Run a Luanti dedicated server on the Windows or Linux PC you already have. NodeMesh installs it, sets the launch options and keeps it running. Luanti is in Beta on NodeMesh, and we haven't run it on our own hardware yet.
Free on your own PC — one host, no time limit.
Sign up, then paste one command from your dashboard on the PC that will run the server — PowerShell on Windows, a terminal on Linux. The agent installs as a service and pairs with your account.
Choose the game in the panel. NodeMesh downloads the dedicated server, sets it up and starts it, and you watch every step in the live console.
Switch on the traffic relay for the server and the panel gives you a public address. Send it to your friends: their traffic goes through the relay to your PC, so you never open a port on your router.
The memory figures are for the game server alone. If you also play on the same PC, the game itself needs its own memory on top.
In Luanti, choose Join Game, enter the address and port the panel shows you and a player name, and click Join. The public server list shows the host's own address, not the relay's, so for a listed server set Server Address on the Config tab. We don't know yet whether a join through the NodeMesh relay works: if it does not, forward UDP port 30000 on your router and share your own address.
Luanti is not on Steam. On Windows NodeMesh downloads the official 5.18.0 release from the Luanti project's GitHub page; on Linux, where the project publishes no server program, it downloads the headless server build made by Luanti core developer ROllerozxa. Both are checked against pinned checksums, and Minetest Game 5.8.0 is added so a new world has a game to run. Luanti needs very little memory. The world is kept in the server folder, so your backups include it. One port, 30000 (UDP), goes through the relay, and the live player count is not shown. On Linux a stop saves the world cleanly; on Windows Luanti writes the map every few seconds.
One host — your own PC — is free with no time limit, for as many game servers as your hardware can run: the web panel and console, the config editor, the mod manager, auto-restart on crash and the traffic relay. Extra hosts cost credits.
See pricing →Beta: you can create this server today, but we have not run it on our own hardware yet. Expect rough edges, and tell us what you find.
Attach it with one line and players join it directly, next to every other game on the same machine.
No. Luanti is free, open-source software and is not on Steam. NodeMesh downloads the server straight from the Luanti project's GitHub releases (Windows) or from the headless builds of a Luanti core developer (Linux). Your players need Luanti too, which is free from luanti.org.
The Luanti project publishes no Linux server program, so NodeMesh downloads the headless builds of Luanti core developer ROllerozxa from GitHub, the same source other server tools use, and checks them against a pinned checksum. They are builds of Luanti itself (LGPL 2.1 or later), not an official release, so you are trusting that account for the build.
Very little: we ask for 512 MB at minimum and suggest 1 GB as our own starting point, not a measured figure. Mods and large worlds need more.
Yes, on 64-bit x86 hosts: the official release on Windows and the headless build on Linux (Debian 11 or newer, or anything with glibc 2.31 or later). Raspberry Pi and other arm64 hosts are not supported yet. NodeMesh has not run it on either system yet.
Yes, for one host. Running game servers on your own PC is free with no time limit — as many servers as your hardware can run, traffic relay included. You only pay, in credits, if you add more hosts.
Create an account, install the agent and pick the game. One host is free with no time limit.
Create a free account