ScalaCube review

ScalaCube sells slices of a VPS, with a free tier

ScalaCube's Minecraft page describes the product as "VPS servers with a restricted amount of resources: memory, CPU, disk space", on which a customer can run "an unlimited number of game servers with an unlimited number of slots". The page also says the player counts in plan names are approximate: "this number can be more or less, depending on the plugins and mods installed".

So the unit you buy is RAM, and "Unlimited Slots" means the host does not cap players, not that the box handles any number. The Terms back this reading: "Game server performance issues" and root access "shall be the responsibility of the Client" (section 1.2).

The free plan is the other distinctive feature. The Minecraft page lists "8 GB RAM, 24/7 - Free - Forever", and the free hosting page says "No credit card. No time limit." The pages read for this review do not set out the free plan's limits. The Terms say, in section 7.10, "The Company does not offer free technical support, excluding cases when technical support is paid for within a subscription plan or on one-time basis". The paid-plan pages advertise 24/7 support, so ask which tier gets support before relying on it.

ScalaCube lists Minecraft, Minecraft Bedrock, Palworld, ARK, Rust, Hytale, Valheim, Project Zomboid, Terraria and others. Matching hubs here: Palworld, Rust, Project Zomboid, Valheim and Hytale. A head-to-head with a similar budget host is at ScalaCube vs Shockbyte.

What a ScalaCube plan costs today

ScalaCube's Minecraft prices start at $2 a month and rise in steps, with 50 percent off the first invoice. The prices below are "excl. VAT" per the page, in USD on a page that offers USD, EUR, GBP, CAD and AUD.

Source: ScalaCube Minecraft page, 8 Nov 2026. Player counts are ScalaCube's estimates. The last column is half the list price, as the page's "50% off the first month" and "50% off first invoice" wording implies; the page does not show the discounted figure.

The discount varies by game. The Palworld page shows "20% OFF for the first month", with 8 GB and "8 Players" at $22.39 a month and 32 players at $83.19. The discounts are advertised as first-month or first-invoice offers, and the Terms don't state a renewal price, so the list price is the safe figure to plan on. For a Minecraft server that is $24 for 8 GB, plus VAT where it applies.

One cross-check shows how prices move. Godlike's June 2026 article (below) recorded ScalaCube's 8 GB first-month price as €21.55, which does not match half of the $24 shown now. Currency, VAT, plan, or date could explain it, and this review cannot say which.

The cheapest game server hosting guide puts entry prices side by side.

What ScalaCube says about CPU, storage and DDoS protection

ScalaCube names no CPU, gives conflicting signals on storage, and says every plan has DDoS protection while reserving the right to block servers under attack.

• CPU. Not stated on the pages read. Godlike's data lists a "Ryzen 9 7950X3D" for the ScalaCube plan it used, which is Godlike's record, not ScalaCube's statement.
• Storage. The home page says "we let you choose between HDD and SSD storage according to your needs. HDD will be cheaper". The free-plan page says "We use SSD storage on all servers". The Minecraft plan list does not say which a given price buys. Check the storage type at checkout.
• DDoS protection. "Every plan includes DDoS protection." The Terms (5.2.1, 7.8) reserve the right to block a server "in the event of incoming DDOS attacks" and to "temporarily stop" servers "due to DDOS attacks".
• Uptime. The free-plan page says "We guarantee a 99.9% server uptime". The Terms (7.4) say "The Company shall not guarantee 100% uptime", and section 11.1 guarantees host-computer availability "at the level of 99% per month", with compensation limited to extended subscription. The two documents do not agree, and this review repeats neither as fact.
• Resources. Section 10.1 guarantees allocated resources "if it is supported by the technology used". The Terms mention "OVZ nodes", but the pages do not say which virtualisation underlies game plans.

The pages also describe ScalaCube as "#1 Most Reliable Minecraft Server Hosting" and promise that "no lags or snags happen for any user on your server". These are the host ranking itself and are not evidence.

