The biggest difference between these five options isn't price or RAM. It's whether everyone in your group can join. If most of you play Java but one friend uses Bedrock on a phone, tablet or Windows PC, Chunklink is the only option here with seamless crossplay built in: one server, the same address, no setup.
I build Chunklink, so this isn't an independent comparison. Its limitations are in the table, and when another service is the better choice, I say so.
The short version
| Aternos | Realms | exaroton | Nitrado | Chunklink | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, ad-supported | ~€4 to €8 / month | Per GB-hour, prepaid | Per slot, from ~€5 for 4 players | €5.99 / month, or €3.09 for a week |
| Waiting to join | Queue, 1–5 min | None, always on | Short auto-start | None, always on | About 5 seconds |
| Setup and tuning | On you | None | On you | Some, in a panel | None |
| Mods and plugins | Yes | No | Yes, including modpacks | Yes | No, vanilla only |
| Seamless crossplay | DIY setup | Editions stay separate | DIY setup | Bedrock only, Java separate | Built in, same address |
| Consoles | Workaround app | Bedrock Realm: yes | Workaround app | Workaround app | Chunklink app |
| Players | Generous | 2 or 10 plus you | Your choice | Your choice, per slot | 20 |
| Where it runs | Europe / North America | Mojang's infrastructure | Europe / North America | Germany and worldwide | Germany |
| If you need help | Community forum | Help center | Tickets | Chatbot, then tickets | Discord, straight to me |
Prices as of August 2026.
Aternos
Aternos gives you a Minecraft server for nothing, permanently. Countless groups have a server this way that would otherwise never have existed.
You pay in ads and waiting. The website is full of banners, and when nobody's online the server is off. Whoever comes back first starts it and sits in a queue: a few minutes on a quiet afternoon, a lot longer on a Friday evening. Performance is what shared free servers deliver, sometimes fine, sometimes laggy.
Pick Aternos if it has to be free. If it doesn't, a paid server costs a few euros a month, and the queue, the ads and the lag are gone.
Realms
Realms is Mojang's own service and the only option here that lives entirely inside the game. You subscribe from the client and invite people from your friends list. No address to copy, no dashboard. It's always on and keeps its own backups.
There are two Realms, and they never meet: a Java Realm for Java players, a Bedrock Realm for everyone else. The Bedrock one is the only thing in this comparison a console joins with nothing installed: Xbox, PlayStation and Switch, straight from the friends list, at around €4 a month for two friends or €8 for ten. The Java one costs around €8 for ten friends.
The trade: a Realm is a closed box. No address, three world slots, no mods or plugins, and your Java friends and your Bedrock friends can never be in the same one. Behind it is Microsoft, and when something breaks there's a help center and nobody else.
Pick Realms if you never want to install or administer anything, or if your whole group plays Bedrock on consoles.
exaroton
exaroton is for people who know what they want: Paper, Spigot, Fabric, Forge, hundreds of modpacks, memory you pick yourself. Servers start when someone joins and stop when the last player leaves, and you pay per gigabyte-hour from prepaid credits.
Worth knowing: exaroton is run by Aternos GmbH, the same company. It's the paid offering from the same house, and the natural upgrade once Aternos feels too small.
All those knobs stay your job, though: setup, updates, "why is it lagging", topping up credits. Exactly right if you have opinions on server types and memory tiers. Exactly wrong if you don't.
Pick exaroton if you want mods, a specific modpack, or control over the setup. Chunklink doesn't offer that.
Nitrado
Nitrado is the big German host and Microsoft's hosting partner for Bedrock Dedicated Servers. That means a real Bedrock server, not a Java server translating for Bedrock players: if your whole group plays Bedrock on phones, tablets or Windows, this is the native option. It runs around the clock, in Germany or wherever you pick, behind the simplest control panel in the business.
Consoles are no different here than anywhere else. Xbox, PlayStation and Switch can't enter an address, and Nitrado's own guide sends you to the BedrockConnect DNS trick.
You pay per slot, and it adds up: four players start around €5 a month, ten cost two to three times what Chunklink does. And it is still a panel. Server type, version, settings and the occasional update are yours to handle, and support starts with a chatbot.
Pick Nitrado if everyone in your group is on Bedrock and you want a native Bedrock server with a full panel.
Chunklink
I built Chunklink for one job: get a group into a vanilla world without turning the evening into a server project. There is no server type to choose, no memory slider and no config file. There are no mods or plugins yet. If you need those, pick from the two that have them.
Seamless Java and Bedrock crossplay is built in. Everyone joins the same server with the same address. Friends using Bedrock on a phone, tablet or the Windows 10/11 edition need neither Java nor a Chunklink account. Their Xbox Gamertag is all they need. The player list, whitelist and bans understand both editions. If you play both, you can link your accounts so your name, skin, whitelist spot and inventory carry across. There is no GeyserMC install, extra port or config to maintain. See exactly how it works. Consoles only work through the BedrockConnect app, which we don't officially support yet.
What you get instead:
- About five seconds from click to standing in your world. Here's how that works.
- A steady 20 ticks per second with up to 20 players, even when a lot is going on.
- Servers in Germany: low ping, European law.
- The newest Minecraft version from day one. Friends on older clients can still join.
- Your worlds are yours: up to 25, restore points, import and export as
.zip. - €5.99 a month, or €3.09 for a single week. Nothing keeps running on a pass, so there's nothing to cancel.
And the one thing that fits in no table: Chunklink feels different. Everything responds a beat faster than you expect. Hard to describe, you have to try it once to really feel it. That's what the 8 free hours are for, no card needed.
Support is me
Chunklink doesn't have a support department. If something's stuck, you write in Discord and get an answer from the person who can actually fix the server. Usually within a few hours; evenings and weekends, almost always. Same for requests: if your group is missing one plugin to play vanilla the way you want, ask.
So which one?
- It has to be free → Aternos.
- Mods or a modpack → exaroton.
- Everything inside the game, or Bedrock on consoles with nothing to install → Realms.
- Everyone on Bedrock, a native Bedrock server with a full panel → Nitrado.
- A mixed Java and Bedrock group that wants vanilla without setup → Chunklink.
Three of those routes lead somewhere else, and that's by design. I build Chunklink for people who have an evening free and want to be in a world with their friends before it's gone. Sounds like you? Start a server.
If a detail is out of date, or I've been unfair to one of the four: tell me in Discord and I'll fix it.