Shockbyte was born in the third month of 3 with a mission to make server hosting for games like Minecraft "simple and affordable" for anyone looking for an action-packed adventure or simply to improve their gaming skills. . Based in Victoria, Australia, Shockbyte has long been regarded as one of the leading edge and best provider of server hosting for multiplayer gaming giants like Minecraft, Rust, ARK: Survival Evolved and others. Initially focused on Australia, Shockbyte is now present on XNUMX continents: Europe (UK, Germany, France and Poland), Asia (Singapore) and North America (EU). US and Canada). The visual style of Shockbyte's main site matches the style of gameplay that played an essential role in its fame. Even the Shockbyte staff have been transformed into much-loved Minecraft-like pixelated characters, which is totally awesome. The same fate befell the official Shockbyte weblog, which is chock full of many articles that Minecraft enthusiasts will probably find very interesting. The blog itself seems quite active, with a few posts every month. As far as social media is concerned, these days they are present on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, Discord and most notably on YouTube, as it comes with great step-by-step video tutorials that many users will probably find useful. . Since Twitter and Facebook also work as support channels, if you are another user, feel free to contact them if you have any issues.
Shockbyte offers twelve different Minecraft-themed blueprints (Image credit: Shockbyte)
Packages and prices
To make your gaming dreams come true, Shockbyte offers 12 different blueprints (most of them named after different Minecraft resource blocks), 3 of which are premium ("Spartan", "Zeus" and "Titan"). Each and every plan includes a 1% uptime guarantee, DDoS protection, 6/2 support, and a free subdomain. The amount of GB of RAM you'll get and the number of slots (which really is a recommendation, as the amount is unlimited with each and every plan) depends on how deep you're willing to dive into your pockets. The easiest tray to use is labeled "Dirt," costs $XNUMX a month, and comes with XNUMXGB of RAM and over twenty slots. On the other hand, the most expensive one starts at €XNUMX a month and also includes XNUMX GB of RAM and the use of NVMe SSD, which should be XNUMX times faster than a normal SSD (SATA). If none of the pre-built plans meet your needs, you can create a custom one, which is always a good option. At the moment, each and every Minecraft server hosting plan includes XNUMX free trials. One is the "XNUMX Days of Advanced Enjin" plan, which will let you create a Minecraft server site with features like a donation shop, voting for diamonds, and more. The other one is "XNUMX Days of Buycraft Premium" which is the most popular online store solution for Minecraft servers. Instead of a standard XNUMX-day money-back guarantee (most other hosts screw us up), Shockbyte offers one that's only good for XNUMX days, so be sure to try them out as soon as you can and let support know. , if necessary. When it comes to payment methods, Shockbyte supports credit/debit cards, Paypal, and Paymentwall.
Ease of use
It doesn't matter if you are looking for a network server for certain players or if you want to put together a group of ten or more, ShockByte has you covered. There are many free plans and getting started with any of them is as simple as possible. If you're not here because of Minecraft (which is the place's favorite), there are few other free games (Rust, ARK: Survival Evolved and Valheim) and 2 of them should be coming soon (Hytale and Arma XNUMX). If it's Minecraft you're after, you can select between the Classic PC Edition and Bedrock (which is a better option for cross-platform play). Since each and every plan is presented in an easy to understand way, selecting one should not be a problem. After that, you'll proceed to your shopping cart, where you'll be asked to choose a billing cycle, currency, server location, and decide if you want a dedicated IP address (which will cost you $XNUMX) or server management services. (which go for €XNUMX a month). This service guarantees that ShockByte's technical team will install and configure any and all plugins, mod bundles, and client jars of the service for . However, since ShockByte provides a handy one-click installer, you can save money and do it yourself without any hassle. To complete your purchase, if you do not already have an account with ShockByte, you will need to create one by completing a familiar form with your personal data (nothing unusual). We advise you to read the Terms of Service carefully, as many of the customer complaints about ShockByte's services could not have been avoided unless they had.
