FiveM server hosting: what to look for before you pay

Good FiveM hosting comes down to six things: a fast CPU core with a stated, enforced share of it; enough memory for your framework and resource list rather than your slot count; a database on the same network; txAdmin and full file access; an honest account of what happens during an attack; and a location close to your players. The Cfx.re key and any Element Club slot tier are yours, not the host's, so any offer that bundles them or promises "unlimited slots" is telling you something about the seller. Everything else on a pricing page - the RGB screenshots, the "premium" label, the number of locations you will never use - is decoration.

This post is about judging an offer. How much memory a given resource list needs is covered in detail in FiveM server RAM: sizing by resources, the setup itself in FiveM server setup: licence key and txAdmin, and slot limits in FiveM OneSync, player slots and culling. Here, those facts are turned into questions to ask before you pay.

What a FiveM server actually asks of a host#

FXServer is a modest program wrapped around a lot of other people's code. The binary hosts resources - folders of Lua, JavaScript or C# - and those resources decide almost everything about how the server behaves under load. That shapes what a host needs to provide:

• One fast core for the main thread, where server-side scripts run, plus some headroom for the sync and networking work around it.
• Memory that follows the resource list. A roleplay server with two hundred resources and a quiet evening uses more than a freeroam server that is full.
• A database, because every roleplay framework stores characters, inventories, vehicles and money in one.
• Two reachable ports: the game endpoint (30120 by default, as both TCP and UDP) and txAdmin's web interface (40120 TCP by default).
• Disk for the resources folder, streamed assets, the cache folder FXServer builds from them, and a couple of older server artifacts kept for rollback.
• Your control over the files. Resources are installed by copying folders and editing server.cfg, so anything that sits between you and the file system slows down every change you make.

Bandwidth matters less than people assume during play and more than they assume on first join. Game traffic per player is small; downloading a server's custom vehicles, clothing and MLO interiors over the TCP endpoint is not. A server with 2 GB of streamed assets sends a good part of that to every new player, which is a reason to trim the stream folders rather than a reason to pay for a bigger pipe.

CPU: single-thread speed and an honest number#

This is the part hosting pages describe worst, and the part that decides whether players feel lag. FXServer runs server-side scripts on one main thread. Every resource's work in a tick runs in sequence on it, so a single slow script delays all the others, and the result is rubber-banding and desync with memory nowhere near its limit. Extra cores help with loading, asset serving and some networking work; they do not make that thread faster.

So the questions are about one core, not many:

1. How fast is a single core? A recent desktop-class or high-clocked server CPU makes a visible difference to tick time. An older many-core server processor at a low clock can have impressive totals and a slow main thread. If the host names its CPU model, look up its single-thread performance, not its core count.
2. How much of it is yours? "2 vCPU" can mean two guaranteed cores, two threads shared with ten neighbours, or a share that drops when the node is busy. Ask how the limit is enforced. A hard limit you can see on a graph is better than a generous figure that is not guaranteed - shared CPU and noisy neighbours explains why the second kind fails at exactly the hour your server is busiest.
3. Can you see it? A CPU graph against the plan's limit lets you tell whether the server is short of CPU or waiting on something else. Without one, every lag complaint turns into a guess.

Reading that graph has one trap. A server at 100% of one core with a 2 vCPU limit shows 50% overall, and looks fine. The main thread is the one that is full. Reading game server CPU usage covers how to spot a single saturated thread behind a comfortable-looking total.

On RE:NODE, CPU is expressed as a percentage of one core - 150 is 1.5 vCPU - and it is a hard throttle to the share you bought, with one container per server. A server pinned at its limit is slow, never suspended for it. The FiveM plans run from 1 vCPU on the smallest tier to 3.5 on the largest.

