Making your first server on uniz.host — the create wizard, step by step

Creating a server on uniz.host takes under a minute — once you know what each step asks and which choices are not free to undo. This guide walks the create page at /dashboard/servers/create from the first card to the final button, weighted toward the two things that catch people out: the change that silently wipes every mod you picked, and how to read the price and the caps before you create.

Four steps, but you probably will not walk all four

The wizard runs "Game" → "Edition" → "Server type" → "Size and name", and only Minecraft Java visits every one.

Bedrock has one server type and takes no mods at create time, and other games ship a single build with no edition, so those steps have nothing to ask.

The step bar across the top says so from the start. Before you pick a game it draws all four steps, with Edition and Server type dashed and labelled as Minecraft-only and Minecraft-Java-only. Once you pick, it keeps only the steps you actually walk. A finished step shows the value you picked — the game, the server type — and pressing it jumps back to that step. On a phone the bar shrinks to a "Step N of M" line with a progress bar.

Walking the steps to the create button

Pick your game on the first step

The step is headed "Pick a game": one card per game currently on sale. The list is fetched live when the page loads rather than baked into the code, so a newly enabled game simply appears. The last card, "More games soon", cannot be pressed; admins also see not-yet-launched games carrying a "Testing" badge. A game the platform cannot tell is empty, such as Core Keeper, carries the line "Never sleeps on its own: stop it when you finish playing".

Picking a game moves the wizard on immediately, with no confirmation. Minecraft continues to the edition step; every other game jumps to the size step, with the smallest size that clears that game's RAM floor already selected.

Choose Java or Bedrock (Minecraft only)

The step is headed "Pick a Minecraft edition" and shows two cards: "Java", "Played on PC", which takes mods or plugins, and "Bedrock", "Mobile, console & Windows", which takes add-ons later on the server page. Each card says what comes next; press "Choose Java" or "Choose Bedrock". Pick by the devices your group plays on, because the two clients connect in different ways. If your group mixes PC and mobile, the hint under the cards tells you to choose Java and turn on crossplay on the next step.

Java continues to the server-type step. Bedrock jumps straight to size and resets the version to latest — which matters more than it looks, because that reset also clears any mods you had picked. The trap section below covers it.

Choose the server type, version and mods (Java only)

The step is headed "Pick a server type", with the line "Not sure? Keep Paper, picked for you. You can change it later". On a computer the list of types sits on the left and the settings panel for the one you picked on the right; on a phone the panel follows the list.

The list of server types starts with the five most people use: Paper (marked "Recommended" and picked for you), Vanilla, Fabric, Forge and Modpack, each with a one-line description of what it is for. Below them, "Advanced options" opens "Other server software" (Purpur, Leaf, Folia, Quilt, NeoForge, Spigot, Bukkit, Mohist, Arclight, and Pumpkin with a "Beta" badge) and "Proxy (joins several servers)", which holds Velocity, also marked Beta.

The "Set up" panel, named after the type (such as "Set up Paper"), follows the type you picked:

• Version. "Minecraft version" is a searchable field ("Search version…") listing only versions the type actually has builds for. The top entry is labelled {version} (latest) and is selected for you; the line under it says latest is fine to start with and can be changed later on the server page.
• Crossplay. The "Let Bedrock friends join too" switch lets mobile, console and Windows players into this Java server through Geyser. Types that cannot do it show the switch disabled with "Only available for Paper, Purpur, Leaf, Spigot and Bukkit".
• Modpack. With Modpack picked, the panel shows "Pack to use" reading "None picked yet · the Minecraft version follows the pack". "Choose a modpack" first opens "Add content" to pick a source — Modrinth, marked "Recommended", or CurseForge — and after "Next" the pack browser; once you pick one you come back to the panel with a "Change" button, and the version field becomes "Minecraft version (from modpack)", limited to the versions that pack supports.
• Mods or plugins. Only for types that can take them. The heading reads "Mods (optional)" or "Plugins (optional)" depending on the server. "Add mods" or "Add plugins" opens the same "Add content" source choice first, and after "Next" the browser, which still has Modrinth and CurseForge tabs to switch source; or press "Add by project name (slug)" and type the name directly. Every item you add is pinned automatically to a build that matches the current type and version, and anything with no usable build is refused on the spot with "No compatible version for this server". You can add them now or later on the server page.

The step ends with "Next: pick the size". With Modpack picked but no pack chosen yet, it will not go on and says "Pick a pack first to continue".

Pick a size and name the server on the last step

On a phone the step is headed "Pick a size, then a name", and a summary of what you picked so far — game, edition, type, version — carries a "Change" button to go back. A computer shows neither, because the step bar at the top already shows your picks and takes you back to any of them.

If a dedicated machine is on sale at the moment, "Pick a machine" comes first. The "Standard" card reads "Our shared machines, at the prices shown across the site", and every other machine shows its starting price as {ram} GB from {rate}/h; you can move machines later while the server is off. With no dedicated machine on sale this section does not appear at all. Each machine is priced from its own live rate table, so this article cannot quote those figures — read them off the cards.

