Bloom Host has been around for a few years now and has built a reputation mostly in the Minecraft hosting space. After spending time with their Performance Plus plan and going through every corner of the DuckPanel, here is what I actually think.
What Bloom Host Offers
Bloom is not a one-product company. Their main offering is Minecraft hosting, but they have expanded into several other areas.
Minecraft hosting is the core of the business and what they are best known for. Plans span three tiers (Essentials, Performance, and Performance Plus) and are available across US, European, and Asian locations. All plans include Aikar’s optimized JVM flags out of the box, which is a small but appreciated default that a lot of hosts skip.
Game server hosting covers other titles alongside Minecraft, including Rust, Terraria, and more recently Hytale. The plans and hardware are structured the same way as Minecraft hosting, though support for certain game types is noted as limited.
VPS hosting is actually where Bloom started. They were built specifically to challenge the idea that VPS hardware is not suitable for gaming, and the product reflects that. Their VPS plans use KVM virtualization with fully dedicated resources and no fair-usage policy or overselling. You get a pure Linux shell with your choice of Debian, Ubuntu, Rocky, or AlmaLinux, and if you need a different distribution they will add it on request. Plans start at $13 per month for 4GB and scale up with bandwidth included. One thing worth knowing is that some locations are currently restocking, with Los Angeles, Miami, and Germany on a waitlist at the time of writing.
Bare metal dedicated servers are for projects that need an entire physical machine. These are hosted in CSquare and Digital Realty facilities in Ashburn, Virginia and Los Angeles, with the network provided by Datapacket using a blend of Tier 1 ISPs. Every server comes with KVM access, instant setup, a 1Gbps uplink, and one IPv4 plus a /64 IPv6 block. Add-ons include a 10Gbps uplink for $19 per month, additional IPs at $2 each, and extra bandwidth at $19 per 25TB. There is also an optional DuckPanel integration for $39 per month if you want managed game hosting on dedicated hardware without needing Linux knowledge, though it removes SSH access in exchange. All bare metal plans carry a 99.99% monthly uptime SLA.
The Hardware Story
Bloom owns their hardware in most locations, which is not something you hear often in this price range. Most budget-to-mid-tier hosts rent from infrastructure providers and just resell capacity. Bloom runs their own nodes across US locations in Ashburn, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Miami, with Germany and Singapore rounding out the international options. Performance Plus plans run on AMD Ryzen 9950X CPUs in US locations, which is genuinely current-generation hardware. Germany gets a 7950X3D on Performance Plus, and Singapore tops out at 5950X or 7950X depending on the node.
One thing worth noting is that hardware varies by location and some nodes are mid-upgrade, so depending on where you order you might land on a 3950X or 5950X rather than the newest chip. It is not a dealbreaker but worth checking before you commit to a location.
DuckPanel
This is where Bloom separates itself from the pack. Rather than shipping a stock Pterodactyl install, they have built DuckPanel on top of it with their own features layered in. The interface is clean and the sidebar navigation covers everything you need: console, file manager, databases, schedules, users, activity logs, backups, ports and proxies, subdomain management, and more.
Beyond the basics, the feature list is extensive. There is a built-in plugin installer and modpack installer that save you the hassle of downloading things externally and uploading them manually. A Java selector lets you switch versions without touching config files, and the jar installer handles server software. You can download files directly from a URL rather than uploading from your machine. Automatic log uploading, user-managed startup flags, SFTP access, a built-in reverse proxy, and a subdomain manager round out an already well-stocked panel. There is also a player manager for handling bans, whitelists, and op status directly from the panel without needing console commands.
Server Splitter
The server splitter is one of the more practical features in the Minecraft hosting space, and it goes further than most people probably expect. On Performance and Performance Plus plans, you can carve your main server allocation into up to five sub-servers directly from the panel. You set the name, server type, version, memory, disk, and port, and the resources come straight out of your main server’s pool.
What makes this more useful than a basic sub-server tool is that it is not limited to Minecraft. You can spin up web servers, Discord bots, or other game types alongside your main server, all on the same plan. If you have a 16GB server you could run your main Minecraft world, a Velocity proxy, and a Discord bot without purchasing separate plans for each. For network operators this is a real cost saving. The Essentials plan does not include splits and you are capped at 5 sub-servers total, but those are reasonable constraints given what the feature delivers.
Backups
The backup system stores everything off-site using Borg, giving you incremental backups with deduplication. You can keep up to 10 backups at a time per server and creating one is a single click.
The standout feature here is backup mounting. Rather than forcing a full server rollback when you need to recover something, you can mount a backup directly to your file manager and browse or restore individual files from it. If you need to recover one world file or a single config, you do not have to blow away everything else to get it. None of the major competitors they list, including Bisect Hosting, Shockbyte, PebbleHost, and Apex Hosting, offer this.
The one limitation to flag is the rate cap: you can only create 3 backups within any 20-hour window. For most people that is fine, but if you are actively developing and want to snapshot frequently you will hit that ceiling. It would make sense to see that loosened on higher-tier plans.
Recycle Bin
Separate from the backup system, DuckPanel includes a recycle bin for deleted files. If you accidentally delete a world, a config, or your entire server directory, the recycle bin gives you a recovery path without needing a full backup restore. It is a small feature but the kind of thing you are very glad exists the one time you need it.
