Rust Server Hosting
“Whilst no gameserver host is perfect, Gameserver Kings have proven themselves to be the most reliable, knowledgeable and professional service in the space over the last couple of years.”
We’re hosting 1,900+ Rust servers right now · updated hourly
Rust server plans and pricing
Pick the plan that fits your community. Every plan deploys instantly and can be resized later from the control panel.
Starter
The 12 GB Facepunch calls the minimum, at our lowest price. Right for a small group of players on maps up to 4000.
- RAM
- 12 GB
- NVMe
- 20 GB
- CPU
- 1.5 vCores
Standard
Headroom for 4250-4500 maps and a full wipe of bases, with more CPU as your player count grows.
- RAM
- 16 GB
- NVMe
- 30 GB
- CPU
- 2 vCores
Community
For 5000-6000 maps - up to 4x the land of a 3000 - plus heavy plugin loads and a high player count.
- RAM
- 20 GB
- NVMe
- 40 GB
- CPU
- 3 vCores
Included with every plan
Save up to 17% with longer billing periods
Built for Rust: sized for wipe night, your map, and the plugin list
Four things decide whether a Rust server holds up, and none is the average Tuesday: wipe night, map size, the framework on top, and update day.
Your plan changes for wipe night, and back after
A Rust server's hardest hour is the one after a wipe: everyone arrives at once, on a fresh map, and starts building. The monthly force wipe puts that hour on the calendar, and memory and CPU move from your client area with no downtime and no migration. When Is the Next Rust Wipe?
Every plan starts at the 12 GB Facepunch asks for
Facepunch publish 12 GB of free RAM and 15 GB of disk, and note a 6k map wants more. Starter is that 12 GB, right to 4000; Standard's 16 GB carries 4250-4500 and Community's 20 GB carries 5000-6000. Both are panel fields. Change your map and map size
You pick Oxide or Carbon before the first boot
The framework is a Startup-tab field — vanilla, Oxide or Carbon — so the loader is in place before the first boot and plugins go up over SFTP. Switching from Oxide to Carbon means clearing Oxide out of RustDedicated_Data/Managed first. Install Oxide · Install Carbon
You come back on the build your players are running
Every reboot checks Steam first, so you come back on the version people can join, and a RustEdit map loads from a direct link in the same tab. The world is copied off-site every 24 hours, with five restore points and DDoS filtering on at the edge. How to host a Rust server yourself
No contracts • Cancel anytime • 72-hour money-back guarantee
Powerful Server Management
Every server comes with our feature-rich game panel — manage your server from anywhere with no technical expertise required.
Live Server Console
Monitor your server in real time with a built-in console, live CPU, memory, and network graphs, plus one-click start, restart, and stop controls.
Full File Manager
Browse, upload, edit, and manage all your server files directly from the panel — no FTP client needed. Drag and drop uploads, bulk actions, and more.
Startup Configuration
Fine-tune every aspect of your server with an intuitive variable editor. Selects, toggles, and validated inputs replace fragile command-line flags.
One-Click Backups
Create on-demand or scheduled backups with one click. Lock critical snapshots, download them for offsite storage, or restore any of them yourself.
Network & Allocations
Every server gets a dedicated port allocation behind always-on DDoS filtering. Ports are assigned when the server is built and matched to our firewall rules, so the ones your server needs are open before you log in.
Global Server Network
Pick a data center close to your players. The times below are measured live from your own connection, not quoted from ours. View all locations.
Rust servers deploy from four locations. Dallas sits in the middle of North America and is the usual default for a community spread across the United States. Ashburn covers the East Coast and is the shorter hop for players in the eastern states and eastern Canada. London serves the UK, Ireland and the western edge of Europe, and Frankfurt sits central for Germany, the Nordics, the Benelux countries and most of Eastern Europe. Between them the four cover North America and Europe end to end.
The figures beside each city were measured by your own browser a moment ago, so read them as a fair guide to what players near you will see rather than a number we picked. If you choose the wrong one, moving is free: open a ticket and support migrates your server files to any available location at no charge.
What our customers say
“This is the first time in my life that someone actually tried to help around this world of VPS/dedicated servers. Rene isn't good, he is amazing! Gave total attention, made recommendations. I am looking forward to migrate my services to GameServerKings because of Rene. I appreciate the attention once again.”
Igor garcia
“I've been with GSK and Cosmic guard for nearly 2 years now, They are very professional, helpful and quick to fix any issues. They normally can get a tech in same day to fix and hardware issues. We've had 2 cpu's burn out and they replaced them (after diagnosing the issue) Fast and free Extra big should out to Alexander hes the goat <3”
Josh from flowstate
“Machines and support are top notch! Love being able to communicate with real humans here and not sh.. ai bots that other sites offer. Communication is smooth and fast.”
BekerMelk
Aimtraining
Rust dedicated servers — when a shared server isn't enough
What outgrows a shared plan is rarely one busy server — it is several at once, one very large modded map, or a community that has grown a second and third server beside the first. Below that, most Rust communities genuinely do not need one: a shared plan is already a whole game server with its own memory, storage and CPU priority, and it resizes from the panel the moment a wipe brings more people than you planned for.
