How can I get Unity multiplayer hosting as affordable as possible?

Question

What are my options with Unity to host a multiplayer server as cheap as possible? Preferable if it's also avaliable in Russia.

Answer 1

There are two ways how you could have both multiplayer hosting and get it for free.

You could host it yourself. When your player base is still small, your own hardware should be enough. Once it grows and you start earning and your machine can't handle the amount of requests/ computing anymore, you can still look for a different host. The benefit is, you have all in your hand, server validation, works from Russia and it's free (besides electricity and Internet). You are going to need a static externnal ip but there are ways how to get one for free with services like ngrok + google docs (you would run a script that publishes the new ip each time it changes to the docs, ngrok in its free version needs to restart every 8h)

Your other option would be to implement p2p and let the players be the host. As long as you don't build an mmo, this should work quite well. You would still need to handle how the players can find each other but a self hosted match making server would take less ressources than hosting the game simulation for all clients.

There will be as well different network solutions that let you host with them for free until you reach a certain ccu.

• DMGregory: I wouldn't say hosting your own server is "free" - beyond electricity, you're also paying for your ISP to provide you with a static external IP address (which some charge extra for), with sufficient bandwidth to support your audience (which may incur higher usage rates or necessitate upgrading to a higher tier of service). With a P2P approach, you still need to provide a way for those peers to find each other, and often to help them hole-punch through each others' NATs, unless you want players to trade IP addresses over Discord and configure their ports manually.