Valheim
Self-host or rent a Valheim server
This is an operational question rather than a hardware one, which suits Valheim: Iron Gate documents how a server is obtained, started, reached and kept running in real detail, and publishes no hardware figure at all. So we ask about the work and about your own read on your machine, and we keep those two things clearly apart.
This page cannot tell you your machine is officially good enough
Iron Gate publishes no memory or processor requirement for a Valheim dedicated server — no minimum, no recommendation, no range. So there is no published threshold your hardware either clears or fails, which means nobody can tell you your machine is officially sufficient or officially insufficient for this. Not us, and not the confident sizing tables you will find elsewhere, because none of those are Iron Gate's either. What that leaves is your own read on your own hardware, which is why we ask for it and label it as yours. The rest of this page is on firmer ground: how the server is obtained, started, reached and kept is documented in detail, and the work of running it is the part a decision can actually turn on.
Your assessment, not ours. Iron Gate publishes no dedicated-server memory or processor figure, so there is no official threshold to check you against — and we are not going to invent one.
A server has to be running and reachable for anyone to join it.
Iron Gate documents two. The Steam backend uses the default ports 2456 to 2457 and requires appropriate port forwarding to be reachable from the internet. The crossplay backend goes through a relay, and does not require port forwarding for outside access.
The documented server handles saves and backups on a schedule, and gives you permission and admin files to edit. Self-hosting means all of it is yours, including the updates.
Answer the questions above to see a reading.
Documented network facts
The material behind the backend question, straight from Iron Gate's guide. The difference that matters to somebody deciding whether to host: one backend needs port forwarding for internet access and the other uses a relay and does not.
Scope: How a dedicated server is obtained, started, reached and kept — not what hardware runs it.
- Official server documentationSteam backend ports
The Steam backend uses a default port range of 2456 to 2457
Two ports, and they are the default rather than the only possibility. This applies to the Steam backend specifically, which is the distinction that catches people out — see the note about which backend you are running.
- Official server documentationSteam backend port forwarding
The Steam backend requires appropriate port forwarding for the server to be reachable from the internet
The work you do on your router so people outside your house can connect. It is a requirement of the Steam backend, not of dedicated servers in general, which is worth holding onto because the crossplay backend behaves differently.
- Official server documentationCrossplay backend
The crossplay backend uses a relay and does not require port forwarding for outside access
The genuinely useful one. Traffic goes through a relay rather than straight to your machine, so the router work the Steam backend needs does not apply. If port forwarding is the part of self-hosting you were dreading, this is the documented way around it.
- Official server documentationHow people connect to a crossplay server
Crossplay servers support connection by public IP and port, by join code, and through the server list
Three documented routes in, which is unusually generous. The join code is the one to know about if you would rather not hand out an address, and the server list is how people find you without being told anything at all.
Documented server and configuration facts
What running one actually involves, and worth reading before you answer the last question. Some of this is reassuring: saves and backups happen on a documented schedule without you doing anything.
- Official server documentationWhere the server comes from
The dedicated server is available through Steam Tools
A separate download from the game, in the Tools section of your Steam library. You do not need a second copy of Valheim to run it, and there is nothing to buy.
- Official server documentationStarting it on Windows
Windows uses start_headless_server.bat
The batch file shipped with the server, and the thing you edit when you want to change how the server starts. Headless means no game window — the server draws nothing and nobody plays on it directly.
- Official server documentationStarting it on Linux
Linux uses start_server.sh
The Linux equivalent. Same job, same place: it is the file you edit rather than a config elsewhere.
- Official server documentationWorlds, backups and permissions
The dedicated server supports world saves, automatic backups, and permission and admin files
Three things the server does for you rather than three things to set up. Saves and backups are handled; admin and permission lists are plain files you edit, which is how you decide who can do what.
- Official server documentationSave interval
The default save interval is 1800 seconds
Thirty minutes, which is the same figure in friendlier units. It is a default and it is configurable, so it is the amount of progress at risk between saves rather than a fixed property of the server.
- Official server documentationAutomatic backups
The default number of automatic backups is 4
Four kept automatically, with older ones making way for newer. A documented default rather than a limit, and the kind of thing worth knowing exists before you need it.
Software requirements, if you host on Linux
Genuinely worth checking before you commit to self-hosting, because the server will not start without them. They remain software versions throughout: an old library on a capable machine is still an old library, and it is not a verdict on the hardware.
- Software requirementGLIBC
Linux library requirements include GLIBC_2.29
A minimum version of the C library your distribution provides. Either your Linux has it or it does not, and if it does not, the answer is a newer distribution rather than a better machine.
- Software requirementGLIBCXX
Linux library requirements include GLIBCXX_3.4.26
The C++ standard library equivalent, and the same logic applies. Older long-term-support releases are the usual place this bites, and no amount of memory or processor changes it.
Source, last checked:
- Valheim — A Guide to Dedicated Servers — 29 September 2026
What this page will not tell you
- That your machine is officially sufficient or officially insufficient. There is no published dedicated-server memory or processor figure for Valheim, so there is no official standard to hold it against. Your answer to that question is yours, and it is labelled as yours wherever it appears.
- That one option is faster, cheaper or more reliable than the other. Nothing we hold supports any of those comparisons, and we are not making them from guesswork.
- That crossplay is a reason to rent. It is the opposite kind of fact: the documented relay removes the port-forwarding requirement, which makes one part of self-hosting easier. It is a networking convenience and nothing more — not a performance claim.
- Which provider to use, or what any of this costs. No providers, no prices, no affiliate links anywhere on this site.
- That Iron Gate recommends either option. They document how to run a server. They do not say who should run one, and the reading here is ours.
The rest of the Valheim material
- Server Requirements
Every documented fact in full, plus an explicit list of the hardware figures Iron Gate does not publish.
- Server Planner
Two questions about your group and your building, read against the same evidence. No tiers, and honest about the missing figures.