Free Don't Starve Together Server Trial: Forest and Caves
A Don't Starve Together server is two servers wearing one name. The Forest is the master shard, Caves is a second process with its own save and its own port, and a cluster that only runs the Forest looks fine right up to the moment someone climbs into a sinkhole. GHosting's free 48-hour Don't Starve Together trial gives you the complete two-shard cluster to test, with no payment card, no subscription and no automatic renewal.
Try a Don't Starve Together server free for 48 hours
What the free Don't Starve Together trial includes
The trial provisions the same isolated container and dashboard as a paid plan. It uses the 4 GB Campfire plan and includes:
- 4 GB RAM, 2 vCPU and 25 GB NVMe storage.
- The official native Linux dedicated server from Steam app 343050.
- A full two-shard cluster: Forest on the allocated UDP port, Caves on the next one.
- Up to 30 Workshop mods enabled on both shards from one list.
- Managed settings for password, description, player cap, game mode, playstyle, PvP, pause when empty and vote kicks.
- A writable console on the master shard, combined Forest and Caves logs, browser files and SFTP.
- A choice of Europe or North America, subject to available trial capacity.
Caves are the reason to test rather than assume
Klei is explicit that running Forest and Caves together is more demanding than a single world, because both simulate at the same time. That is the number a specification sheet cannot tell you: your mod list, your player count and your play style decide whether 4 GB is comfortable or whether the group should start on the 6 GB Stronghold plan.
So use the 48 hours the way the world will actually be used. Get four or five people online, send some of them underground while others stay on the surface, and watch the console. Migration through a sinkhole exercises both shards and the connection between them, which is the part a quick solo connection test never touches.
Your Klei token, your cluster
Every online dedicated cluster needs a Klei cluster token, and it belongs to you rather than to the host. A brand-new GHosting cluster starts in offline mode on purpose, so provisioning completes cleanly before you have pasted anything. Create a game server token in Klei Accounts, paste it into the masked field in Settings, restart, and both shards come up online and joinable.
Doing this during the trial is worth it precisely because it is the step most likely to be fiddly. If you continue on a paid term afterwards, the token stays where it is with the rest of the cluster.
Mods on both shards, from one list
Modding a dedicated cluster by hand means maintaining two layers: one file that tells the server which Workshop items to download, and a separate override file inside every shard that actually enables them. Miss the second layer on Caves and you get the classic result of a modded surface and a vanilla underground.
The Mods tab writes both. Paste Workshop links, save, restart, and the same selection is enabled on Forest and Caves. Add the dependencies the mod author lists, because that part is still real work. Our guide to Don't Starve Together server mods goes through the file layout if you want to see what is being written, and the dedicated server guide covers the cluster as a whole.
Settings you can decide in an evening
Survival, Endless or Wilderness changes what happens when everyone dies, which is a different social contract rather than a difficulty slider. Pause when empty keeps your days from ticking by while nobody is connected and is on by default. Vote kicks, PvP and the browser playstyle label decide what kind of server you are advertising. All of them are worth setting deliberately while the world is still young enough to throw away.
No card and no surprise charge
Starting the trial never opens Stripe Checkout. After 48 hours both shards stop and nothing is charged. A reminder arrives four hours before the end, and the cluster files are kept for three days so you can continue from the dashboard or download the save.
Can I keep the same world?
Yes. Choose a paid term during the retention window and the same container resumes. Both shards come back with the same world, mods, Klei token, settings and public address. A run that started as a trial is the run you keep playing.
How to start the Don't Starve Together trial
- Open the Don't Starve Together server hosting page.
- Choose a region and select Start free trial.
- Create an account and verify your email address.
- Return to the hosting page, start the trial, then add the server from your dashboard.
- Paste a Klei cluster token in Settings and restart to go online.
Each verified account can claim one trial per eligible game. A rolling network allowance, a global slot limit and a paying-customer capacity reserve keep the free servers available for genuine groups, so trial slots depend on capacity at the time you start.
Start the free Don't Starve Together trial