Valheim dedicated server vs playing from your own world
Hosting from your own game means your friends can only play when you are online and the world lives on your PC, while a dedicated server keeps the world up and backed up on its own.
6 min read · Updated Oct 21, 2026 · By GuavaHost Team
The two ways to play Valheim with friends
From your own world. You start a world in the game, tick the option to make it a community or friends game, and your group joins you. The world file sits on your computer and the game you are playing is also the server everyone else is connected to.
On a dedicated server. A separate machine runs Valheim's headless server build, which is the game with no graphics and no player, doing nothing but hosting the world. Everyone, including you, joins it as a client. If you want the background first, what a dedicated game server is covers the idea in general terms.
Both support up to 10 players, which is Valheim's own limit either way. What differs is everything around that.
Who has to be online
This is the difference that decides it for most groups.
Hosting from your own world, you are the server. Close the game, go to bed, or go on holiday and nobody can play. Your group's progress is tied to your schedule, and that gets old quickly once people are in different time zones or on different shifts.
A dedicated server runs on its own. Your friends can play at 3am while you are asleep, or carry on for a fortnight while you are away. Nobody waits for the host.
The same applies mid-session: if the host's game crashes or their internet drops, a locally hosted world ends for everyone immediately. On a dedicated server one player disconnecting is just one player disconnecting.
Where the world lives, and where your character lives
Valheim splits these two things, and understanding it clears up most of the confusion people have when they move.
Worlds live wherever the server is. Hosting locally, that is the worlds_local folder on your PC. On a dedicated server, it is on the server, which is why the server is what you back up.
Characters always live on the player's own computer, not on the server. Your character travels with you between worlds and between servers, carrying their skills, levels and whatever is in their inventory. That is why joining a friend's new server does not make you start over, and why deleting a server does not delete your character.
So moving from a local world to a dedicated server moves the world, not the people. Everyone keeps their character and walks into the same world they left. Our guide on moving an existing Valheim world to GuavaHost covers the two files involved and how to copy them across, and our team can do the whole transfer for you if you would rather not.
Joining, passwords and crossplay
Hosting from your own game, friends usually find you through the Steam friends list, and the game's own options control whether the world is open to friends or to the community.
A dedicated server has an address and a port, and that is what you share. Joining it is a slightly more deliberate act: see connecting to your Valheim server for the ways in, including adding it as a favourite so it is one click next time.
Dedicated servers also have stricter password rules than a local world. Valheim requires a password of at least five characters, and it refuses to start if the password is contained in the server name, which catches people out more often than you would think.
Crossplay works on both, but on a dedicated server it is an explicit setting that switches the server onto the cross-platform network and gives you a six digit join code to share. Valheim crossplay covers turning it on and finding the code, which is what Xbox and Game Pass players need.
Backups
Hosting locally, your world's safety is whatever you do by hand on your own PC. Valheim keeps its own rolling copies next to the save, which is better than nothing, but they sit on the same drive as the thing they are protecting.
On a dedicated server with us you get a Backups page where a snapshot is one click, scheduled backups on the Scheduled tasks page, and the option of daily off-site copies to separate storage. For a world a group has spent months on, that difference matters more than any performance argument.
Mods
Locally hosted modded Valheim means every player installs the same mods, and whether the world keeps working depends on the host's install. Updating a mod means coordinating with everyone at once.
A dedicated server installs server-side mods once, in one place, under your control, and you decide when they change. Players still need matching client mods for anything that changes the game world, so it is not zero coordination, but the server half stops being somebody's personal install that nobody else can see.
Performance
When you host your own world, your PC runs both the game you are playing and the server everyone else depends on, and your home upload bandwidth carries all of it. That is fine for two or three players nearby. It gets rough with a full group, a big base, or players far away from you.
A dedicated server does nothing but host. It is on a connection built for it, in a region you choose near your players. Hosting at home versus a host goes through the trade-offs honestly, including the cases where home hosting is genuinely fine.
When a dedicated server is worth it
It is worth it when:
- Your group plays at different times, or is spread across time zones.
- There are more than three or four of you.
- The world is something you would be upset to lose.
- You are the host and you are tired of being the reason nobody can play.
- You want mods managed in one place.
- Your home upload is modest, or your PC struggles while hosting.
It is not worth it when it is two of you playing in the same room on the same evenings. Valheim's own co-op handles that fine, and you can always move the world onto a server later, because the save files are the same either way.
Common questions
Will I lose my character if I move to a dedicated server?
No. Valheim characters are saved on each player's own computer, not on the server, so everyone keeps their character with all its skills and gear when they join a new server. Only the world needs to be copied across.
Can I turn my single player world into a dedicated server world?
Yes. A single player, local co-op and dedicated server world are the same pair of files, so you can upload yours to a server and carry on where you left off. Take a copy first and keep it untouched until you have confirmed everything loaded.
Do all players need to own Valheim on the same platform?
No, not with crossplay switched on. A crossplay server runs on the cross-platform network and hands out a join code that works for players on other platforms, including Xbox and Game Pass, rather than only Steam.
Is a dedicated server faster than hosting from my own PC?
Usually, though not because the hardware is magic. It helps because the machine is doing nothing but hosting, it sits on a connection built for serving players, and you can put it in a region close to your group instead of wherever you happen to live.
Still stuck? Jump into our Discord at discord.gg/GuavaHost and the team will help you out.
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