How to make a Minecraft server to play with friends

There are four real ways to play Minecraft with friends, and the right one depends on how many people you play with, how often, and whether you want mods. Here’s the honest breakdown.

Option 1: LAN — free, same network only

If everyone is in the same house, open your single-player world to LAN (Esc → Open to LAN). It costs nothing and takes seconds, but only works while your world is open and everyone is on the same network. Fine for a sleepover, useless for a persistent world.

Option 2: Self-hosting on your own PC

Running the server jar on your own machine is free, but the trade-offs are real: you need to port-forward your router (opening your home IP to the internet), your world is only online while your PC is on, your upload bandwidth becomes the bottleneck, and any crash or Windows update takes the server down with it.

• Download the server jar (Paper is the usual pick — much better performance than vanilla).
• Accept the EULA by editing eula.txt to eula=true.
• Allocate RAM with a start script, e.g. java -Xms4G -Xmx4G -jar paper.jar nogui.
• Port-forward TCP 25565 on your router to your PC’s local IP.
• Share your public IP with friends — and hope it doesn’t change (most home IPs are dynamic).

Option 3: Minecraft Realms

Realms is Mojang’s official option: simple, safe, and always online. The limits: max 10 players, no plugins or proper mod support on Java, limited world control and no file access. Great for a small vanilla survival group; too restrictive the moment you want Paper plugins, modpacks or more players.

Option 4: A hosted Minecraft server

A dedicated host runs your server 24/7 in a datacentre: no port-forwarding, no exposed home IP, DDoS protection in front of it, full file access for plugins and modpacks, and it stays online when your PC is off. This is the option that scales from “five friends” to “public community”. The trade-off is that it costs money — typically less per month than one game costs once.

How much RAM do you need?

• 1–10 players, vanilla or light plugins: 8 GB is comfortable.
• 10–25 players or a decent plugin stack: 12 GB.
• 25–50 players, or any serious modpack: 16 GB or more.
• Multi-server networks (proxy + backends): 24 GB+.

Inviting friends (Java vs Bedrock)

Java players join via your server address (e.g. play.yourserver.com). Bedrock players (consoles, phones, Windows edition) can join a Java server if you install Geyser — a translation layer that most hosts, including us, support with one click. Cross-play between the two editions is the single most requested setup for friend groups.

Bottom line

LAN for one evening, Realms for a small vanilla group, self-hosting if you enjoy the tinkering and accept the risks, and a proper host once you care about uptime, mods or more than a handful of players.