Palworld, Valheim and co. on a VPS

Server-requirement pages are written by people who sell you the server, or by people who copied them. We went to the developers instead.

The short answer

Before you rent a VPS for a survival game, read what the game's own developers write, and read what each number refers to. Pocketpair's Palworld page asks for 16 GB of memory and calls 8 GB "bootable" with a higher risk of out-of-memory crashes [1]. A Hostinger tutorial from 18 Dec 2025 says 8 GB or more and 16 GB for 32 players [9]. That is less of a contradiction than a difference in wording, and it matters when you buy. Valheim's developer guide names no hardware figure at all [2]. Enshrouded runs only on Windows by its developer's own account [5], ARK: Survival Ascended by the account of the ARK wiki [8], and on a VPS that adds a Windows licence. Our assessment: take the developer's recommended figure as your floor, add the operating system on top, and treat everything else as a starting point you verify on your own world.

How it works

1. Where the numbers come from. The table below uses only developer documentation or the wiki that the game itself labels as official. Where the developer gives no figure, the cell says so. Hosting blogs are not used as evidence for requirements. Several pages show a date, and we name it where it matters; others carry none. All pages were retrieved on 24 Oct 2026.
2. What each number refers to. A memory figure can mean the whole machine, the free memory, or one process. It can be a minimum or a recommendation, for an empty world or for a full one. Mixing these up is how people buy the wrong plan.
3. Palworld, precisely. The requirements cell reads "16GB Recommended for larger than 32GB. 8GB is also bootable, but increases the possibility of server crashes due to out of memory" [1]. Our reading is 16 GB as the requirement and 32 GB for larger servers; the wording is ambiguous, so check the page. It also recommends four or more cores, a fast SSD ("low-performance storage may corrupt saved data"), and UDP port 8211 [1]. The Hostinger tutorial opens TCP and UDP for 8211 [9], while the developer table lists only UDP [1]. We did not test whether TCP is needed.
4. Enshrouded has two answers. Keen Games recommends 16 GB of RAM for four to six players and for sixteen, with a six-core, 3.2 GHz class CPU for the smaller group and eight cores at 3.7 GHz for the larger one [3]. Its FAQ (updated 21 Feb 2025) says the server process uses about 4.4 GB idle, up to 100 MB more per player, and should not exceed 6 GB in total [4]. The first number is for the machine, the second for the process. Both are official.
5. Rust and ARK use yet other bases. Facepunch asks for 12 GB of free RAM, so the operating system comes on top, and says a 6k map uses more [7]. The ARK wiki gives memory by map on a new world with default settings, no players and without the operating system: 7 to 12 GiB for the ASA maps that list a figure [8].
6. CPU on a VPS has its own trap. Satisfactory's official wiki says a kvm64 virtual CPU will not work and that a VPS "most definitely" is a VM [6]. Contabo documents its VPS as KVM with shared vCPU cores [12]. Ask the provider which CPU type the guest sees, or test a short-term plan before you commit.
7. Windows-only servers cost extra. Keen's installation article says "For now, only Windows is supported" (article dated 23 Feb 2024; the page does not show a later change) [5]. The ARK wiki says ASA requires Windows or a Windows-like environment and has no native Linux support [8]. Community setups run such servers under Wine or Proton; the developers do not document that, and an update can break it. On Contabo you cannot use your own Windows licence on a VPS, and the licence is billed monthly according to the VPS size [10][11]. Other providers have their own rules, so ask before you order.
8. ARK has a licence rule. The ARK wiki says that, per the end-user licence agreement, dedicated servers may be hosted only for personal, non-commercial use unless you hold a licence from Nitrado [8]. Nitrado's ASA page says monetisation through donations, VIP roles and similar is possible within the game's terms and EULA [14]. The two statements are worded differently. Read the EULA yourself before you charge anyone anything; this is not legal advice.
9. Managed hosting is a different product. Nitrado sells slots, not gigabytes: ASA starts at 20 or 26 slots, and the 20-slot package leaves out the Astraeos and Lost Colony maps because of their performance demands [14]. Palworld servers there take up to 32 players and have no mod support [15]. You manage them through a web interface [16]; the pages we read do not mention shell access. Hostinger's Game Panel lists 100+ games, including Palworld, Valheim, Enshrouded and Rust, on VPS plans from 4 GB of RAM [13]. Whether the panel runs a Windows-only server natively or through a compatibility layer is not stated on the page we read. Ask.

Satisfactory's wiki calls its figures "community recommendations for minimum requirements" [6]. ARK's wiki is named "ARK Official Community Wiki" and is community-run, so treat it as a good secondary source rather than a developer statement [8]. Valheim's guide (11 Apr 2024) covers ports, packages and commands but gives no RAM or CPU figure [2].

A worked example (calculation, not a test)

A group of friends wants Palworld and Satisfactory on one VPS, both running at once. We tested nothing here; this is arithmetic from the table. Palworld's recommendation is 16 GB [1]. Satisfactory's wiki recommends 16 GB for more than four players [6]. Together that is 32 GB for two server processes, before the operating system. A plan with exactly 32 GB has no headroom. Hostinger's Game Panel tiers are 4, 8, 16 and 32 GB [13], and Contabo's Core plans run 8, 12, 24, 48, 64 and 96 GB [12]. By this arithmetic the next size above 32 GB is the one to look at. Recommendations are not measurements, so run the real servers for a week and read the memory use before you settle. If a game is quiet most evenings, you may also decide to start one server at a time.

Open only the ports the table lists, and only for the protocol given. On a Debian or Ubuntu VPS, allow SSH before you switch the firewall on [17]:

sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw allow 8211/udp    # Palworld (developer table: UDP)
sudo ufw allow 7777        # Satisfactory: TCP and UDP
sudo ufw allow 8888/tcp    # Satisfactory: reliable messaging
sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw status verbose

Checklist

• Check the developer's own server page before any tutorial, and write down the date and version of what you read.
• Check what each memory figure refers to: machine, free memory or process; minimum or recommendation; empty or full world.
• Calculate the sum of all game servers you run at once, then add the operating system.
• Check the server operating system. For Windows-only games, add the licence to the monthly cost and ask how the provider handles it [10].
• Ask the provider which CPU type the VPS shows to the guest, and avoid generic kvm64 for Satisfactory [6].
• Choose fast SSD or NVMe storage; Palworld warns about slow storage [1].
• Open only the listed ports with the listed protocol, and allow SSH before enabling the firewall [17].
• Read the licence terms of the game before you take money for a server, especially for ARK [8].
• Compare managed hosting by what you can change: slots, mods, shell access, supported maps [14][15].
• Watch memory use for a week on the real server, then resize.