Sons of the Forest Server Hosting

Why a Dedicated Server Beats Hosting from Your PC

In a normal multiplayer game of Sons of the Forest, one player hosts and everyone else is a guest. When the host quits, the game ends for the whole group, and progress made while the host was away simply does not exist. That works for a weekend, but it falls apart as soon as your crew plays at different times.

Endnight answered that with the Sons of the Forest Dedicated Server, a free tool on Steam that runs the island without anyone playing on the host machine. You can run it at home, but it needs a PC switched on day and night, three open ports on your router and enough upload to carry every player. A hosted server moves all of that to a data centre: a fixed address, steady bandwidth, DDoS filtering, and a support team when something breaks at midnight.

The server tool does not need its own copy of the game, and it uses a smart trick while the island is empty: it drops to a low idle frame rate, five frames per second by default, and speeds back up to the active frame rate as soon as a player arrives.

Inside dedicatedserver.cfg

Almost everything about the server lives in one file, dedicatedserver.cfg, written in JSON. It is created the first time the server starts, together with ownerswhitelist.txt, a game settings file and the Saves folder. On our servers you edit it in the panel instead of hunting through AppData.

Picking a Game Mode That Suits Your Group

The dedicated server supports the same modes you see in the main menu, plus a fully custom option. The catch is timing: GameMode is only read when a new save is created. Changing it later does nothing to an existing save, so talk it over before the first session.

• Normal: the intended balance for a first run through the story.
• Hard and hard survival: tougher enemies, and in hard survival far harsher needs and resources.
• Peaceful: no hostile enemies, ideal for building and exploring with friends who dislike horror.
• Creative: build freely without gathering; in the game itself it unlocks after the story ends.
• Custom: reads a separate block of settings so you can mix and match.

Custom mode is where a server becomes yours. You can change enemy spawn rate, health, damage, armour and aggression, animal numbers, search parties, the starting season and how long seasons and days last, precipitation, survival penalties and how resistant buildings are. There are switches for cheats, PvP damage, immortal players and one-hit tree cutting too. Tree regrowth and structure damage sit in their own game settings block and apply in any mode.

Choosing 4 or 8 Slots

Sons of the Forest is built for small groups. The dedicated server accepts between 1 and 8 players, so there is no point paying for more seats than that, and no mod in the official guide that raises the cap. That is why we sell exactly two plans.

The 4 slot plan suits a duo or a regular group of four. It includes 10GB of memory, which is plenty for a story run. The 8 slot plan fills every seat the game allows and includes 12GB, because eight players tend to spread out, build more and keep more of the island busy at once.

Memory grows with the save rather than with the clock. If you build a fortress on the beach, a treehouse village and a cave outpost on one save, check the memory graph in the panel on a busy night. If it sits close to the limit, step up a tier; the order form goes to 32GB and the change keeps your save.

Owners, Admins and Keeping the Island Private

Permissions start with ownerswhitelist.txt. Each line holds one SteamID64, the 17 digit number behind a Steam profile. Anyone on that list is an owner when they join.

1. Find each owner's SteamID64 from their Steam profile.
2. Open ownerswhitelist.txt in the File Manager and paste one ID per line.
3. Restart the server so the list is loaded.
4. In game, owners open Pause Menu, Players to promote admins and kick, ban or unban.

To keep strangers out, set a Password in the config. The server still appears in the browser, but only people with the password get in. LanOnly exists too, but it hides the server from the internet entirely, so leave it off on a hosted server.

Saves, Backups and Updates

The server saves to the slot set in SaveSlot every 600 seconds by default, and since Patch 08 it also saves before shutting down. SaveMode decides whether a restart continues that slot or starts a fresh one, so leave it on continue once your island is under way.

Our Backup Manager adds snapshots you take whenever you like, and offsite copies are kept for the last 7 days. Take one before you change game settings, try a community mod or switch save slots, and you can always go back.

Updates follow a simple rule: the server and every player must run the same build. When Endnight releases a patch, players who update first cannot join an older server. Run Steam Update in the panel, restart, and everyone is back together. The newest release at the time of writing, a security update from 3 October 2025, patched the dedicated server as well as the game.

Ports, Joining and the Start-up Check

The server listens on three UDP ports: a game port (8766 by default), a query port (27016) that answers the server browser, and a blob sync port (9700). At home you would forward all three; on our servers they are already open and the panel shows the address to share.

When it boots, the server tests whether its IP and ports can be reached and refuses to start if they cannot. That self-test is your friend: if the server will not come up after a change, the Web Console shows exactly which check failed. Endnight's guide only supports IPv4.

Players find the server in the in-game dedicated server browser, which has had filters and a ping column since Patch 08, or connect directly with the IP and game port, which arrived in Patch 09.

What to Compare Before You Rent a Sons of the Forest Server

Most offers for this game look the same on the surface. These details decide whether the island still runs smoothly a month in.

1. Slots that match the capThe game takes 8 players at most. A plan selling more than 8 slots is charging for seats nobody can use.
2. RAM in the base priceCheck how much memory the price includes and what more costs, so a large build does not catch you out.
3. Config accessMake sure you can edit dedicatedserver.cfg and the owners list yourself, including the custom mode block.
4. A nearby locationRun a ping test to a data centre near most of your group. Latency matters more in combat than raw CPU.
5. Backups you restore yourselfFind out whether you can roll back without a ticket and how many days of offsite copies are kept.
6. Billing termsCompare monthly and longer cycles and check for setup fees or minimum terms.

Sons of the Forest Server Glossary

Dedicated server

Endnight's separate program that runs the island without a player hosting it.

dedicatedserver.cfg

The JSON file that holds the server's name, password, player limit, save and game mode settings.

ownerswhitelist.txt

The list of SteamID64s that join as server owners.

SteamID64

The 17 digit number that identifies a Steam account.

Save slot

The numbered save the server loads and writes to.

Custom game mode

A mode that reads its own settings for enemies, animals, seasons and survival.

Blob sync port

The third UDP port the server uses to sync world data, 9700 by default.

Idle frame rate

The low frame rate the server runs at when nobody is online.

Slots

How many players can be online on the server at the same time.

Sons of the Forest Server Help and Next Steps

Useful pages for setting up and running your island.

• Endnight's dedicated server guide on SteamEvery config key, ports and the owners list, from the developer.
• Sons of the Forest on SteamNews, patch notes and system requirements.
• Gaming Deluxe control panelWhat the panel does and how to log in.
• Our server locations
• Contact support24/7 help with setup, saves and settings.