The Best Arma 3 Server Hosting (2020)
Last updated: October 7, 2020
Jason Lawrence
To date I have tested 33 different providers to see who can really deliver the best Arma 3 Server Hosting.
Since the year 2,000 an army of game hosting providers have spawned providing a service to gamer’s in need of a private place to host matches and worlds. Navigating your way through this platoon of options is no easy task as I found out looking for an Arma 3 server hosting provider.
This site has been put together using my own findings from testing 33 different providers around the world. To keep it simple I have summed it up to the top 10 providers along with a title for each declaring what makes that company stick out (ie. “the best value Arma 3 server hosting provider”).
Read on to view my findings, I keep this site as up to date as possible and return to update my findings regularly…
How do you find your ideal Arma 3 hosting company?
Arma 3 is the latest version of the amazing battlefield simulator and the resources demanded for the game is incredible, so you can imagine that the dedicated server is a power hungry beast too.
This dedication of resources is unfortunately reflected in the price you pay per month so expect to see higher prices for this game compared to simpler games like Minecraft.
Luckily though you can pay with every provider reviewed in this top 10 list on a sweeping scale dependant on how many players you will allow on your server. Opting for a smaller capacity server for you and a few friends can bring the price right down in comparison to say a full out war capable server that can handle 400 players.
You can expect to get a better deal when buying in bulk though, as you climb up the package size ladder you find the price per slot (player) reduce with most of the providers.
An important factor to consider when choosing a company to host your Arma 3 server is going to be lag. As you already know, lightning fast reactions are a large part of the game and you don’t want the game to be busy communicating with the server when you are on a total rampage.
To read more about my detailed best Arma 3 server hosting process check out my guide I have written here.
What are the most important factors I look for?
- The total cost per month
- The ease of setting it up
- Performance of your server under load
- Adding mods to your server
- The support-ticket waiting time
- Extra features in control panel
Best 10 Arma 3 Server Hosts
These guys made the cut for the position of top 10 out of 33 tested, I dissect them and speak about what is good and what isn’t with each. You will probably find that one or two stick out as offering the service you are looking for, be it cheap or premium for example.
Host Havoc - The Best All Round Host
Ranks #1 of 10 Arma 3 hosts
The Positives
Dynamic and friendly team
Focus on providing an amazing service for a few games
Value for money feature-ful game hosting
The Negatives
Relatively new provider compared to others on list
Less locations worldwide
Control Panel
Video Tour Image SlideshowMy top all round Arma 3 server hosting is Host Havoc, these guys were relatively cheap and offered the features that I needed. The support was quick and helped me with any issues I threw at them quickly and they even went out their way to explain things properly rather than just chuck a bunch of information at me.
They only offer servers around primarily “English speaking” countries, so essentially the USA, Australia and Europe.
Going through the checkout process was easy enough and appeared to be the same billing system all of the other companies seem to use. You set up your server with a few drop-downs and then enter your payment details, I always use PayPal for things like this so I can cancel my end if things go sour.
After purchasing from Host Havoc, my Arma 3 server was up within 5 minutes and they emailed the details I needed to keep (concerning payment and control panel sign-ins).
GameServers.com - The Best Established Arma 3 Host
Ranks #2 of 10 Arma 3 hosts
The Positives
Back by a huge data-center company
Host lots of different games
Provide hosting directly to game companies
Possibly the oldest game hosting company
Servers in every region
They don't pay for their Truspilot account
The Negatives
High price compared to others
Outdated website
Control Panel
Video Tour Image SlideshowThe oldest surviving game hosting company I could find, GameServers.com is a huge company that have hosted every game worth hosting. This company provides the servers for a lot of games that you can find when you first buy the game, they definitely know what they are doing.
This company also holds my personal award for having the best TrustPilot score for a company that doesn’t pay for a pro account in this list (that shows they have some serious believe in themselves right?).
When looking across their huge range of games and comparing the “price per slot” of their hosting with other providers you will notice that they are on the more premium side.
GameServers.com are backed by a huge data-center company with many smart people behind the scenes ensuring that their servers are running as best they can. This is reflected in the pricing structure, so you need to decide if you want to pay more for this or not.
You also have a huge choice of locations around the world to host your Arma 3 server, not just English-speaking countries but many in Africa and South America
LOW.MS - The Best Budget Arma 3 Host
Ranks #3 of 10 Arma 3 hosts
The Positives
Team made up of experienced members who had left a different provider
A large catalogue of niche games
Competitively priced
The Negatives
A fairly new company
Control Panel
Video Tour Image SlideshowThe LOW.MS company was formed of founders and staff from several other game hosting companies.
Its clear to see from the quality of the site and range of games that they know what they are doing.
The friendly support was quick and willing to explain things to me rather than just get me in and out as quick as possible.
The possible server locations for LOW.MS are restricted to the main English speaking regions like Europe, America and Australia
In terms of price, this company is the cheapest yet my server worked amazingly fast with little interruptions.
Survival Servers - The Best Modded Arma 3 Host
Ranks #4 of 10 Arma 3 hosts
The Positives
Experts in mods for all games
Custom built control panel
Stay very up to date with server tech
The Negatives
Smaller support team
Premium pricing
Only EU and USA locations
With their custom built control panel, Survival Servers were the best provider tested when it come to technical features. The ease of adding and maintaining mods to Arma 3 really pushed them ahead of the rest.