RAM by player count and framework#

Memory is the headline number on every FiveM plan, and the slot count is the weakest guide to how much you need. A realistic table:

The framework matters less than what is installed around it. ESX, QBCore and Qbox all cache each connected player's data and lean on the database; the inventory, phone, housing, garage and job resources you add decide where in the range you land. Memory also climbs during the day as caches fill, so the figure that matters is the one just before the scheduled restart, not the one at startup.

What this means when comparing offers:

• Buy for the end of the day. If a server sits at 3 GB after start and 4.5 GB eight hours later, a 4 GB plan is too small, whatever the first hour suggests.
• Check what happens at the limit. Some hosts let a server swap to disk, which turns a memory shortage into a slow, laggy evening. Others stop the process. Neither is pleasant, but you should know which one you are buying. On RE:NODE a server that reaches its memory limit is stopped and restarted clean rather than left to swap, so a memory problem shows up as an unexplained restart at a similar time each day.
• Check that upgrading is in place. You will outgrow your first plan. A host where moving up a tier means a new server, a new address and a key edit makes that worse than it needs to be.
• Count txAdmin. It runs as its own process alongside FXServer and uses some memory of its own, against the same limit.

The database: included, close and backed up#

Every roleplay framework needs a MySQL-compatible database, reached through oxmysql with a connection string in server.cfg:

set mysql_connection_string "mysql://user:password@host:3306/database?charset=utf8mb4"set mysql_slow_query_warning 150

The database is not an optional extra on a roleplay server. It is the characters, the money, the houses and the cars; losing it is losing the server. Three things to check:

• Is one included? Some offers price the game server cheaply and charge separately for the database, which changes the comparison. Find out whether the database is a slot on the game plan or a separate product.
• Where does it run? oxmysql makes many small queries, and frameworks often make several per player action. A database on the same network answers in a fraction of a millisecond; one across the internet adds tens of milliseconds to every query. Free remote databases on another continent are a common cause of slow inventories that nobody thinks to blame on the database.
• Is it backed up, and can you get it out? A database you cannot dump is a database you cannot move. You want a way to run mysqldump or export from a web tool, and backups that cover the database as well as the files.

On RE:NODE every FiveM plan includes one database slot, created from the panel with a generated host, user and password, and an "Open in phpMyAdmin" button that signs you in with a one-use token. If you want the database on its own plan with its own resources, MySQL 8.4 LTS is also sold separately under database hosting. The database and oxmysql covers schema imports, slow queries and the tables worth pruning.

txAdmin, artifacts and file access#

txAdmin ships inside the FXServer artifacts, so any host that runs FiveM can run it. What varies is whether the host lets you use it fully and whether it fights you on the rest.

Things a host should allow:

• txAdmin's web interface on a reachable port. Scheduled restarts with in-game warnings, crash and hang detection, the player manager with ban history, Discord whitelisting and the live console all live there. A host that hides txAdmin behind its own panel and offers only a stripped-down start button removes most of the tooling FiveM server owners rely on.
• Choosing your artifact build. FXServer artifacts are published as recommended and latest builds. Frameworks and some resources expect a minimum build, and an update occasionally breaks something, so you need to be able to stay on a known-good build and roll back. Updating server artifacts covers doing that safely.
• SFTP and a usable file manager. Installing a resource is copying a folder into resources and adding an ensure line. Uploading a 300 MB vehicle pack through a browser upload form is miserable; through SFTP it is routine. SFTP and the file manager has the connection details.
• Editing `server.cfg` directly. Some panels generate the config from a form and overwrite your edits at the next start. Convars such as sv_entityLockdown, sv_enforceGameBuild or set/setr lines for your framework need to stay where you put them.
• Subusers. Roleplay servers are run by teams. Developers need console and file access; moderators may need only the console. Handing out the account password is how servers get lost.

On RE:NODE, FiveM has txAdmin available, plans carry two port allocations, every server has SFTP with per-server credentials, and subusers can be given console-only or files-only access without billing.

