Piggo vs Nitrado: An Honest Comparison from the Founder

If you're reading this, you're probably trying to figure out where to host your modded Minecraft server. You've probably heard of Nitrado - one of the biggest game server hosts in the world, with millions of customers and infrastructure across multiple continents.

You may not have heard of Piggo. We host managed modded Minecraft servers from the Netherlands. I'm Maks, the founder. I built this because I was tired of being the IT guy for my own friend group, and I run it solo right now.

So why read a "Piggo vs Nitrado" comparison written *by Piggo's founder*? Because I'm going to be honest about where Nitrado actually wins, and tell you straight up when they're the better choice.

The short answer

Pick Nitrado if you want a massive established company with global infrastructure, you need region selection across multiple continents, or you're running games beyond Minecraft (ARK, Conan, Rust) and want one host that does all of them.

Pick Piggo if you're running modded Minecraft for a friend group or small community, you want fast personal support from someone who actually knows modpacks, and you're done with slot-based pricing that limits how many friends can join.

Now let me explain why.

Where Nitrado actually wins

I'm not going to pretend Nitrado is a bad company. If you fit their model, they're a reasonable choice.

Global infrastructure. Nitrado has data centers across North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and South America. If your group is spread across continents, one of your players will always have a low-ping connection. Piggo runs out of the Netherlands. Great for Europe, fine for the US East Coast, not ideal for Asia or Australia.

Multi-game support. Nitrado hosts dozens of games - ARK: Survival Ascended, Conan Exiles, Rust, DayZ, Palworld. If your group bounces between games and you want one billing portal, that's genuinely simpler. Piggo only does modded Minecraft.

If those two points matter most to you, stop reading and go to Nitrado. We're not the right host for you.

Where Nitrado falls short for modded Minecraft

Nitrado is good at *general* game hosting. It's weaker at *modded Minecraft* specifically, for reasons that are structural to how the business is built.

1. Slot-based pricing is a mismatch for modded play

This is the single biggest complaint I hear from customers migrating to us.

Nitrado charges by player slots - 4, 8, 16 - and then separately for the RAM you need. If your group grows, you pay more. If you want performance, you pay more. The two charges stack.

For vanilla Minecraft that model kind of makes sense. For modded Minecraft, slots and RAM are completely decoupled. A pack like All The Mods 9 or Cobbleverse can need 10+ GB for four or five players, because the *mods* eat the memory, not the players.

> "You pay for slots to be allowed to pay for RAM." - a customer describing Nitrado

Once you see that mechanic you can't unsee it. Our pricing is simple: pay for the RAM tier you need. No slot limits. Thirty friends on a 12 GB ATM10 server? Fine. Four friends on the same server? Also fine. The price doesn't move.

2. Support is structurally queue-based

Nitrado's support team handles millions of customers across dozens of games. That's not a person who knows your modpack, it's a ticket queue.

Open a ticket for a modded issue and the first reply is usually generic: reinstall the pack, check your Java version, try restarting. Getting past tier-1 to someone who actually knows modded Minecraft can take days. Several customers have told me their server sat down for 48+ hours waiting for escalation.

That isn't any individual agent being bad at their job. It's the reality of running a massive multi-game host - you can't staff a modded Minecraft specialist on call for every customer.

At Piggo you message me directly on Discord. I answer between 8:00 and 22:00 CEST, usually within minutes. I've played the packs you're running - Cobbleverse, ATM9, Better MC, RLCraft, Create - so I can usually spot the broken mod in the crash log fast.

3. Modpack installation is your problem

On Nitrado you upload the modpack yourself over FTP or the web panel, configure the Java version, set the RAM flags, and troubleshoot when your pack version doesn't match your Forge or Fabric version. If it breaks mid-install, you fix it.

At Piggo, installation is integrated - search CurseForge or Modrinth in the panel, click install, it's running in a few minutes. If it breaks, message me; usually I've seen that exact pack fail the same way before.

For a 100+ mod pack, that's the difference between a server running in 10 minutes and a server you abandon after three hours of Java version conflicts.

4. The "managed" promise doesn't apply

Nitrado sells game servers. It doesn't claim to be *managed* in the sense of "we set it up, watch it, and fix it when it crashes."

Our whole positioning is the opposite: we set it up for you, we watch it, you play. New pack? We install it. Crash at 1am? You message me. Nitrado sells infrastructure. We sell the relationship.

Side by side

Real pricing math

Scenario: a modded server for 5-8 friends running All The Mods 9, needing around 10 GB of RAM for stable performance.

Net difference: roughly €15-20 a month cheaper for the equivalent setup, with no slot cap.

Here's the part most comparison posts skip: price isn't the most important difference. Support is. If your server crashes weekly and you wait 24 hours each time, you're paying for downtime regardless of the monthly figure. If it crashes here and I fix it in nine minutes, the price gap stops being the variable that matters.

When you should NOT pick Piggo

Pick Nitrado over Piggo if:

• You need data centres outside Europe right now
• You host multiple games and want one billing portal for ARK + Rust + Conan + Minecraft
• You strongly prefer a large established company over a small founder-led one
• You don't actually need managed support - you're technical and treat hosting as raw infrastructure

Pick Piggo over Nitrado if:

• You're running modded Minecraft and you're tired of slot pricing
• You want personal support from someone who knows modpacks
• Your group changes packs every few months and you want migration help
• You've been burned by ticket-queue support and want to message a human
• You're a friend group without an "IT guy" and you don't want to become one

The bottom line

Nitrado is a real company with real strengths, and for some use cases they're the right call.

For modded Minecraft specifically, for friend groups and small communities, we're the better fit - not because we're bigger or older, we're neither, but because Piggo was built around what modded players actually want: human support, fair pricing, modpack flexibility, and a founder who's still in the Discord.

If you want to try us, there's a 48-hour free trial with no card required. I'll set the server up with you personally. If you don't like it, walk away.

Frequently asked questions

Is Piggo cheaper than Nitrado for modded Minecraft? For an equivalent 10 GB modded setup, yes - roughly €15-20 a month cheaper, because you pay for RAM only and slots are unlimited.

Comparing more hosts? Here's Piggo vs Apex Hosting.

Does Piggo have player slot limits? No. Every plan is priced by RAM tier and allows unlimited players; the RAM you choose is what limits practical group size.

Can I migrate my server from Nitrado to Piggo? Yes, free, usually the same day. Send us your current host details and we move the world, mods and configs.

Where are Piggo's servers located? The Netherlands. Great latency across Europe, workable for the US East Coast, not ideal for Asia or Australia.

Does Piggo host games other than Minecraft? Not right now. Modded Minecraft only, which is exactly why the support is specialised.

• Maks, founder of Piggo