Positions #2–#4. Full reasoning and the complete comparison table sit further down the page.
Quick answer: The best ARK hosting provider overall is Indifferent Broccoli, starting from $5.99/mo (£4.73) with no RAM cap — genuinely useful given how quickly ARK’s memory usage climbs as a tribe’s base grows. LOW.MS follows closely with the sharpest fixed-RAM pricing, while DatHost and Host Havoc round out the top four with all-inclusive simplicity and raw memory headroom respectively.
Anyone who’s tried to run an ARK server on a shared or budget host knows the moment: everything works fine for the first week, and then the tribe starts breeding dinosaurs, expanding the base and stockpiling loot, and the whole thing starts stuttering under its own weight. That’s not bad luck. ARK tracks hundreds of individual creatures at once, remembers a breeding and imprinting timer for every one of them, and renders a map that’s enormous even by survival-game standards, so it simply asks more of a server than most other titles in this genre. What makes shopping for affordable ARK hosting trickier still is that “ARK” now technically means two different games with two very different appetites — and getting that part wrong before you buy is the single most common mistake we see.
⚠️ First, check which ARK you’re actually hosting
ARK: Survival Evolved (ASE) is the original 2017 release. It runs on the older Unreal Engine 4, and a server for it will happily sit comfortably on 8-12GB of RAM. ARK: Survival Ascended (ASA) is a different matter entirely — it’s the 2023 rebuild on Unreal Engine 5, and that graphical leap came at a real cost to performance. Budget at least 16GB of RAM for a single Ascended map, and expect that figure to climb past 32GB once a cluster of maps is involved. The catch is that most providers now quietly default a fresh “ARK” order to Ascended unless you tell them otherwise, so it’s worth confirming which version your plan actually provisions before you hand over payment details. We’ve noted the hardware figures for both versions separately further down, since the right amount of RAM really does depend on which one you’re running.
Best ARK hosting, ranked
Ranked on how well each provider handles ARK’s RAM appetite, since that single factor determines whether your tribe’s base still runs smoothly six months from now.
Indifferent Broccoli
From $5.99/mo (£4.73) · No RAM cap, slot-based pricing · Ryzen 9 9950X / 7950X / Xeon E-2288G
Picture the RAM problem most ARK hosts create for themselves: you buy a fixed tier that looks generous on day one, your tribe spends a few weeks taming and breeding, and suddenly that “generous” allocation is the thing holding your server back. Indifferent Broccoli sidesteps the whole issue by charging per player slot instead of per gigabyte, so the server simply draws whatever memory it needs as your world fills up rather than hitting a wall you didn’t know was coming. A 32-slot server works out to roughly $0.78 per slot, and that number holds up well even next to providers charging considerably more for the same headroom.
There’s also a two-day free trial with no card required, which is worth using — it lets you throw your actual mod list and tribe size at the server before you commit to anything. Support is where the reviews get genuinely enthusiastic, consistently coming up as the single most-praised part of the experience, and you get a choice of three modern CPU tiers on top of it. For a game this demanding, that combination is hard to find elsewhere.
- ✓ No RAM cap — ideal for ARK’s growing memory use
- ✓ Free trial, no card required
- ✓ Support consistently the most-praised feature
- ✗ Smaller brand recognition than the biggest names
- ✗ Fewer global locations than industry giants
LOW.MS
From $8.46/mo (£6.68) · 10GB RAM baseline · Ryzen 7950X hardware
LOW.MS earns its place at number two on hardware alone. Every plan runs on a Ryzen 7950X, which matters more for ARK than it might for a lighter game, because the server is constantly juggling dinosaur AI, breeding timers and structure decay all at once — work that leans almost entirely on single-core speed rather than core count. Rivals quietly running older DDR4 platforms fall behind here, and the gap shows up exactly when you’d notice it most: the moment a base fills up with multiple tamed creatures and things start to feel busy.