DDoS: what a host can and cannot promise#

FiveM servers are attacked more than most. Roleplay communities have rivals, banned players have grudges, and stress-testing services are cheap. So every FiveM host advertises protection, and the honest version of that claim is narrower than the marketing.

What filtering upstream of the server can do well is drop volumetric floods - large amounts of traffic that is obviously not game traffic - along with reflection attacks and malformed packets. What it cannot do reliably is tell the difference between an attack that imitates real clients and real clients. Floods aimed at the HTTP endpoint on TCP 30120, or traffic shaped to look like connection attempts, pass through filters built for volume. DDoS attacks on game servers explained covers the categories.

When reading a host's claim, look for:

• What is filtered, in plain words, rather than a headline figure in terabits that describes the provider's whole network.
• What happens when filtering is not enough. Some hosts null-route the address during a large attack, which takes the server offline to protect everyone else on the network. That is a reasonable policy, but you want to know it exists.
• No promise of zero downtime. A host that promises no downtime under any attack is selling you a sentence, not a service.

There is also a part that is yours. Keep set sv_endpointPrivacy true in server.cfg so player endpoints are not exposed to other players, and keep txAdmin's admin accounts protected with strong passwords, since port 40120 is reachable from the internet. Most "DDoS" incidents on small FiveM servers turn out to be a resource being abused or an event being spammed by a modified client - FiveM anticheat options is the better defence against those.

On RE:NODE the wording is exactly this: upstream filtering that drops obvious volumetric floods, plus reflection and malformed traffic. Attacks that look like real players are not filtered.

Location and latency#

Pick the host location for where your players are, not for where the price is lowest. FiveM syncs entities between clients through the server, so everybody's latency to it shapes how other players' cars and characters move on their screen. Under about 50 ms to the server, roleplay feels normal. Past 100 ms, vehicle chases and shootouts start to look wrong to everybody involved, not just the player who is far away.

A few practical points:

• Most roleplay communities are regional. A server whose players are in Europe should be in Europe, and one whose players are spread across North America should be in the middle of it. Splitting the difference across an ocean helps nobody.
• Measure from where your players are. A host's looking-glass page or a test IP lets a few community members run a ping and a traceroute in the evening, when routes are busiest. Latency, jitter and packet loss explains what to look at besides the average.
• Many locations are only useful once. You will run the server in one place. A long list of regions matters only if one of them is close to your players.

RE:NODE runs in one location, Germany, on hardware we run. That suits communities in Europe and nearby regions, and it is the wrong choice for a server whose players are in North America or Asia - be honest with yourself about where your players are.

The Cfx.re key and Element Club slot limits#

Every FiveM server needs a licence key from the Cfx.re keymaster, created on your own Cfx.re account and placed in server.cfg as sv_licenseKey. It is free. It belongs to you, and so does any Element Club subscription that raises the slot limit attached to it.

sv_licenseKey "your-key-from-keymaster"set mysql_connection_string "mysql://user:password@host:3306/database"

What that means for choosing a host:

• The host cannot sell you slots. For years a key without a paid tier has allowed up to 48 slots with OneSync, and higher counts have needed an Element Club tier on the account that owns the key. A host's plan can say "128 slots"; if your key does not carry the tier, the server refuses that count at startup. Cfx.re has changed tier names and thresholds before, so check the current figures in the Cfx.re portal.
• A key supplied by the host is not your key. If the host's account owns the key and the host revokes it, cancels it or loses it, your server stops. If Cfx.re revokes it for something another of the host's customers did, the same. A key on your own account follows you when you move.
• The key is a credential. It goes in the config and nowhere else - not in a screenshot of the console, not in a public repository. Keeping it in a separate secrets.cfg executed from server.cfg makes that easy.

Moving hosts also involves the key, since it records details of where the server runs; moving a server without losing players covers the rest of a migration. On RE:NODE the Cfx.re key is entered on the Setup tab: the server is built at once, and the install waits until the key is there.

