Play Hosting is a free Minecraft server host run by the UK company Timbers Studio Ltd in partnership with Lilypad, offering 3 GB servers on AMD Ryzen 9 7950X nodes in Brighton, New York and Los Angeles.
Java
Modded
NVMe
CPU
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
RAM range
3 GB
Locations
Brighton, United Kingdom, New York, United States +1
Refund
Not disclosed
Support
Not disclosed
Minecraft Hosts score
6/10
Overall score
Price and valueNot rated
No comparable monthly no-commitment price: not rated.
Trustpilot: 4.4/5 from 105 reviews (checked on October 9, 2026)
Minecraft features3.5/10
Confirmed: Java Edition, modpacks · not confirmed: Bedrock Edition, Paper, mods (Forge, Fabric or NeoForge), included backups
Support and guarantees2/10
support hours not published · 1 contact channel(s) · no refund announced · free trial or plan
Network and locations5/10
3 location(s) across 2 region(s) · anti-DDoS not confirmed
Score calculated automatically from the data on this page and the public Trustpilot rating, using a published method. Undisclosed information earns no points. How the score works
Our review
Analysis written by Valentin for Minecraft Hosts from the plans and information published by Play Hosting, checked on October 9, 2026. This is not a hands-on test.
Verdict
Play Hosting is a free-only Minecraft host run by Timbers Studio Ltd, a UK company, in partnership with Lilypad. Each server gets 3 GB RAM and 10 GB of NVMe storage on AMD Ryzen 9 7950X nodes, in Brighton, New York or Los Angeles. The main weakness is transparency: the terms only commit to a 26.82% monthly uptime target for free servers, and no sleep, queue or inactivity rules are published.
Pros
3 GB RAM and 10 GB NVMe for free
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and DDR5 on every node
Three free locations: Brighton, New York and Los Angeles
No player slot limit, Bedrock crossplay included
Modpack installer for CurseForge, Modrinth, FTB and Technic
Limitations
Free uptime target of only 26.82% per month in the terms
Sleep, queue and inactivity rules not published
No paid Minecraft plan on the site
Cores per server not stated
Support only through Discord
Best for
Friends who want a free modded server with 3 GB RAM
Players in the UK or the US who want a nearby free location
Java and Bedrock groups, thanks to one-click crossplay
Less suited if
You need a server that stays online with a guaranteed uptime
You want to know the exact sleep and queue rules before you start
You want to pay for more resources on the same host
Pricing and billing
Minecraft servers are free. The site sells no paid Minecraft plan: its paid products are VPS (from 4 GBP per month) and dedicated servers in Brighton and New York. The home page mentions "Upgrade at any time" but shows no upgrade price, and the billing portal could not be checked.
Performance
Every node is described with an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (4,252 single-thread points on PassMark), 128 GB of DDR5, 1 TB of NVMe Gen 4 and a 10 Gbps uplink. Each free server gets 3 GB RAM and 10 GB of NVMe storage. The number of cores per server is not stated. The terms describe free hosting as best-effort, with an uptime target of 26.82% per month.
Minecraft features
Servers include a modpack installer for CurseForge, Modrinth, FTB and Technic, mod uploads through the panel, any game version, one-click Bedrock crossplay, extra ports, subusers and no player slot limit. The location is chosen at creation: Brighton (UK), New York or Los Angeles.
Support and guarantees
Support is offered through a Discord server. The 99.5% SLA in the terms only covers paid services (VPS and dedicated servers). Free users can delete their account from the panel. The operator is Timbers Studio Ltd, under UK law, and free-service data are processed by Lilypad Technologies Ltd.
Plans
Prices as published by the host, checked on October 9, 2026.
Data collected on 9 October 2026 from play.hosting (home page, terms of service, privacy policy). The billing portal (billing.play.hosting) and the game panel (panel.play.hosting) returned a Cloudflare challenge (HTTP 403) and could not be checked.
Play Hosting only offers free Minecraft servers. Its paid products are VPS and dedicated servers (VPS from 4 GBP per month, Brighton and New York), which are not Minecraft plans and are not recorded. The home page also mentions "Upgrade at any time" without any upgrade price. Lilypad, presented as the "premium hosting partner", is a separate company (Lilypad Technologies Ltd) and its plans are not recorded here.
Free plan: 3 GB RAM, 10 GB NVMe, "no slot limit", one-click crossplay, extra ports, subusers, modpack installer (CurseForge, Modrinth, FTB, Technic). Hardware stated for every node: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, 128 GB DDR5, 1 TB NVMe Gen 4, 10 Gbps uplink. The number of cores allocated per server is not stated.
Free conditions: the terms state that free hosting is "best-effort" with an uptime target of 26.82% per month (the stated compensation is a selfie of Tubbo, a joke). Sleep, queue, inactivity and advertising rules are not published on the official pages. Customer reviews displayed on the home page mention wake-up times, a "queue system", waiting "in limbo" and ads: this is not an official commitment.
Company: Play Hosting is a trade name of Timbers Studio Ltd, under UK law (terms). The home page says "Built by Tubbo" and "Since February 2025, over a million servers have trusted Play Hosting": founding year recorded as 2025. Free-service data are processed by Lilypad (privacy policy). Brighton (UK) is a new location. Support channel: Discord (linked from the home page). Panel software is not named.