That is where dedicated Rust hosting earns its price. A dedicated machine is the whole box: every core, all the RAM, and no other tenant sharing the schedule with you. You pick the processor — the fleet runs AMD Ryzen and Intel desktop parts, X3D chips among them — and you decide how much of it goes to Rust and how much goes to everything else you run beside it. Nothing about the game changes: the same Oxide, Carbon and RustEdit setups move across untouched.
Run it on our game panel
Hand us the machine and we deploy it onto the same GameServerKings panel you already know — one-click installs, mods, backups, and 24/7 support, managed on your behalf.
Or manage it yourself
Prefer full control? Take root access and run it your way. The box is yours end to end — we just keep the hardware and network humming underneath.
Rust server guides
Guides for installing, configuring, and troubleshooting your Rust server.
Set it up on your own hardware, from SteamCMD to open ports, and find out honestly where that stops making sense.
Kits, teleport, anti-cheat and economy plugins will not load until the framework behind them is in place.
Move your plugins onto a faster framework without losing a config, and get patched sooner after a forced wipe.
Ban a griefer, fly through a base or hand out items in seconds. Reconnect first, or admin looks like it failed.
Turn a vanilla server into an honest 2x or 5x, with every gather type raised so players never spot the gap.
Plan around the monthly reset nobody can skip, then set your own cadence so it runs on time without you online.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about Rust server hosting with GameServerKings
How much does it cost to run a Rust server?
A Rust server here starts at $13.00 a month. The price tracks the resources you pick:
- Starting
- 1.5 vCores · 12 GB RAM · 20 GB storage
- $13.00/mo
- Fully loaded
- 3 vCores · 20 GB RAM · 40 GB storage
- $52.00/mo
- Dedicated IPv4
- Optional add-on
- +$5.00/mo
- Longer terms
- Paid annually or up front
- 5–17% off
RAM is the number worth getting right: a larger world size and a heavy plugin load both push memory use up as a wipe wears on.
Can I host a Rust server myself instead?
Yes, and we wrote the guide for it rather than pretending otherwise. The Rust dedicated server is a free download through SteamCMD (App ID 258550) and will run on hardware you already own; Facepunch's own figures are 12 GB of RAM and 15 GB of disk to start, and a large map or a long plugin list will want more. What you take on with it is everything around the game: port forwarding, startup parameters, keeping the build current, backups, and whatever a public IP address attracts. Our guide walks through the whole thing, including the point where renting is the better deal. If none of that appeals, that is what the plans above are for.
How quickly will my server be ready?
Your Rust server is provisioned automatically within about a minute of payment. You'll receive login credentials to your inbox so you can connect straight away.
Do game updates install automatically?
Yes. Your Rust server is kept on the current game build automatically — you don't need to patch it by hand or open a ticket when the game updates.
Can I install mods and plugins?
Yes — Oxide (uMod), Carbon, Harmony, RustEdit and custom maps are all supported. Plugins need a modding framework loaded before they will run, so install the one your plugins are written for (Oxide and Carbon are the usual choices), then add the plugins themselves through the control panel or FTP/SFTP. We don't restrict what you run on your server, and because Carbon is a drop-in replacement for Oxide you can move between the two later without losing your plugins or configs. Our Rust knowledge base has step-by-step install guides for Oxide, Carbon and custom maps.
What if I need to upgrade my resources?
Upgrading is instant. You can change your memory, storage, or CPU priority from your client area at any time without any downtime or server migration.
Is DDoS protection included?
Yes. Every Rust server includes enterprise-grade DDoS mitigation at no extra charge. We absorb attacks at the network edge — your players won't notice a thing.
Are backups included?
Yes, and in two ways. Your Rust server is backed up automatically every 24 hours to off-site storage, so there is a recent copy to fall back on if the machine itself fails — you do not have to set anything up for that. On top of it, every plan includes five backup slots in the control panel that are yours to use: take one with a single click before a wipe, an update or a mod install, or set a schedule so they run on their own, and restore or download any of those five whenever you like. Neither costs extra.
Do I need a dedicated IP?
Only if you want one. A dedicated IPv4 address gives your Rust server its own entry in the in-game server browser and puts it on the game's default port, so players can connect by typing just the IP address. Without one your server shares an IP with other servers and uses its own port instead — it runs exactly the same and your friends can still join, they just need the IP and the port together. It costs $5.00 a month if you decide you want it.
Do you offer a money-back guarantee?
We offer a 72-hour money-back guarantee. If you're not satisfied for any reason within the first 72 hours, contact us and we'll issue a full refund — no questions asked.
Can I switch server locations?
Yes. Contact our support team and we'll help you migrate your server data to any of our available locations at no charge.
Still have questions?
Our support team is available 24/7 and typically responds in under 5 minutes.
Open a support ticketDeploy Your Rust Server.
Join thousands of gamers who trust GameServerKings for reliable, high-performance server hosting.
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