How to Set Up a Dedicated Game Server on Hostinger VPS (Minecraft & Palworld Guide)

The Advantage of Running Private Dedicated Gaming Servers

Public multiplayer game servers are frequently plagued by griefers, toxic chat, and sudden server shutdowns. Hosting your own dedicated gaming server on a Hostinger KVM VPS ensures complete control over rules, modpacks, automated backups, and 24/7 uptime for you and your friends with zero commercial hosting markups.

Deploying a High-Performance PaperMC Minecraft Server

PaperMC is the gold standard for Minecraft server performance, optimizing chunk loading and entity tick loops:

# Install OpenJDK 21 LTS
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y openjdk-21-jre-headless screen

# Create dedicated game directory
mkdir -p ~/minecraft && cd ~/minecraft

# Download latest PaperMC jar
wget -O paper.jar https://api.papermc.io/v2/projects/paper/versions/1.21.1/builds/118/downloads/paper-1.21.1-118.jar

# Agree to Minecraft EULA
echo "eula=true" > eula.txt

Launch the server inside a persistent screen session with optimized Aikar JVM flags:

screen -S minecraft java -Xms4G -Xmx6G -XX:+UseG1GC -jar paper.jar --nogui

Open firewall port 25565 in UFW: sudo ufw allow 25565/tcp. You and your friends can now connect directly using your Hostinger server IP address.