ARK: Survival Evolved is an adventure-survival game that features a prehistoric setting. You’ll get to battle ancient creatures and dinosaurs, travel through lush forests, craft with a variety of materials, and tame your own T-Rex.
There’s really no goal when playing this survival game, but that’s what makes it great! It has an enjoyable single-player mode that you can play for countless hours, but it gets even better when played with friends and other people.
To get the best ARK multiplayer experience, you should know which server hosting provider to go to for your game server hosting needs. For a game like this, you’ll need a server host with top-of-the-line hardware, a quality network, and an easy-to-use control panel.
In this article, we’ll teach you how to choose an ARK server hosting provider this 2023.
Price
First, determine your budget. How much are you willing to spend for an ARK: Survival Evolved server? It’s important to note that the quality of your server isn’t really relative to its monthly rental fee. Some servers out there come at a cheaper price with better features and more quality hardware.
Platform
Are you going to play on Xbox, PC, or both? Some server hosts only support one platform, while some allow crossplay between two platforms. This may come at a higher cost, so think about it wisely. If you have friends that play on a different platform and you’d like to play with them, server hosts that allow crossplay may be worth considering.
Location
Location is one of the significant factors that contribute to the quality of your and your player base’s gaming experience. If you rent a server near you, players on the other side of the world may experience latency or high ping. On the other hand, if you’re only playing with your local friends, choosing a server host near you may be your best bet.
Slots
Go for more slots if you’re planning to expand in the future. However, don’t go cheap on player slots as this may cost you more in the long run. Buying player slots in bulk is more affordable with most server hosting providers. However, some providers offer each slot at the same price without a discount if bought in bulk.
Downloadable Content
Games like ARK: Survival Evolved are better with DLCs. This is because there really isn’t an end goal to this game. It’s all about the fun that you can think of, and sometimes you can’t help but run out of ideas. Therefore, it’s best to choose a server hosting provider that can support all the DLCs that you can have. This is mostly related to RAM and CPU processing power.
Latency
The number one enjoyment killer in gaming is latency. This is true for every game, especially multiplayer games like ARK. Therefore, server hosts with quality networks and strategically located data centers should be your number one choice when you’re looking to host a game like ARK.
Control Panel
As a server host, your main concern would be managing your server, hundreds of players, dealing with maintenance, updates, and all other stuff. With an intuitive and easy-to-use control panel, you can make your job as an admin and server manager easier. There are server hosts out there that boast customized and highly modifiable control panels that their customers enjoy.
Updates
If you’re not going to be a hands-on server owner, you should look for a server hosting provider that supports automatic updates. For games like ARK: Survival Evolved that get constant updates, you wouldn’t want to be bothered to manually update the game every time.
Backups
Data protection is critical when hosting a server. Your players depend on their data to enjoy the game and their saved progress. If you happen to lose their data and have no backup to show, you may just ruin the fun for them forever. With a server hosting provider that supports automatic backups, you wouldn’t have to worry about accidental data loss or corruption.
DDoS Protection
Protecting your server should be one of your priorities. Distributed Denial of Serice (DDoS) attacks can cause unwanted latency and downtimes for a prolonged period of time. This may definitely ruin the gaming experience of your player base. That’s why you should look for a server host that utilizes the most advanced and effective protection software.
Conclusion
Hosting a server is a big responsibility. Making the right decisions about everything mentioned above wouldn’t just guarantee your enjoyment while playing the game but also the hundreds of people that will be joining your server.
Also, server hosting isn’t a cheap thing to do. You’ll be investing a lot of money and time into configuring, handling, and maintaining your very own server. So make sure all your efforts and resources won’t go to waste by choosing the right server host for your game server hosting needs.
