StickyPiston Minecraft Hosting Full Review
Introduction
Over the years, I’ve run modded Minecraft servers on a variety of hosting platforms, each with its own pros and cons. StickyPiston is a hosting provider I’ve used extensively, not only for my YouTube content servers but also for community servers, where I’ve managed up to 20 players at a time without any major performance issues. StickyPiston focuses exclusively on Minecraft hosting, which means they bring a deep level of expertise and dedication to their service.
I’ve had a close working relationship with the StickyPiston team for several years, even being part of their stream team on Twitch. During that time, I got to know the team members well and consider them friends. I’ve always appreciated their attention to detail, their family-friendly approach, and their involvement in the community—particularly their contributions to events like CubedCon and their weekly community game events.
In this review, I’ll explore their pricing, features, ease of use, and customer support, and walk you through setting up a server with them. If you’re curious about how StickyPiston stacks up against other hosts, or if you're considering using them for your own Minecraft community, read on for all the details.
About StickyPiston
StickyPiston is about as premium as hosting providers get, offering what I would describe as a "white-glove" service. From the moment you land on their website, you’ll notice how easy it is to navigate and sign up. They offer free trials and several plan durations, including 7-day, monthly, quarterly, and yearly options. Cancellation is straightforward, and they even keep your server around for a long time after cancellation, just in case you decide to return.
Their service really shines in terms of customer care. StickyPiston goes the extra mile to help their customers with any issue that arises. Their support team has helped me resolve performance issues and even recover corrupted world files. I’ve worked closely with them on many occasions, and they always provide expert assistance. In fact, I just looked and I've logged 123 support requests over the past few years! That's mostly mod pack updates, but there are a few crises in there that they helped with as well.
One of the standout features of StickyPiston is their willingness to install and update custom modpacks. This isn’t something every provider offers, and it makes a huge difference when you’re managing unique server setups. Their control panel is also heavily customized, with features that go beyond the standard offerings you’d expect from a typical Minecraft host. The ability to keep multiple server snapshots and switch between them with one click is invaluable. This allows you to run multiple modpacks on a single server and switch between them without needing a separate server for each one.
For someone like me, who’s often testing different modpacks or running a YouTube series on multiple packs simultaneously, this flexibility is incredibly useful. Within each snapshot, you can also maintain multiple worlds, making server management even more efficient.
Pricing and Features
StickyPiston offers a variety of server packages, starting from a 2GB base server and scaling up to 16GB. They also provide custom server configurations upon request. Pricing is flexible, with options for 7-day, monthly, quarterly, and yearly plans, and discounts are available for longer-term commitments.
All the important features—RAM, CPU cores, disk space, and backups—are included in the base price. While you can’t specifically configure CPU cores or disk space, StickyPiston ensures that each plan comes with adequate resources for most use cases. If your server starts to struggle, they’ll manually adjust settings and work with you to optimize performance. I’ve personally had StickyPiston help me clean up disk space when my server was taking up too much with old files and backups, and their assistance was top-notch.
StickyPiston also offers one-click installations for standard modpacks and provides managed support for custom modpacks. Their control panel is simple to navigate, but what sets them apart is their unique features, like multiple worlds and server snapshots. I’ve never seen another hosting provider offer this level of flexibility for running multiple modpacks on a single server.
To install a server, just click "Add New Instance" in an empty slot.
And from there, search for any mod pack, vanilla server, or map server
Managing your server couldn't be more powerful, or more easy!
StickyPiston Server Locations
Server location is critical to performance, and StickyPiston has servers all over the world. US West, US East, Canada (Montreal), UK (London), Germany, Poland, Finland, Sydney, and Singapore.
Control Panel Interface and Usability
StickyPiston uses a heavily modified version of the Multicraft control panel. This version includes all the standard features you’d expect—backups, FTP access, chat screen, console window, player management, world manager, mods list, datapacks, plugins, scheduled tasks, backups, sub-users, MySQL databases, and port management.
What really sets StickyPiston’s control panel apart is the server snapshots feature, which allows you to create multiple snapshots of your server. This means you can have several modpacks or worlds installed on a single server, switching between them with a single click. It’s an invaluable feature for those who want to test different setups or run multiple modded worlds at the same time. For me, this has been particularly useful when working on multiple video series at once, as I can easily swap between modpacks and worlds without needing multiple servers.
You can see here that I have 8 slots to store instances in. This is 8 full servers within a single server that I can swap in and out with a few clicks and a restart. This is an amazing feature that has proven invaluable as I'm working on multiple mod packs for research, recording, as well as playing with my family.
