Minecraft is best played with other people, but "let's just do a LAN world" only works for one evening. If you want a world your friend group keeps coming back to over weeks or months, you need a server that stays online whether or not any particular person is around to run it.
Step 1: Decide how the group will connect
Before anything else, figure out where everyone actually is. If your whole group is in the same house or same Wi-Fi network, a simple local server or LAN world is enough. If friends are connecting from different homes, you need either a proper hosted server or a tunneling tool like playit.gg, since a locally hosted server is not reachable from outside your network without extra router configuration.
Step 2: Pick who "owns" the server
Someone in the group needs to be the one who creates the server, invites everyone, and holds operator (admin) permissions to manage settings, install plugins, and moderate. This does not need to be the most technical person; most hosting panels today are simple enough that anyone comfortable with a web browser can manage a server.
Step 3: Set up the server itself
- Choose Java Edition, Bedrock Edition, or both, depending on what platforms your friends play on.
- Create the server through a hosting panel (fastest) or manually with the official server jar (more hands-on).
- Set a friendly
MOTD(message of the day) so the server is instantly recognizable in the multiplayer list. A free MOTD generator makes it easy to add colors and formatting without learning the color codes by hand. - Decide on a game mode, difficulty, and whether to enable PvP before anyone starts building, since changing these later can be disruptive.
Step 4: Agree on ground rules
The technical setup is the easy part. Most server drama comes from unclear expectations. Before opening the world up, quickly agree on:
- Whether griefing or stealing from other players' builds is allowed.
- Whether the world will be reset if a "bad" world is generated (bad seed, spawn near lava, etc.).
- Who has operator access, and what commands they are allowed to use. A command generator is a handy way for a non-technical op to build correct commands (like
/gameruleor/whitelist) without memorizing the exact syntax.
Step 5: Share the connection details
Once the server is running, share the server address (and port, if it is not the default) with everyone in the group so they can add it to their multiplayer server list. If you used a hosting provider, this is usually shown directly in the control panel dashboard.
Keeping it running long-term
The biggest reason friend-group servers die is that the "host" friend's PC gets turned off, or their internet drops, and suddenly nobody can log in. A hosted server sidesteps this completely, since it stays online independently of any one person's computer. Tick Hosting's free plan is a solid way to get your group started without anyone having to pay, and you can upgrade later if the world grows. Grab one from Tick Hosting's plans and get everyone connected today.