A factory that stays online
Factorio works best when the factory does not belong to the person who happened to host last night. A dedicated headless server keeps the map, trains and production running on its own address while friends join on their own schedules.
GHosting installs Wube’s official native Linux headless build in an isolated container in Europe or North America. One UDP port is allocated automatically, and the panel provides settings, a writable console, live logs and browser file access without router administration.
Try the real server for 48 hours
A verified account can start one 48-hour Burner trial with no payment card and no automatic renewal, subject to available capacity. It is the same 2 GB server, dashboard, writable console, settings and file access as the paid plan rather than a limited demo.
Choose Base or Space Age before the first save is created, invite the group by direct address, or stop the server and upload an existing factory. Continue during the three-day retention window and the same world, autosaves, settings and address stay in place.
Choose the world before it exists
When you add a Factorio server, select Base game or Space Age. The same official headless package contains both, but the choice is written to mod-list.json before the first save is generated. After that, the latest save always wins on restart.
This is deliberately immutable in the panel. Toggling DLC data on a live world can leave incompatible prototypes and progression behind. Make a backup and test a copy if you ever plan a migration rather than treating it like an ordinary restart setting.
Mods, saves and deliberate updates
Factorio’s Mod Portal is not Steam Workshop, so there is no misleading Workshop picker. Upload compatible mod ZIP files through Files or SFTP, maintain mods/mod-list.json, then restart. Every player needs the matching Factorio version and mod set to join.
Runtime binaries are kept separate from data/saves, data/mods, config and access lists. The dashboard checks the installed build against the official stable headless target and only refreshes it when you choose an update, preserving customer data through the swap.
Plan for simulation load
Player count is not the useful sizing metric for Factorio. Bots, belts, trains, entity count, mods and UPS target can make a quiet-looking factory CPU-heavy. Start with room for the factory you actually intend to build and upgrade before the simulation is under pressure.
- 2 GB Burner: small private co-op factory
- 4 GB Main Bus: growing factory and practical mod list
- 8 GB Megabase: large factories, Space Age or heavier mods
Moving an existing factory onto the server
Nobody wants to restart a factory they have already sunk fifty hours into, and you do not have to. A Factorio save is a single zip in the saves folder. Upload it through Files, and because the server always loads the newest save on restart, your factory is running on the hosted address in the time it takes to restart.
Two things to match before you upload. The mod set has to be the same on the server and on every client, and a Space Age save needs the Space Age world choice made when the server was added. Our save-upload guide walks through both in order.
Regions and flexible billing
Pick Europe or North America based on where most of your group plays. Factorio is a lockstep simulation, so a player on a long route does not just lag themselves, they can slow the tick for everyone once catch-up kicks in. Put the server near the majority.
Choose pay once or optional automatic renewal. A pay-once server stops at the end of its term, while a subscription renews for the amount and cadence accepted at checkout until you cancel. Renew inside the seven-day grace window and the same factory and autosaves come straight back. Past that the server is deleted, so download a save if the run is paused between expansions. Your first server is covered by a 72-hour money-back guarantee.