And each instance can have unlimited worlds. This is my Remain server's Manage World screen. I have two worlds here, but I can have as many as I want.
Compared to other control panels, StickyPiston’s Multicraft version is highly functional and user-friendly. It offers powerful tools for configuration and management, all while remaining accessible to both beginners and experienced admins.
Check out the Purchase and Setup walkthrough video on my YouTube channel...
Modpack Setup Walkthrough
Hardware and Performance
StickyPiston uses a variety of high-performance server hardware configurations to ensure reliability and optimal gameplay experiences. While specific configurations cannot be guaranteed for individual servers, the range of hardware they utilize includes the following components:
CPUs: AMD Ryzen 7 7700, AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, Intel Xeon-E 2386G, Intel Xeon E-2288G
RAM: Fast DDR4 and DDR5 RAM
Storage: NVMe drives in RAID 1 configuration for redundancy, including ZFS file system for continuous integrity checking on some configurations
Motherboards: ASUSTeK Pro and ASRockRack motherboards
Network Capabilities: 1Gbit or 10Gbit network cards
Each component is selected to prioritize performance, data integrity, and reliability, ensuring a smooth experience for both modded and vanilla Minecraft servers.
Perhaps more important than the hardware itself is how it's configured. All servers are configured with a generous uncapped core allocation and 7 threads per server.
For specific information about StickyPiston's hardware configuration, check out their knowledgebase article.
Customer Support and Documentation
StickyPiston primarily uses a ticketing system for support, with response times typically within a few hours during business hours. They also have a Discord server where you can engage with the community and receive additional support.
In my experience, their support team is incredibly responsive and helpful. I’ve worked with them on everything from modpack upgrades to resolving performance issues, and they’ve always been quick to assist. Whether it’s fixing a corrupted world or adjusting server resources, they consistently go above and beyond to make sure everything runs smoothly.
StickyPiston also provides an extensive knowledge base with a wealth of tutorials and guides that cover nearly every aspect of server management. Whether you’re a complete beginner or a seasoned Minecraft admin, you’ll find their documentation thorough and easy to follow.
FAQs
Here are the most common questions about StickyPiston:
Does StickyPiston support modded Minecraft servers?
StickyPiston excels at modded Minecraft servers. They offer one-click modpack installations and support custom modpacks.
Can I run multiple modpacks or worlds on one StickyPiston server?
Yes, you can manage multiple modpacks and worlds using their unique server snapshot feature, allowing easy one-click swapping.
How easy is it to upgrade or downgrade my server with StickyPiston?
StickyPiston allows easy upgrades or downgrades of your server’s RAM, and their support team can help optimize performance as needed.
What kind of support does StickyPiston offer if I run into issues?
StickyPiston’s support team is responsive via their ticketing system and usually resolves issues within a few hours.
Does StickyPiston provide server backups?
Yes, StickyPiston includes backups as part of their service, and you can manage them directly in the control panel.
What control panel does StickyPiston use?
They use a customized version of the Multicraft control panel with additional features for modpack and world management.
Can I customize my server settings easily with StickyPiston?
Yes, their control panel provides easy access to configuration files, plugins, and more, making customization simple.
What happens if my server has performance issues?
StickyPiston’s support team will work with you to adjust resources and troubleshoot issues, ensuring smooth server performance.
Can I use a custom domain or dedicated IP for my server?
StickyPiston offers subdomain options for your server, but they do not automatically offer dedicated IP addresses.
Does StickyPiston offer a free trial?
Yes, you can set up a free trial for Vanilla, any mod pack, and any of thousands of map-based games, which will go for two days as long as someone is logged in. You can download the world or transfer it to a paid server when you're finished.
What are the available payment plans?
StickyPiston offers flexible 7-day, monthly, quarterly, and yearly plans, with discounts for longer-term commitments.
Conclusion
In conclusion, StickyPiston is a premium provider that excels in both modded and vanilla Minecraft hosting. While they don’t offer 24/7 support, they more than make up for it with personalized service and attention to detail. Their unique features multi-instance and multi-world per instance support make them stand out from the crowd.
StickyPiston is an excellent choice for both beginners and experienced server admins. Their ability to handle custom modpacks and offer flexibility in server management makes them perfect for anyone running modded servers or large map-based worlds. Overall, I highly recommend StickyPiston for anyone looking to run a reliable, high-performance Minecraft server.