Server Importer
Migrating from another host is handled through a built-in Server Importer and Database Importer. You provide your current host’s SFTP or MySQL credentials and Bloom pulls everything across directly. This removes the manual download-then-upload process that makes switching hosts tedious, and the database importer means you are not manually exporting and reimporting SQL files either.
Plans and Pricing
There are three Minecraft hosting tiers: Essentials, Performance, and Performance Plus.
- Essentials starts at $10 per month for 4GB with shared CPU cores and 60GB of NVMe storage. It includes DuckPanel, DDoS protection, backups, MySQL databases, and Aikar’s optimized flags, but you do not get a dedicated IP without paying $2 extra and there are no server splits. For a single small server it covers the basics, but the shared cores and missing features make it a noticeably different product from the tiers above.
- Performance starts at $18 per month for 8GB with dedicated cores, a free dedicated IP, and server splitting. Storage scales up to 480GB at the high end.
- Performance Plus starts at $24 per month for 8GB and gets you onto the 9950X hardware where available, with storage scaling up to 600GB.
On price, Bloom holds up well against the competition. Their 8GB Performance plan at $18 compares favorably against WiseHosting at $23.99, BisectHosting at $33.67, Shockbyte at $31.99, and Apex at $27.99. PebbleHost matches on price at $18 but without dedicated CPU cores, server splitting, a free dedicated IP, backup mounting, or Cloudflare Magic Transit. The feature gap at the same price point is significant.
On the VPS side, their 8GB Performance Plus plan at $26 per month sits below Hosthavoc at $40 and RackNerd at $36.59, and is competitive with ExtraVM at $28, while offering dedicated cores and Cloudflare Magic Transit that none of the listed competitors include.
DDoS Protection
All plans include DDoS protection, and Bloom’s setup is more thorough than most hosts bother with. The primary layer runs through Cloudflare Magic Transit, which provides over 400 Tbps of Layer 3/4 mitigation across all US locations and Singapore. To put that in context, Bloom notes that modern DDoS attacks have exceeded 30 Tbps, and most game hosts are running protection that cannot handle that scale.
On top of the Cloudflare layer, Ashburn, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Germany locations also include inline hardware-based Layer 7 filtering using XDP for application-layer attacks. The supported protocol list is long and covers Minecraft Java and Bedrock, Rust, Source games, FiveM, Hytale, voice chat plugins, TeamSpeak, WireGuard, OpenVPN, RDP, and more.
Germany is currently the one exception, running around 5 Tbps of L3/L4 mitigation while Cloudflare Magic Transit migration is scheduled for June 2026. If you are hosting in Germany right now, that is worth factoring in.
None of the major competitors listed offer Cloudflare Magic Transit, making this a genuine differentiator rather than a marketing checkbox.
Support
Support runs through Discord and a ticket system. Their Discord has over 16,000 members and serves as the primary support channel. Response times have generally been solid based on community feedback, though billing-related issues go through the ticket portal. There is no live chat widget on the main site, which is a minor inconvenience if you prefer that format, but it is a trade-off common across gaming-focused hosts.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- DuckPanel is genuinely well built, with exclusive features like the server splitter, backup mounting, recycle bin, server importer, and an extensive list of quality-of-life tools that competitors do not offer
- Bloom owns their own hardware in most locations, giving them more control over performance and upgrade cycles
- Performance Plus plans use current-generation Ryzen 9950X CPUs in US locations, which is hard to beat at this price point
- Server splitting supports more than Minecraft sub-servers, letting you run web servers, Discord bots, and other games on the same allocation
- Backup mounting lets you recover individual files without doing a full server rollback, something no major listed competitor currently offers
- DDoS protection through Cloudflare Magic Transit is included on all plans at no extra charge, with additional L7 hardware filtering in most US locations
- Pricing undercuts most of the competition on both Minecraft hosting and VPS while offering more features
- VPS plans use KVM virtualization with fully dedicated resources and no overselling or fair-usage policy
- Bare metal plans include a 99.99% uptime SLA and optional DuckPanel integration for those who want managed hosting on dedicated hardware
- Aikar’s optimized JVM flags are enabled by default on all Minecraft plans
Cons:
- Essentials plan uses shared CPU cores, lacks server splits, and charges extra for a dedicated IP
- VPS stock is limited in several locations, with Los Angeles, Miami, and Germany currently on a waitlist. Bare metal is currently limited to Ashburn and Los Angeles
- Primary support runs through Discord, which works well for most but is not for everyone
Overall
Bloom Host is one of the more complete options in the Minecraft hosting space right now, and the broader product lineup holds up well too. The DuckPanel feature set is ahead of most competitors, the server splitter is more capable than it first appears, and backup mounting is a genuinely useful feature that nobody else at this price seems to offer. The DDoS protection through Cloudflare Magic Transit is not something you typically find included at these rates, and the VPS and bare metal offerings give you a clear upgrade path as your needs grow. The main things to watch are the backup rate limit, hardware variation by location, stock availability on VPS plans, and Germany’s temporary DDoS coverage gap. On Performance and Performance Plus, it is a hard package to argue with.
This post was last modified on May 28, 2026 10:58 am