Red flags in FiveM hosting offers#

Some offers are simply expensive. Others tell you something about how the host operates. These are the second kind.

• "Unlimited slots" or "Element Club included". Slot tiers belong to the key owner's Cfx.re account. A host claiming to include them either owns your key, which is a problem, or is describing something that will not work.
• Free premium scripts, MLOs or "full RP packs" with the server. Paid FiveM resources are usually protected by Cfx.re's asset escrow and licensed to the buyer's account. A pack of them bundled for free is almost always leaked, and running leaked assets puts your key and your server at risk of being banned. Escrow and asset licensing explains how licensing works.
• A vCPU figure with no explanation. "Up to 4 cores" with nothing about how the share is enforced usually means the share is whatever is left over.
• No database, or a database on another continent. Either is a cost you discover after a week of slow inventories.
• No way to use txAdmin or choose the artifact build. You lose restarts, bans, whitelisting and the ability to roll back a bad update.
• No SFTP, no backups, or backups on the same disk. A backup stored next to what it protects does not protect against losing the server. Backups that actually restore covers what to ask.
• Zero-downtime DDoS promises and SLAs at 100%. Nobody can deliver them, so the question becomes what else on the page is decoration.
• No refund route and no way to reach a person. Find out how support is reached before something breaks, not after.

None of these mean the host is dishonest. Several are just signs of a product built for a different kind of customer. But a roleplay community will run on its first host for months, and changing later costs a migration, a key edit and a weekend of moved resources.

A checklist before you pay#

The short version, in the order worth checking:

1. Location close to most of your players, confirmed with a ping from a few of them.
2. CPU: a stated share of a fast core, enforced and visible on a graph.
3. Memory for your resource list at the end of the day, with headroom, and a known behaviour at the limit.
4. Database on the same network, included or priced into the comparison, with backups and a way to export.
5. txAdmin reachable, artifact build selectable, server.cfg editable, SFTP available.
6. Backups stored off the machine, restorable by you, and covering both files and database.
7. Your own key, entered by you, with any slot tier on your own Cfx.re account.
8. An honest DDoS description and a way to reach support that you have tested.

For anything still unclear, how to choose game server hosting covers the parts that apply to every game, and the CPU side is unpacked further in game server CPU requirements.

FAQ#

What is the minimum hosting for a FiveM roleplay server?

For a small ESX, QBCore or Qbox server with a curated resource list, about 4 GB of memory and 2 vCPU of a fast core, plus a database on the same network. A freeroam or development server can run in 2 GB. The resource list decides more than the slot count, so measure memory at the end of a full day before settling on a plan.

Can a host give me more than 48 slots?

Not by itself. The slot limit above the free threshold comes from an Element Club tier on the Cfx.re account that owns the key. The host provides the machine; whether your key allows 64 or 128 players depends on your Cfx.re subscription, and the server tells you at startup if the count is too high.

Do I need a separate database host for FiveM?

Usually not. A database slot on the same network as the game server is the simplest and fastest arrangement. A separate database plan makes sense when the database is large, when several servers share it, or when you want its memory kept apart from the game server's.

Is DDoS protection worth paying extra for?

Filtering of volumetric floods is worth having and should be part of any FiveM host's basic offer. Paying more for larger headline figures rarely changes much, because the attacks that hurt small servers are usually the ones that look like real players. Securing events and resources does more against those.

Should I host FiveM on Windows or Linux?

FXServer artifacts are published for both, and most frameworks and resources run on either. Linux hosting is common and works well; check that any C# resources you depend on are tested on Linux, and keep file names consistent in case, because Linux treats Stream and stream as different folders.

Can I move my FiveM server to another host later?

Yes. Copy the server-data folder, dump and import the database, update the connection string and the key if it records the old address, and point players at the new address. Plan it for a quiet hour, and keep the old server untouched until the new one has run for a few days.