Worldwide locations keep latency realistic for most UK tribes, and mod support is included from the start, so installing something like Structures Plus or Awesome SpyGlass takes a few minutes rather than a back-and-forth with support. Speaking of support, it’s ticket-based only rather than live chat — fine if you don’t mind a short wait, less ideal if you need an answer mid-raid.
- ✓ Ryzen 7950X as standard — strong single-core performance
- ✓ Full mod support, fast setup
- ✓ 4.8★ Trustpilot rating
- ✗ No live chat, ticket support only
- ✗ 10GB entry tier needs upgrading for larger tribes
DatHost
From $8.72/mo (£6.90) · Unlimited RAM, hardware-limited · Ryzen 9 7950X3D
Mods, multiple maps, a tribe roster that keeps growing — ARK has a way of making your resource needs unpredictable in a hurry, and that’s precisely the situation DatHost’s pricing is built for. There’s one plan, and it includes unlimited slots, bandwidth and CPU, so the only real ceiling is the hardware itself rather than whichever tier you happened to guess right on when you signed up. No mid-season upgrade scramble, no recalculating what you need every time the tribe adds a new member.
Underneath that plan sits a Ryzen 9 7950X3D, and its extra cache does real work here, smoothing over the CPU spikes that come with dense creature counts and an active raid. DatHost also happens to be the choice of esports organisations like Refrag and Leetify, and with 36 locations worldwide, it’s a solid fit for a tribe that would rather set the server up once and stop thinking about it.
- ✓ Unlimited slots, CPU and bandwidth in one plan
- ✓ Ryzen 9 7950X3D absorbs CPU spikes well
- ✓ 36 locations, trusted by esports orgs
- ✗ Panel is functional rather than flashy
- ✗ Less granular control than dedicated ARK panels
Host Havoc
From $12.06/mo (£9.51) · 16GB RAM baseline · Own hardware
Most ARK communities hit the same wall eventually: the server was fine at launch, and now the base has sprawled and the memory crunch has arrived right on schedule. Host Havoc’s answer is to simply start higher, with 16GB of RAM as the baseline rather than something you grow into later — a sensible starting point whether you’re running a full Ascended map or an Evolved server that’s outgrown its original scope. It helps, too, that the company owns its hardware outright instead of reselling shared cloud capacity, so performance holds steady through a busy evening raid, which is exactly when a shakier host would start to strain.
Our own test tickets got a reply in under ten minutes, and that kind of turnaround actually matters when a dinosaur wipe or a corrupted save needs sorting out fast. The one thing to weigh up is price — it’s the priciest of the four here, so it makes more sense for a tribe that already knows it wants the extra breathing room than one still working out how big its server needs to be.
- ✓ 16GB RAM baseline — comfortable for ASA or a large ASE world
- ✓ Own hardware, consistent during peak hours
- ✓ Sub-10-minute support response in testing
- ✗ Pricier entry point than the three hosts above
- ✗ No free trial, 7-day refund window only
All ARK hosting providers compared
Since a good headline price rarely tells the whole story once ARK’s RAM demands enter the picture, the table below leans on RAM allocation and confirmed UK availability as much as it does on cost.
| # | Provider | From (USD) | From (GBP) | RAM | UK Node | Trustpilot | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indifferent Broccoli | $5.99 | £4.73 | Unlimited | ⚠ EU | 4.5★ | Visit → |
| 2 | LOW.MS | $8.46 | £6.68 | 10GB | ✅ UK | 4.8★ | Visit → |
| 3 | DatHost | $8.72 | £6.90 | Unlimited | ✅ UK | 4.6★ | Visit → |
| 4 | Host Havoc | $12.06 | £9.51 | 16GB | ✅ UK | 4.8★ | Visit → |
| 5 |  G-Portal | $10.38 | £8.20 | 8GB | ⚠ EU | 4.6★ | Visit → |
| 6 |  GTX Gaming | $20.24 | £15.99 | 10GB | ✅ UK | 4.7★ | Visit → |
| 7 |  AleForge | $7.35 | £5.81 | Unlimited | ✅ UK | 4.9★ | Visit → |
| 8 |  Apex Hosting | $12.40 | £9.80 | 8GB | ⚠ EU | 4.7★ | Visit → |
| 9 |  Nitrado | $13.28 | £10.49 | Slot-based | ✅ EU/UK | 3.9★ | Visit → |
Prices shown in USD with GBP equivalent, verified . Since some listed RAM figures reflect Minecraft-standard test allocations rather than ARK-specific plans, always confirm the exact ARK tier and map count directly with the provider before purchasing.
