possibly can kill time by exploring their self-help choices, that are (truly) commendable. Besides the YouTube channel, there’s a FAQ part and a complete knowledgebase with greater than 200 articles, 167 of them devoted to Minecraft.
The competitors
Both Apex Hosting and Shockbyte make use of Multicraft as their management panel to make sure an intuitive consumer expertise. Both hosts supply all kinds of different-sized plans, a broad community of server places across the globe, a full vary of mods and plugins, free backups and rather more. However, whereas Apex Hosting makes use of SSD arduous drives to offer blazing-fast, lag-free servers to its clients, Shockbyte goes a step additional and throws in leading edge NVMe SSDs which ought to outperform a daily SSD by a sixfold.
Bisect Hosting is one other standard possibility and one which, very similar to Shockbyte, permits its customers a powerful quantity of flexibility with their plans. In phrases of choices and options the 2 of them are remarkably related, nonetheless, essentially the most budget-friendly possibility with Bisect Hosting begins at $7.99 monthly, whereas it’s mere $2.50 monthly with Shockbyte. Hence, if you’re seeking to save a couple of dollars, go along with Shockbyte. If you might be in search of a number to launch your web site with, Bisect Hosting also can make it easier to with that, since they’re providing shared, VPS and devoted server internet hosting. On the opposite finish, Shockbyte is absolutely centered on Minecraft server internet hosting.
An glorious various to Bisect Hosting, if Minecraft server internet hosting is just not the factor you seek for, could be hosts like HostGator and Bluehost. Both of them are one of the vital standard selections for newcomers and site owners alike, with their myriad of internet hosting choices, options and accessible add-ons. On prime of every thing, they each present money-back ensures, so you possibly can see every thing for your self with no want for concern.
Final verdict
Shockbyte is a rock-solid supplier we’d advocate to anybody seeking to lease servers to host their Minecraft video games on the digital freeway. In addition to being beginner-friendly, easy and swift to arrange, Shockbyte gives a complete vary of options with all of its packages, that are (on prime of every thing) match to go well with each pocket. Therefore, go and kickstart your Minecraft server with Shockbyte, however in case you change your thoughts alongside the best way, you should definitely do it inside 24 hours.
However, if you’re merely on a lookout for a number to arrange your web site with, check out HostGator and Bluehost, as a result of they’ve a little bit of one thing for everybody.