One rival's benchmark of ScalaCube, with every caveat

Godlike, a competing host, published a Minecraft comparison against ScalaCube, and it cannot stand in for a measurement of ScalaCube. The article (Godlike vs ScalaCube: Minecraft 8GB Server Performance Benchmark, page metadata dated 16 June 2026) reports these figures:

Caveats, all from the article or its context: Godlike sells Minecraft hosting and is the other party in the test. Each side is one 8 GB plan, run once, on one workload (NeoForge, Minecraft 1.21.1, Java 21, four bots moving away from spawn, plus Chunky). World seeds were not standardised between hosts, and the bot mod is described only as "a custom bot mod". Godlike records different first-month prices for the two plans ($22.39 against €21.55). The article itself calls ScalaCube "one of the stronger competitors in this benchmark set".

Do not read this as a statement about ScalaCube overall, other plan sizes, other games or other dates. This site has run no comparable test.

ScalaCube's refund policy, in its exact terms

ScalaCube's refund window is 7 days from the day the payment is sent. Section 12.1 of the Terms says "All payments are eligible for a 100% refund within seven (7) day of the payment being sent. Refunds cannot be requested for no valid reason." Section 12.2 gives auto-renewals a longer window: "100% refund of the renewal amount within ten (10) days since the payment being sent."

Related conditions:

• All services require "100% advance payment" (3.1).
• Cancel through the control panel's "Cancel Subscription" button. For PayPal payments, "it is the client's responsibility to ensure any active PayPal subscriptions ... are cancelled via their PayPal" (13.2).
• A server blocked for "Increased load on the Company's Network and/or host computers" is blocked "without refund of prepaid services" (5.2).
• A client whose node or IP is blocked "due to the Client's fault" must deposit 5 USD to unblock it (4.8).

The Terms are the governing text; the pages read for this review carry only the "7 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE" banner.

What the Terms say about load, bots, criticism and testing

ScalaCube's Terms contain no benchmarking clause, and that silence is not permission, because several clauses allow blocking for load. The Terms (no last-updated date shown; the public offer is dated 29 January 2019) say the host may block a server "in case of causing an increased Network load" (7.12), for "Obstruction of the normal and stable operation of servers" (8.8), and "at its sole discretion" (8.11). Section 6.4 prohibits hosting "botnets, grabbing, phishing". Player bots are not mentioned.

Two clauses concern what a customer says about the company, which matters for anyone who plans to publish a complaint or a review:

• 4.5: "The Client is fully responsible for their public statements and actions against the Company. In the event of unprovability of any claims and/or allegations, the Company reserves the right to initiate legal proceedings."
• 8.10: blocking may follow "spreading slanderous information about the Company".

Neither clause mentions reviews by name. A buyer who publishes criticism should keep to claims they can document.

The Terms also say they may be changed "without prior notice" and take effect on publication (7.1).

Honest downsides

• No CPU stated, and HDD or SSD storage is described differently on different pages.
• Uptime wording differs between the marketing page (99.9 percent) and the Terms (99 percent for host computers, no 100 percent guarantee).
• Terms allow blocking for load and for DDoS, without refund in the load case.
• Section 4.5 and 8.10 give a customer reason for care about public statements.
• Section 7.10 says free technical support is not offered.
• Discounts apply to the first month only, and prices exclude VAT.
• The Terms are dated from 2019 and can change without notice.

What the planned protocol would check on ScalaCube

The planned protocol would, only with written permission and a paid plan, run a gameplay-like bot load on an 8 GB Minecraft plan, record the CPU the server reports, and test whether the HDD or SSD choice changes world-save and chunk-load behaviour. It would check whether the Godlike figures above are in the same range on this site's own run. None of this has been done. See the test rig page.

Next decision: for the nearest budget alternative, read ScalaCube vs Shockbyte, or return to the hosts hub.