Then "Pick a size (RAM)": tiles from small to large, priced for the machine you picked. A tile you can pick shows only the RAM, the price as {rate}/h and the vCPUs; the size suggested for your game shows "Suggested" in place of the vCPUs. A tile you cannot pick shows more: its vCPUs, its disk, its cap per 24-hour round (except a size the machine does not sell, which has no price to show), and why it is locked — "Palworld needs 8 GB or more", "Not available on this hardware", or that no machine has room and when one is likely to free up. The caps for the size you pick are not on the tile; they sit in "Forgot to turn it off? It stays capped" (on a computer, in the cost card on the right; on a phone, above the name field). Under the tiles, a spec line reads, for example, 4 GB · 2 vCPU · 40 GB disk included. Standard prices at the time of writing:

That table is illustrative; the prices actually enforced are on /pricing, which reads live values every time it loads.

"Forgot to turn it off? It stays capped" shows both caps for the size and machine you picked — the most you pay per 24-hour round and per 1-month round — followed by "Billed by the minute · nothing while off or asleep" (a game with no auto-sleep reads "Billed by the minute · nothing while off"). A round starts when the server is turned on, and once it reaches the cap the server runs free until the round ends. For the detail, press "How billing works".

The last field is "Server name", with "My Awesome World" as the placeholder. It is required, 3 to 32 characters, with a counter as you type. It is not just a dashboard label: it becomes your subdomain, so the address players type comes out as <name>.uniz.host, and you can change it later from the Settings tab.

Read the cost, then create the server

On a computer the "Cost" card stays pinned on the right as you scroll. It shows:

1. The size and machine you picked, for example 4 GB · Standard machine.
2. The hourly rate in large type, labelled "per hour it is on" — the unit you are actually billed in — followed by the billed-by-the-minute line and both round caps.
3. How long your credit lasts, as "Your credit ฿… → runs this size for ≈ N h". It appears only when your credit covers at least an hour, and it takes the servers you already have running into account.
4. Game-specific warnings — Core Keeper, for example, gets a "No auto-sleep for this game" box reminding you to stop it yourself.

On a phone the card becomes a bar fixed to the bottom of the screen, holding only the hourly rate, the credit line, any game-specific warning and the create button. Both round caps sit in the "Forgot to turn it off? It stays capped" box in the page itself, above the server name.

When you are ready, press "Create Server"; the button reads "Creating…" while it works.

The big trap: three changes wipe every mod you picked

If you remember one thing from this guide, make it this: each of these three changes clears the entire list of pinned mods, instantly, with no confirmation.

This is not the system being fussy — it is compatibility. A mod is not remembered by name but pinned to one specific file, chosen to match the type and version set when you added it, and file ids from the two sources are not interchangeable. The moment any of that moves, the pinned file is no longer the right file. Letting it ride along would mean a server that fails to boot on its very first start; clearing is much easier to recover from.

Two more routes lose what you picked without much warning:

• Going back to the edition step and pressing Bedrock. That resets the version to latest, which counts as a version change, so the mods go too — and because Bedrock skips the server-type step, you land on the size step without ever seeing the now-empty list.
• Switching the Modrinth / CurseForge tab while browsing modpacks. This does not clear mods; it clears the modpack you had selected, because the two sources' pack references are not interchangeable.

There is one way to avoid all of it: settle the server type and version first, add mods last, and stay on one tab while you do.

RAM: what is a hard lock and what is only a warning

The size step carries two RAM messages that look alike but are enforced very differently.

A game's RAM floor is a hard lock. Tiles below the floor cannot be picked and say so on the tile — "Palworld needs 8 GB or more", for example. There is no way around it, because the server genuinely would not run. Floors vary by game: Minecraft can start on the smallest 2 GB tile, so nothing is locked, while several survival games start at 8 GB, which takes the 2 GB and 4 GB tiles out.

A modpack's RAM figure is only a recommendation. Pick Modpack and you see "Modpacks usually run best with 4GB of RAM or more", with the 4 GB tile marked as suggested — but the smaller tiles stay selectable. Choose one and an amber warning appears under the spec line saying the size is below what is recommended and the server may crash on start if the pack needs more. Warned, not blocked: plenty of small packs are happy on 2 GB, and nothing can know in advance what yours needs. Unsure? Read RAM for game servers.

A locked tile is a real limit; amber text is a risk you are free to take.

What happens after you hit create

The first real event comes before any of it — your credit balance is checked before anything is provisioned. A zero or negative balance is refused with an out-of-credit message and a "Top up" button, and no server is created at all; top up at least ฿20 and press create again. There is also a cap on how many active servers one account may hold at once (3 by default); hitting it produces a message naming your actual limit, with a "See all servers" button.

Past both gates:

1. The name you typed becomes the server's subdomain, attached straight away.
2. Provisioning starts inside the very same request. You do not have to press Start.
3. A "Server created — provisioning has started" toast appears and you land on the new server's page.
4. That page sits in "Creating…" a while, then moves through starting to online. First boots are slower because the game has to be downloaded; a large modpack takes several minutes.
5. The billing window opens only when the platform observes the server actually online. Provisioning and starting are not billed.

One more thing worth knowing on day one: every new server has auto-sleep switched off. Once online it stays online, and keeps billing (never past each round's cap), until you stop it or run out of credits. To have it stop by itself when nobody is playing, switch it on from that server's Settings tab — the auto-sleep guide walks through it.

Read next

• The auto-sleep guide — stop paying while nobody is playing
• Credits and billing — top-ups, caps per round, and reading your charges
• A tour of the dashboard — what the server page tells you
• RAM for game servers — picking a size without overpaying