How to Host a Puck Server (Step by Step, 2026)

To host a Puck server without leaving your own PC on, pick a plan on GamezServers, pay, and your dedicated server is online in about 60 seconds with its own address and a 200 Hz tick rate. Your group joins through Server Browser > Direct Connect in Puck, and the rink stays up for pickup games, club nights and league matches whenever people want to play. This guide covers choosing a plan, the settings that matter for Puck, adding admins and keeping the server healthy.

Step 1: Pick the right plan

Puck's dedicated server is one of the lightest game servers there is. One instance uses roughly 300 MB of memory, so plans are really about how many players and spectators you want on the rink.

Plan	RAM	Player slots	Price per month	Good for
Starter	1 GB	12	2.99 USD	5v5 or 6v6 with goalies, pickup games, club nights
Standard	2 GB	20	4.99 USD	Public lobbies with spectators and subs, a few mods
Pro	3 GB	32	7.99 USD	Big lobbies, league nights with casters and a mod list

A few rules of thumb:

A regular 5v5 or 6v6 group: Starter. Twelve slots fit two full teams of five skaters and a goalie.
A public server people drop into: Standard. Spectators and players waiting for a spot all count toward the limit.
Leagues with referees, streamers and subs on the server: Pro.

The player limit is set from your plan automatically, so it follows upgrades. You can change plan any time, and new customers get 50% off the first month on any plan. For more on sizing, read how much RAM a game server needs.

Step 2: Choose your settings at checkout

Checkout shows the settings most Puck hosts change first. All of them can be changed later in the panel.

Setting	What it does
Join password	Players type it to get in. Leave it empty for an open server.
Game mode	Public: anyone picks a team. Competitive: only the Steam IDs you assign to Blue and Red play, everyone else spectates.
Period length (seconds)	Play time per period. 300 is 5 minutes, which is Puck's default.
Periods per game	3 by default.
Admin Steam IDs	SteamID64s, separated by commas, who can use admin chat commands like /kick, /pause and /skip.

Under More settings you will also find warmup length, goalie crease protection, goal slow motion, whether the server shows in the Puck server browser, voice chat, the whitelist and the tick rate.

Step 3: Split the cost (optional)

At checkout you can choose Split with friends and pick from 2 to 10 people. Everyone pays their own share by card, and each share includes a 1 USD payment fee. It is a good fit for a club or league where everyone chips in for the rink.

You pay your share and the server starts straight away.
Each friend gets their own payment link and pays when they are ready.
Friends who sign in with the email they paid with see the server in their own dashboard.

Details are in billing and cancellation.

Step 4: Pay and copy your address

Name your server, sign in or create an account, then pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay through Stripe. Billing is monthly with no contract, and you can cancel any time from the dashboard.

You land on your dashboard right after checkout. Your server shows as Setting up while SteamCMD downloads Puck (app 3481440), then Online. Open it to see the address at the top, in the form 203.0.113.10:30609. The part before the colon is the IP address, the number after it is the port.

Step 5: How players join

Launch Puck and open the Server Browser from the main menu.
Search for your server's name, or click Direct Connect.
In Direct Connect, type the IP address in the IP box and the port in the port box, then click Connect.
Enter the password if you set one. Any mods the server requires download automatically.

Direct Connect has separate boxes for the IP and the port, so do not paste the whole address with the colon into one box. You can also share a join link: with Steam running, opening steam://run/2994020//+ipAddress 203.0.113.10 +port 30609/ in a browser starts Puck and connects. More options are in how to join a Puck server.

Step 6: First things to set up

Make yourself admin

Find your SteamID64, the 17 digit number that starts with 7656, from your Steam profile link or a lookup site. Paste it into Admin Steam IDs in the panel and restart. You can list several admins separated by commas. Admins can kick, ban, pause, skip phases and force a faceoff from chat, and they can join even when the server is full. The full list is in Puck admin commands.

Prefer to manage admins by hand? Leave the setting empty and edit admin_steam_ids.json in Files. The server reloads it the moment it changes.

Set your game rules

Period length, number of periods and warmup length apply to both game modes. Crease protection filters body contact inside the goalie crease, and goal slow motion plays the cinematic replay after each goal. Turn slow motion off if your league wants faceoffs to come back quicker. Everything is explained in Puck server config explained.

Private or league server

For a private server, set a join password, or turn on Whitelist only and list players in Whitelisted Steam IDs. For league matches, switch Game mode to competitive and put each team's Steam IDs in competitive_game_mode_config.json. Step by step: how to set up a Puck league server.

Mods

Puck mods come from the Steam Workshop and are added by id to the mods list in server_config.json. Client required mods download to players as they connect. See how to add mods to a Puck server.

Where the console fits in

The Puck server has no console commands. The panel console shows the server log: startup, players joining and leaving, mods loading and the line that says the server is ready to accept clients. Every admin action happens in the in game chat. The Start, Restart, Stop and Backup buttons in the panel work as usual.

Updates, backups and upgrades

Updates: the server checks Steam for a new Puck build every time it starts. After a Puck patch, restart it so it matches your players.
Backups: press Backup before editing config files by hand. You get 3 backups.
Sleep when empty: servers can stop after 4 days with nobody playing, and anyone with access starts them again in one click. Turn it off in Settings if you want the rink online around the clock.
Upgrading: pick a bigger plan in Settings. The price is prorated and the new player limit applies after a restart.

Self hosting vs GamezServers

	Self hosting	GamezServers
Cost	Free, plus a PC or VPS that stays on	From 2.99 USD a month, or split between friends
Setup time	30 minutes or more with SteamCMD and JSON files	About 60 seconds
Port forwarding	Port 30609 TCP and UDP	None
Game rules	Edited by hand in JSON	Settings in the panel
Your home IP	Shared with every player	Never shared

Prefer to run it yourself? How to make a Puck dedicated server covers SteamCMD, the config files and port forwarding on Linux and Windows.

FAQ

How much does a Puck server cost?

Plans start at 2.99 USD a month for 12 slots, with 50% off the first month for new customers.

Do players need anything special to join?

Only Puck itself, which is free on Steam. Mods the server requires download automatically on connect.

Can I run ranked style games on my server?

Puck's ranked matchmaking runs on the developer's own servers. On your server you can recreate a ranked feel with competitive mode, fixed teams, a whitelist and the period settings your group agrees on.

What happens if I cancel?

The server runs until the end of the paid month. Download your config files from Files first if you want to keep them.