You can set up your Minecraft server using Shockbyte's customized control panel (Image credit: Shockbyte) With the instant setup feature, when payment is complete, your server should be up and running in less than a minute. The control panel that ShockByte includes in their Minecraft plans is known as Multicraft, which is a comprehensive and simple to use solution for each and every aspect of your Minecraft server. Rust and Ark's control panel is based on Multicraft, so you shouldn't have much trouble navigating it. With ShockByte's one-click installer, you can use any of forty different mod packs (including Forge, Feed the Beast, ATLauncher, Technic Modpacks, Vanilla, etc.). The same goes for a number of plugins, which can be installed via the "Plugin List" feature in the control panel, or you can download them manually via FTP. In short, as soon as he gets acquainted with Multicraft, he's going to be ready to embark on a huge adventure.
We employ GTmetrix to monitor Shockbyte uptime and response time (Image credit: GTmetrix)
Speed and experience
Shockbyte uses NVMe SSDs, which means its speed should be 6 times faster than standard SSDs and 12 times faster than HDDs, which is impressively fast. Keeping the speed performance of Shockbyte's servers in mind, we tested the performance of their primary site, which should use SSDs at the very least. After reviewing it with GTmetrix (our favorite speed test tool), we got some great news. The overall score wasn't perfect, but it was pretty close with an A (5%). Since Shockbyte gives a top-notch XNUMX% uptime guarantee covered by SLA, can you expect your server to run XNUMX/XNUMX with no trace of downtime? Not exactly, but he should be compensated accordingly for every XNUMX minutes of downtime, which should slightly ease the pain of getting kicked out of the game while letting go of his existential dread by punching a tree. To test this, we monitor their main site's uptime without downtime over the course of a month using UptimeRobot as a tool. As expected, not a second of downtime was found in our log, justifying Shockbyte's XNUMX% uptime guarantee.
Support
Since there is no rose without a thorn, Shockbyte is not a perfect host either, especially when it comes to user support, it seems. After investigating what Shockbyte users think of them, most of the protests concerned the responsiveness of their support team, so we had to check it out for ourselves. Already ready to wait a while, we asked them certain questions through the chat and we got our answer in just over thirty minutes, which is not so bad. However, we are keenly aware that someone with a more complex issue might be less graceful than.
Shockyte's knowledge base has plenty of helpful tutorials, and the company's YouTube channel also has tons of videos to get you started. (Image credit: Shockbyte) Aside from live chat, Shockbyte's technical team can be reached via of a support ticket. Since their support isn't known for being lightning-fast, you can kill some time by exploring their self-help options, which are (really) commendable. Apart from the YouTube channel, there is a FAQ section and a complete knowledge base with over two hundred articles, one hundred and sixty-seven of which are dedicated to Minecraft.
Competition
Apex Web Hosting and Shockbyte use Multicraft as their control panel to ensure an intuitive user experience. Both hosts offer a wide variety of packages of different sizes, a large network of server locations around the world, a full range of mods and plugins, free backups, and much more. However, while Apex Hosting uses SSD hard drives to offer super-fast, lag-free servers to its customers, Shockbyte goes one step further and launches cutting-edge NVMe SSDs that are expected to outperform a regular SSD by 6 times. Another popular alternative is Bisect hosting and, like Shockbyte, it offers its users amazing flexibility with their plans. In terms of options and features the two are remarkably similar, however the more affordable option with Bisect Hosting starts at $2 a month, while it's just $99 a month with Shockbyte. So if you're looking to save a few dollars, choose Shockbyte. If you are looking for a web host to launch your site, Bisect Web Hosting can also assist you as they offer Shared, VPS, and Dedicated Server hosting. On the other hand, Shockbyte is totally focused on hosting Minecraft servers. A great alternative option to Bisect hosting, if Minecraft server hosting isn't what you're after, would be hosts like HostGator and Bluehost. Both are one of the most popular options for newcomers and webmasters, with a huge variety of hosting options, features, and free plugins. On top of that, they both offer money-back guarantees, so you can see it all for yourself without worry.
Final verdict
Shockbyte is a rock solid reseller that we advise anyone looking to lease servers to host their...