Game server host plan-change log

Why keep a log at all?

Plan pages can be edited without notice, and a host's later page does not show what the earlier one said. A customer who bought on one RAM figure, or a reader comparing two articles written months apart, has no way to tell whether a number moved. A log with dated captures answers that. It also separates two things that are easy to blur: what a host published, and what a server delivered.

Which changes actually matter to a buyer?

Not every edit is a change in what you get, so the log would separate these categories:

• A base price rise. The recurring price goes up for the same plan.
• A promotion ending. The price returns to its usual level. Apex Hosting showing $20.99 for the first month of an 8 GB plan against $27.99 recurring, or Host Havoc's sitewide "FALL" banner, would count as promotions and not as price rises.
• Less for the same money. Lower RAM or slots, a storage cap, or a backup feature moving to a paid add-on.
• A hardware or location change. A different CPU named for a plan, or a location added or removed.
• A rules change. A shorter refund window, a new fair-use limit, or new wording on bots or pre-generation. These can matter more than a price change and are easier to miss.

What do host terms say about price changes?

The terms read on 8 November 2026 range from a stated notice period to no promise at all:

This page didn't establish what other hosts' terms say on this point, and these summaries aren't legal advice. A stated notice period only helps if you see the email, so keep your billing address current.

Which changes have been found so far?

Seven differences were found in host pages that load normally for a reader, each by comparing an Internet Archive capture with the live page read on 8 November 2026. Every entry is a "Published change": two dated copies of the page word the same item differently, and nothing here says why or whether it was announced. The live page is the second copy in each row. Quotes are exact.

Reading these rows: the DatHost refund window and the G-Portal guarantee are the changes a buyer would feel most, because they change what you can claim and when. The DatHost storage row shows more included storage, and the monthly price on both copies of that page is €14.90. The G-Portal comparison spans six years, so it says nothing about when the clause changed. The DatHost CPU row and the Indifferent Broccoli location row are changes of wording, and neither confirms what runs on a given plan. The live Sparked Host terms state a last update of 29 October 2026, and the capture states 1 January 2026.

Not counted as changes: Host Havoc's Minecraft page shows 25% off in both its January 2025 and November 2026 copies, with the same struck-through list price (for example 8 GB at $30.00, was $40.00), and its terms text matched between the 31 December 2024 capture and the live page apart from the sitewide promotion code. Indifferent Broccoli's Rust page displays a different monthly figure in its default plan box in the 2026 capture ($16.99) than live ($12.99), but the capture does not show the plan table, so which plan was selected is unknown and this page does not treat it as a price change.

Hosts tried with the Wayback Machine on 8 November 2026: Host Havoc, DatHost, Indifferent Broccoli, ScalaCube, Sparked Host and G-Portal. Apex Hosting and Shockbyte archives were not queried. Captures were located with the Internet Archive's availability lookup.

What would be archived, and how often?

The table above uses captures made by others. The planned process would add GameServerBench's own captures of each in-scope host's plan and terms pages once a quarter, plus an extra capture when a reader reports a change through the corrections page. Each capture would store the following.

Pages read on 8 November 2026 already show why this is needed: Host Havoc's game list displays a sitewide promotion banner and a currency selector, and Indifferent Broccoli prices by player count while stating uncapped RAM. A bare number without those details would be ambiguous.

How would a change be verified and displayed?

A change carries one of two labels. "Published change" means two dated copies of a page differ, and it is the only label used on this page. "Verified" would mean the delivered server was also checked, and that needs a purchased server, which is not approved, so it appears nowhere here. The planned check would run /spark health on a Minecraft server, which the spark docs say reports TPS, CPU, memory and disk usage, and compare it with the advertised plan. Whether it exposes a host's container limits or a CPU model is not confirmed here. See MSPT and TPS explained.

Each entry shows date, host, plan or clause, previous wording, new wording, a link to both copies and its label. Entries state what the pages say and nothing about intent, and a host that corrected a page would have the correction shown beside it.

What is the baseline today?

This is a baseline snapshot of published claims read on 8 November 2026. It is not a list of changes, no profiler verification has been done, and it implies nothing about direction.

Host Havoc's review and the Indifferent Broccoli review cover those hosts' wider plans. Prices show "$" or a selected currency, and these are the prices as displayed. Host Havoc's Minecraft page shows 25% off with a struck-through list price (8 GB at $30.00, was $40.00), so the $3.75 per GB on the game list is the discounted figure against $5.00 per GB; its other figures were not checked for promotions.

How can you keep your own record?

You don't need a log to protect yourself, and a few minutes at purchase covers most of it:

1. At checkout, save the order page and the invoice. Note the plan name, RAM, slots, location, renewal price and billing term. "Renews at" often appears only on the invoice or in a small line, and the price calculator needs it.
2. Save the refund and acceptable-use terms as they stood, with the date. Many pages have no version history.
3. Set a reminder a week before renewal, and compare the renewal invoice with what you saved.
4. Check older versions if a page looks different. The Wayback Machine holds past captures of many public pages, though not all, and script-loaded prices may not appear in them. The captures behind the table above came from it.

If something changed, work out which category above it falls into, then read the host's terms for your options. Cancelling before renewal is usually the simplest, and a promotion ending is not grounds for complaint. If you think this site has a host's plan wrong, tell it through the corrections page.

What blocks the log from running?

The quarterly capture routine has not been built or scheduled, so the table above rests on captures made by the Internet Archive on dates of its choosing. Verification needs servers whose budget is not approved. Each host's terms must be checked and, where unclear, written confirmation sought before anything beyond reading public pages; silence is not permission. See independence and host terms. Next: the reports hub or the method overview.