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How to Play a Minecraft Modpack With Friends for Free

Host a CurseForge or Modrinth modpack from your own PC and play it with friends for free: get the server pack, give it enough RAM, put it online without port forwarding, and fix common modpack errors.

Modpacks are more fun with friends, but modpack hosting costs money and free hosts often don’t have enough RAM for big packs. If you have a decent PC, you can host the pack yourself for free. Your friends only need the same modpack installed.

Before you start

Modpack sizeServer RAMHost PC total RAM
Light (under 100 mods)4–6 GB12 GB or more
Medium (100–250 mods)6–8 GB16 GB or more
Heavy (250+ mods, e.g. All the Mods)8–10 GB16–32 GB

Step 1: get the modpack’s server files

  1. Open the modpack’s page on CurseForge or Modrinth and go to Files or Versions.
  2. Download the Server Pack (sometimes called “Server Files”) for the same version your friends will play.
  3. Unzip it into a normal folder such as Documents\MyPackServer (not inside OneDrive, and not in Downloads).
  4. Run the pack’s start file: usually start.bat, run.bat or startserver.bat. The first run downloads the mod loader (Forge, NeoForge or Fabric) and can take a few minutes.
  5. If it stops and asks you to accept the EULA, open eula.txt, change it to eula=true, and run the start file again.
  6. To give it more RAM, edit user_jvm_args.txt (Forge and NeoForge) or the -Xmx value in the start file, for example -Xmx8G.

Wait until the console says Done. The server is now running on your PC, on port 25565.

Step 2: put it online for friends

Get VoxelPort from the Microsoft Store (Windows 10 and 11), download the Windows installer directly (if Windows warns, click More info → Run anyway), or get the Linux build from GitHub. It's free, open source, and needs no account.

  1. In VoxelPort, click Tunnel a server I already run elsewhere.
  2. Enter the port (25565 unless you changed server-port) and click Start hosting.
  3. Copy the address it shows, or, as a supporter, claim a name such as ourpack.voxelport.in.
  4. Friends launch the same modpack, go to Multiplayer → Add Server, and paste the address.
Making your own pack instead? For a small Fabric pack, use VoxelPort’s Modded (Fabric) template, then drop mods into its mods folder and give friends the same mods. Client-only mods (shaders, minimaps, Sodium) stay on players’ PCs, not on the server.

How friends install the modpack

Common modpack errors

ErrorFix
“Mod rejections” or “Mismatched mod channel list”A friend has a different modpack version or extra mods. Everyone installs exactly the server’s version.
“Connection timed out” while joiningBig packs take a while to start. Wait for Done in the server console and try again.
Server closes with OutOfMemoryErrorGive the server more RAM in user_jvm_args.txt.
“UnsupportedClassVersionError”Wrong Java version. See the crash fixes guide.
Server crashes on start after you added a modIt’s probably client-only. Remove shaders, minimaps and similar mods from the server’s mods folder.

Questions

Do my friends need the modpack installed?

Yes. Everyone joining a modded server needs the same modpack, at the same version, installed through the CurseForge app, the Modrinth app or a launcher such as Prism Launcher.

How much RAM does a modpack server need?

Light packs run on 4–6 GB. Big kitchen-sink packs (All the Mods, large tech packs) need 8–10 GB for the server alone, so the host PC needs 16 GB or more in total.

Can Bedrock players join a modpack server?

Usually not. Bedrock players can’t load Java mods, so modpacks are Java-only.

Where do I get the server files for a modpack?

On the modpack’s CurseForge page, open Files and download the Server Pack. On Modrinth, many packs offer a server pack too; otherwise you can put the pack’s mods on a Fabric server yourself.

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