---
title: "Terraria server hosting: the complete guide"
description: "Size, difficulty and seed freeze at creation — Journey mode needs every player to bring the right character. The single port, the RAM that is enough, and why we do not do tModLoader."
url: https://tickserv.com/guides/terraria-server-hosting
site: "TickServ (https://tickserv.com)"
lang: en
published: 2026-09-01
games: [terraria]
---
# Terraria server hosting: the complete guide

Terraria plays perfectly well when one of you hosts the world from inside the game — right up to the moment that person has to log off and everybody stops. A dedicated server fixes that: the world lives on its own machine, the others keep playing without you, and you only pay for the hours it runs.

## 1. Create the server

Pick **Terraria**, the RAM and the performance level. The server starts on its own; you get a stable connection address and a password to share with your group.

Three choices are made **at creation and cannot be changed afterwards** — they define the world: its size, its difficulty and its seed.

## 2. Size, difficulty, seed: the three frozen decisions

| Setting        | Values                              | Why it is final                                                      |
| -------------- | ----------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Size**       | Small · Medium · Large              | The game cannot grow an existing world.                              |
| **Difficulty** | Classic · Expert · Master · Journey | It is written into the world when it is generated.                   |
| **Seed**       | empty = random                      | The same seed gives the same world — handy to replay a map you know. |

⚠️ **Journey is not a difficulty like the others.** It requires **every** player to arrive with a Journey character: a classic character is refused at connection, and the other way round too. Settle it with your group before you create the server, not after.

A **large** world takes noticeably longer to create on the first start: generation happens **before** the game port opens, so the very first launch is always the slowest. Later ones simply reopen the saved world.

## 3. Joining the game

In game: **Multiplayer → Join via IP**, then paste the address shown in your dashboard, and the password.

You have **no ports to open**: the game port (7777, TCP) is already in place. Terraria uses that one only — it has no Steam relay and no separate query port.

The server takes **8 players by default, up to 16**. The limit changes from the dashboard, without recreating the world.

## 4. Mods: what we do, and what we don't

Let's be straight about it: **our Terraria servers run vanilla.** No tModLoader, no mod repository, no manual install.

That isn't an oversight. tModLoader is a different executable from the game itself, with its own version chain and its own incompatibilities between mods — supporting it halfway means selling servers that fail to start one evening in three. If your run is modded, a host that specialises in tModLoader will serve you better than we will.

Everything else about the game is there: all four difficulties, all three world sizes, special seeds, PvP, teams.

## 5. The welcome message

A message shows in chat every time somebody connects. By default it carries your server's name followed by `tickserv.com` — replace it with whatever you like, or empty it to fall back on the game's own message.

## 6. How much RAM?

Terraria is **light on memory and demanding on a single core**: its simulation loop is single-threaded, so clock speed matters more than core count.

| Your game                                 | What we suggest          |
| ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------ |
| Small group, small or medium world        | 4 GB, eco tier           |
| Full group (up to 16), large world        | 4 GB, eco — still enough |
| Lots of simultaneous activity, big events | 8 GB on dedicated CPU    |

The price follows the RAM and the performance level, **never the game**: a Terraria server and a Minecraft server of the same size cost exactly the same.

## 7. Your world is kept between sessions

The world is saved on shutdown and restored on the next start, at no cost. While the server runs, a timestamped backup is taken regularly and the most recent one is kept; the backup option keeps several, staggered over several days back.

Already have a world going elsewhere? Bring it over:

1. Get your world's `.wld` file — and its `.twld` if there is one, it holds the extra data.
2. Put those files **at the root of the archive**, with no folder around them.
3. Upload the archive when you create the server.

## 8. Shut down when you're done

Server off = €0. Auto-shutdown kicks in on its own once nobody is connected; the world is saved at that moment and reopened exactly as it was on the next start.

That is the whole difference with a monthly plan: at a classic host, a Terraria server for a group of friends is billed every month, including the weeks nobody plays. Here, a few evenings a week costs a few tens of cents a month.

> [Create your Terraria server](https://tickserv.com/games/terraria) · [What it costs, exactly](https://tickserv.com/cost/terraria)