The support was knowledgeable but not as fast as some of the rest. Finding what I needed in their custom control panel and on-site wiki meant I wouldn’t have had to bother them with questions if I was a real customer.
Price-wise, Survival Servers came out pretty well and if you want to mod your server then I definitely recommend you take a look at these guys.
Nitrous Networks - The Best US Arma 3 Host
Ranks #5 of 10 Arma 3 hosts
The Positives
Backed by a large gaming brand
Easy to use modern website
The Negatives
Less locations to choose from
Nitrous Networks are a great choice if you want a USA based server as they offer plenty of choices of data-center in that country (they have now added a few European locations now too).
The pricing of the Nitrous servers are in the low end of the scale and the company has a great presence with positive TrustPilot reviews.
The company offer game servers for the common 25 titles that most of the other companies host for, so if you find you start playing something else theirs a higher chance you could switch your server for free.
GTX Gaming - The Best BIG Arma 3 Host
Ranks #6 of 10 Arma 3 hosts
The Positives
Experienced UK based team
Cover almost every game
Loads of server locations
The Negatives
Some regions require additional fee
Control Panel
Image SlideshowA global game hosting company based in the UK, GTX Gaming boast a massive range of games that they provide game hosting for. They seem to be able to provide a good service for a very low price per slot as long as you don’t choose one of the smaller sized packages as you won’t benefit until you order 30+ slots.
When I purchased an Arma 3 server from them I found the experience pleasant enough. The company accepted the usual payment methods and offered a range of locations in mainly English-speaking countries but you could pay to upgrade to some non-English locations too.
The support was good enough and straight to the point which I cant complain about for such a good value provider. They have manipulated the TCAdmin control panel and optimised it to provide a good experience for Arma 3 server maintaining and player moderation.
Streamline Servers - The Best Global Arma 3 Host
Ranks #7 of 10 Arma 3 hosts
The Positives
Passionate about server performance
The Negatives
Usually pretty expensive
Streamline Servers pride themselves on high quality hardware and a large global presence. You can see this on their high quality website jam packed with info and a vast library of possible games that they provide dedicated server hosting for.
After signing up and trying out their control panel I sent some simple requests to their support staff which were answered quickly. The support staff were willing to explain things to me so that I understood them rather than just moving me along.
The high price per slot of the Streamline Servers Arma 3 offering put me off recommending them higher up this list.
The big thing that these guys have going for them is the large number of global locations you can choose to host your Arma 3 server, currently at time of writing its 22.
Ping Perfect - The Best UK Arma 3 Host
Ranks #8 of 10 Arma 3 hosts
The Positives
Support a community of Twitchers
Wide range of games
Lots of global locations
The Negatives
Support was a little slow
Another “value for money” provider that specialise in UK based game server hosting, PingPerfect also host a range of titles other than Arma 3.
Once I had purchased and set up my new Arma 3 server I sent a few support requests to the team, this wasn’t as fast as the other providers on this page but then they are one of the cheapest.
Bisect Hosting - The Best Budget Host
Ranks #9 of 10 Arma 3 hosts
The Positives
Cheap
At the bottom of the list is Bisect Hosting who are primarily a Minecraft server hosting company. They do offer a range of games on the side but it seems to be a bit of a “side venture” – although the price per slot is very low.
If you want a dead-cheap server then Bisect is a good choice – you get the usual bells and whistles like the other providers here but expect no frills.
Modding is a bit of a chore and I missed the custom control panel offerings from other companies who were only a few dollars more expensive.
Fragnet - The Best Bitcoin Arma 3 Host
Ranks #10 of 10 Arma 3 hosts
The Positives
Lots of server locations
Server hosting experts
Backed by a large server company
The Negatives
Outdated website
Expensive starter package
The most expensive provider on this list, Fragnet does have the one benefit that they accept Bitcoin as a payment method. This may be of use to some people so I put them up purely for that reason.
In terms of support quality and response time they perform well but its hard to justify such a high price per slot.
Important ARMA 3 Hosting Features
Its important to make sure that the provider that you choose to host your ARMA server covers these important factors if you need them.
I cover this subject in more depth in my Choosing an ARMA 3 Hosting Provider article I wrote.
Mod/DLC Support
Not everyone plays vanilla ARMA 3. A lot of people enjoy the additional game modes the publishers released.
If you play any of the following versions of ARMA then make sure that your game server provider caters for it before buying.
- Atlas life
- Exile mod
- Epoch
- Wasteland
- Breaking point
- Contact
Anti-Hack
Large scale FPS games like the ARMA franchise are plagued by hackers looking to grief players.
Other than being annoying it can also be damaging to your servers reputation, many players will simply find somewhere else to and enjoy their game.
Having an anti-hacking solution already installed on your server is great but you may have to pay an additional fee per month for a licence.
Summing Up
Unless you enjoy sitting playing on your own then you are probably going to need a dedicated server of your own. If you have a god complex then that’s another reason to get your own server and lord it over the Arma world.
Whatever the reason that you need the cheapest or best Arma 3 server hosting the list above contains everything you need to make that choice.
Once you have found yourself setup with your fancy new game server check out my guide on how to promote your Arma 3 server to find new players.
My Hosting Review Process:
1. Find 33 popular Arma 3 Server Hosting providers
2. Buy a basic package and set it up
3. Run speed tests on server
4. Compare the features vs. cost
My Choices For Arma 3 Hosting
