HostableHostable

Your first server

From a fresh VPS to friends joining, in a few minutes.

1. Check the machine

sudo hostable preflight palworld

This prints RAM, swap and free disk, and warns if the game will not fit. See Small VPS if it does.

2. Create the server

In the TUI choose Create new server, pick a game, and follow the form. Or in one command:

sudo hostable create palworld "Friends Pals" --accept-license --join-password hunter2hunter2

Preview first with --dry-run: it prints the steps without changing anything.

NOTE

--accept-license is your confirmation of the game's terms (the Minecraft EULA, or the Steam terms for ARK and Palworld). Hostable never accepts them silently.

3. Start it

sudo hostable start friends-pals
sudo hostable logs friends-pals

Steam games take a few minutes on first start while they create the world.

4. Share the address

Find your public IP with curl ifconfig.me. Friends connect to IP:PORT. The port is shown by hostable list.

TIP

Hostable opens the ports on the VPS itself. Some providers (Oracle, AWS, GCP, Azure) also have a firewall in their dashboard. If friends cannot connect, open the same port there.

5. Optional: a name instead of an IP

In your DNS provider add an A record pointing to the VPS IP. If you use Cloudflare, set it to DNS only (grey cloud): its proxy does not carry game traffic.