How to Set Up a Vintage Story Server

There are two ways to run a Vintage Story server: on your own PC, or on a dedicated host. The right choice mostly comes down to one question - do you need it online when your computer is off? If the answer is no, self-hosting is free and surprisingly simple. If the answer is yes, a hosted server is the cleaner path.

This guide covers both options, along with the config settings and startup parameters worth knowing.

Running a Server on Your Own PC

Vintage Story ships with VintagestoryServer.exe already sitting in your game’s install folder (default: %AppData%/Vintagestory on Windows). You don’t need a separate download.

Before you launch it, one thing worth doing: create a separate data folder for your server saves. If you run the server from the same data directory as your singleplayer game, your saves and settings will get mixed together, which gets messy fast. Something like C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Roaming\VSserverData works fine.

Launch the server with your data path specified:

VintagestoryServer.exe --dataPath "C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Roaming\VSserverData"

For friends to connect from outside your local network, they’ll need your public IP and port 42420 needs to be open. The easiest first attempt is typing /serverconfig upnp 1 in the server console - this tells the server to try UPnP to punch through your router automatically. The VS team puts the success rate at around 60%, so it’s worth trying before you go digging into router settings. If it doesn’t work, you’ll need to set up manual port forwarding for TCP and UDP on port 42420.

On Linux, the process is the same in spirit - download the server .tar.gz from your account page, extract it, and run the binary with your preferred data path. The VS wiki has a full walkthrough including a systemd service setup if you want it running as a proper background process.

Hosting with WinterNode

If you want the server online 24/7 without leaving your computer on, a hosted server is the straightforward answer. With WinterNode, you pick a plan, pay, and have a running server within a few minutes - no SSH, no setup scripts.

All game servers are priced at $1.99/GB of RAM with no extra charges for CPU or storage. For most Vintage Story setups, 2-3GB gets you started, and you can scale up if you need more headroom later.

Once you’re in, config changes happen through the File Manager in the Game Control Panel. The main file to know is serverconfig.json - navigate to Management > File Manager, find it in the Quick Access panel, and you can edit it directly in the browser.

We have a Vintage Story configuration guide in the help center that walks through this in more detail. Once your server is running, check out our best seeds and best mods guides to get the most out of it.

The Config Settings That Actually Matter

Vintage Story’s serverconfig.json has a lot of fields. Most of them you’ll never touch. Here are the ones worth knowing:

We see this trip people up regularly - someone edits the file, restarts, and wonders why nothing changed. If a setting isn’t taking effect, check that you stopped the server before editing, and double-check for any JSON syntax errors (a missing comma or bracket will cause the whole file to reset to defaults).

Startup Parameters Worth Knowing

Unlike Minecraft, Vintage Story runs on .NET rather than Java - so there are no JVM flags here. Instead, you pass arguments directly to the server executable at launch. These override whatever is set in serverconfig.json, which makes them useful for hosted environments or scripts.

The ones that come up most often:

# Set a custom data directory
VintagestoryServer.exe --dataPath "/path/to/data"

# Override the default port
VintagestoryServer.exe --port 42421

# Override the max client count
VintagestoryServer.exe --maxclients 10

You can also use --setconfig to set any config value at launch without editing the JSON file directly:

VintagestoryServer.exe --setconfig "{ \"ServerName\": \"My Server\" }"

Run VintagestoryServer.exe --help in your game directory to see the full list.

Try WinterNode

We’re obviously biased, but WinterNode exists because we wanted hosting that didn’t nickel-and-dime people. All game servers are $1.99/GB of RAM - no extra charges for CPU, storage, or features other hosts mark up. Get your Vintage Story server →

Everything is backed by a 48-hour refund policy, so there’s no risk in trying it out. And if you run into configuration questions, our support team responds to tickets with actual humans - we’re also on Discord if you’d rather get a quick answer there.

Our Vintage Story help center section has more detail on configuring your server once you’re up and running.