Piggo vs Exaroton: An Honest Comparison from the Founder (2026)

I run Piggo. We compete with Exaroton, so read this knowing exactly how biased I am.

I'm writing it anyway because I keep having the same conversation in our Discord - someone on Exaroton hits a wall, asks whether we're different, and I end up explaining the same four things. This is those four things, written down once, including the parts where Exaroton is the better choice.

If you're playing a few evenings a week and you're happy turning the server off in between, you should probably stay where you are. I'll show you the maths for that too.

The short answer

Exaroton charges 1 credit per GB of RAM per hour, and 100 credits cost €1. We charge a flat monthly price for a server that's always on.

The two work out exactly the same at 200 hours of server uptime per month - on every plan size, because we both price per gigabyte. Under 200 hours, Exaroton is cheaper. Over it, we are.

Two hundred hours a month is 6.6 hours every single day.

So the real question isn't how much you play. It's whether your server needs to be running when you're not playing.

What it actually costs

A 12 GB server on Exaroton costs €0.12 for every hour it runs. Our 12 GB plan is €24 a month, running or not.

Exaroton pricing as listed on exaroton.com. Check their site for current pricing.

Look at the top three rows honestly. A casual group that starts the server when they sit down and stops it when they're done pays Exaroton about €5 a month. We'd charge €24 for the same thing. That's not a close call, and I'm not going to pretend it is.

The bottom row is the other half of the story. If you want the server up all the time - so anyone can hop on at 11pm without asking someone to boot it - you're paying for 730 hours whether anyone's online or not. €87.60 against €24.

Same server. Same 12 GB. The model decides which one is cheap.

The 10 GB storage limit

This is the wall most people actually hit, and it's got nothing to do with price.

Exaroton caps server storage at 10 GB. That sounds like plenty until you look at what a modded server actually stores.

A modern pack is 1-3 GB before anybody joins. Then you pregenerate the world - and pregenerating is the standard fix for modded lag, not an optional extra. Chunk generation is the single most expensive thing a modded server does at runtime, so you generate it in advance instead of making players wait for it mid-game.

A pregenerated world with the overworld, the Nether, the End and a few mod dimensions does not come back small.

So you end up in a bind: the thing you're supposed to do to make a modded server run well is the thing that fills your storage quota. Add backups on top and you're deciding what to delete.

We give every plan 120 GB. Not because we're generous - because a pregenerated modded world needs it.

Getting a custom modpack running

If you're running a public pack from CurseForge, both of us install it in a couple of clicks. This section is only about custom packs - your own mod list, or a pack that isn't in the one-click list.

On Exaroton: you install the pack locally first, run it once so the loader pulls its libraries, export the server-side files, upload them through the panel or SFTP, pick the matching custom software and loader version, then line up the Java version, start script and RAM allocation yourself. If a mod is client-only you find out from the crash log and remove it by hand.

On Piggo: you send us the pack, or a link to it, and we set it up. Usually within the hour between 08:00 and 22:00 Amsterdam time. There's no step two.

That's the whole difference between us, honestly. Not hardware. Not price. Who does the annoying part.

Support

Exaroton support is a ticket system with a knowledge base. That works - plenty of people are happy with it.

With us you message me. Not a queue, not a bot - me, or someone I've trained. Between 08:00 and 22:00 Amsterdam time, if your server goes down we guarantee it's playable again within the hour, or your next billing period is free. That's written into our SLA, including the parts we don't cover.

When Exaroton is the better choice

Genuinely, and not as a formality:

• You play in sessions and don't mind starting the server. If your group plays two or three evenings a week and nobody minds pressing start, Exaroton will cost you a quarter of what we do. Stay.
• You're not sure how long you'll keep playing. Exaroton has no monthly commitment at all. You buy credits, you use them when you use them. If your group might drift off after three weeks, that's a genuinely better shape than a subscription.
• You want to change RAM per session. Their model lets you run 4 GB most of the time and bump to 8 GB for a big session. We sell you a fixed size.
• Your world is small and always will be. Vanilla-plus, a light pack, no pregeneration - 10 GB is fine and the limit will never bother you.

If two or more of those describe you, don't switch. You'll pay more for something you don't need.

Planning to switch from Exaroton?

If you've read this far and the always-on maths or the storage cap is your problem, we'll do the move for you.

You send us your Exaroton details, we pull the world, mods and configs across, stand it up, test it, and send you an address. It's free, it usually happens the same day, and you don't need to know what you're doing at any point.

We moved a 254-mod Forge server off Exaroton in 30 minutes - here's how that went. Comparing more hosts? Here's Piggo vs Apex Hosting.

Tell us your current host - or take the 48-hour free trial first, no card needed.

Frequently asked questions

Is Exaroton cheaper than Piggo? Below 200 hours of server uptime per month, yes - often by a lot. Above 200 hours, no. Exaroton bills 1 credit per GB per hour (100 credits = €1); Piggo bills a flat monthly rate. The two are equal at 200 hours regardless of plan size, because both price per gigabyte.

What is Exaroton's storage limit? 10 GB per server. For modded servers that becomes a problem once you pregenerate a world, since a pregenerated world with mod dimensions can exceed that on its own before backups. Piggo includes 120 GB on every plan.

Can I move my world from Exaroton to another host? Yes. The world, mods and configs are all transferable. We do it for free, usually the same day - you send your current host details and we handle it.

Does Exaroton charge when the server is off? Only a small storage fee. That's the model's main advantage: if you genuinely stop the server between sessions, you pay very little.

How much RAM does a modded Minecraft server need? 8 GB covers most modern packs with a few friends. 12 GB is the right size for a heavy pack with a full group. 16 GB and up is for large packs with bigger communities.

Do I lose my world if I switch hosts? No. The world folder moves with you. The only thing that changes is the connection address, and your friends will need the new one.