How much power does an ARK server actually need?
Evolved and Ascended sit on entirely different game engines, and that shows up directly in what they ask of a server — so rather than giving one blanket answer, it’s worth looking at each separately.
| Version | Single map, small group | Comfortable / larger group | Multi-map cluster |
|---|---|---|---|
| ARK: Survival Evolved | 8GB RAM | 12GB RAM | 16GB+ RAM |
| ARK: Survival Ascended | 16GB RAM | 24GB RAM | 32GB+ RAM (12-18GB per extra map) |
In both cases, single-core CPU speed matters more than raw core count, since each map runs as its own largely single-threaded process — a fast Ryzen or recent Intel chip will consistently outperform a higher-core-count CPU with a lower clock speed. Storage matters too: Ascended’s server binary alone can consume 6-10GB of RAM and around 11GB of disk space before a single player connects, while a classic Evolved install runs closer to 18GB, so NVMe storage is worth prioritising over a standard SSD if your provider offers the choice.
One more distinction worth knowing: Ascended distributes mods through CurseForge rather than the Steam Workshop that Evolved still relies on, which occasionally trips people up when following an older setup guide that assumes the wrong mod platform entirely.
Should you self-host or rent an ARK server?
If you’ve got a spare gaming PC lying around, self-hosting Evolved is genuinely doable and costs nothing beyond the electricity bill. Ascended is a tougher sell for that same setup, though — the UE5 build effectively claims one capable machine for as long as it needs to stay online, and if you’re trying to run it on Linux, you’re relying on a Wine or Proton wrapper that adds around 10% performance overhead compared to running it natively on Windows.
Renting removes most of that friction in one go. The server stays up whether or not your own PC is switched on, installing mods usually means a few clicks in a panel rather than a manual CurseForge download, and there’s someone to actually contact when something breaks mid-raid. Given how much heavier Ascended has become, that trade-off tips firmly in favour of renting for any tribe bigger than a very small, casual group.
Looking for the cheapest ARK hosting option?
It’s worth pausing here, because the cheapest option for a typical ARK tribe isn’t quite the same as our overall #1 pick — and the reason comes down to how each provider actually charges once your group settles somewhere in the 4-6 player range. DatHost takes the top spot for budget-conscious tribes at a flat £6.90/mo ($8.72), and because that price covers unlimited slots and RAM regardless of how many people join, it simply doesn’t creep upward as your group grows the way a per-slot plan can. LOW.MS follows close behind at £6.68/mo ($8.46) with a fixed 10GB tier that comfortably covers a group that size without any surprises on the bill.
Indifferent Broccoli lands third here specifically because of how its slot-based pricing behaves at this scale — the £4.73/mo ($5.99) headline price reflects a small entry tier, and by the time you’ve added four to six players, the per-slot cost typically pushes the total past what DatHost or LOW.MS would charge for the same group. That’s not a knock on Indifferent Broccoli generally; it’s still our overall #1 for the reasons covered above, and the model genuinely pays off once a tribe grows large or fluctuates in size. For a steady group of four to six, though, a flat or fixed-tier price simply works out cheaper.
Indifferent BroccoliSlot-based · Free trial
$5.99/mo (£4.73)
Get Indifferent Broccoli →One caution worth repeating regardless of which of these three you pick: going lower than this purely for the headline price tends to backfire. A handful of ultra-budget hosts hit their low numbers by capping RAM so tightly that an ARK server starts struggling the moment your tribe grows past a handful of tames, and at that point, a “cheap” server ends up costing more in wasted evenings than a slightly pricier plan would have from the start.
Best ARK hosting UK — frequently asked questions
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