Best Space Engineers Server Hosting in 2026
Space sandbox — build ships, stations, and planetary bases with friends.
We earn commissions from hosting providers on this page. This doesn't affect our rankings, which are based on independent testing and research. Full disclosure
Space Engineers hosting is a game of escalation. Your server starts light with small ships and outposts, but as players build massive space stations, planetary bases, and fleet-scale ships, the server needs increasingly serious hardware to keep up.
We benchmark providers by running mature worlds with high grid counts and measuring sim speed stability.
The Grid Problem
In Space Engineers, every ship, station, and vehicle is a "grid" — a collection of connected blocks the server must simulate. This is what makes SE hosting unique:
- Grid count — More grids means more physics calculations per tick
- Block count per grid — Larger ships consume more CPU per simulation step
- Active pistons/rotors — Mechanical blocks add physics subgrid complexity
- Programmable blocks — In-game scripts run on the server and can cause CPU spikes
A fresh world runs smoothly on modest hardware. A world with 6 players who've each built capital ships and automated mining operations needs significantly more.
Resource Scaling
| World State | Players | RAM | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fresh start | 2–4 | 4GB | Small ships, early game |
| Mid-game | 4–8 | 6–8GB | Stations, planetary bases |
| Late-game | 8–16 | 8–12GB | Fleet operations, heavy automation |
Server Management Tips
Space Engineers servers benefit from proactive management:
- Trash removal — Use admin tools to clean up abandoned grids and floating debris
- Block limits — Set per-player and total grid block limits to prevent runaway builds
- PCU limits — Performance Cost Units cap the total simulation load
- Scheduled restarts — Daily restarts help with memory management
Mod Support
Steam Workshop mods are widely supported. Popular mods like WeaponCore, Build Vision, and Assertive Acquisitions enhance gameplay significantly. Modded servers typically need an extra 1–2GB RAM depending on mod count and complexity.