Apex Hosting vs Shockbyte: Which is better?

Choosing a reliable Minecraft server host can be tricky, especially when two of the biggest names, Apex Hosting and Shockbyte, both promise the same things: fast setup & great performance. But which one actually delivers the best value?

We’ve compared them head-to-head across everything that matters: setup experience, performance, support, pricing, and user reviews.

Let’s dive in. 👇

What Is Apex Hosting?

Apex Hosting is a premium game server hosting company founded in 2013, best known for Minecraft hosting services. They have remained a trusted choice and the most popular hosting providers among Minecraft players.

They built their reputation on being beginner-friendly, offering instant setup, global locations, and countless tutorials to help first-time server owners get started quickly.

What Is Shockbyte?

Shockbyte has been in the hosting space for over a decade, and it shows both in experience and age. The company now hosts over 60 games including Ark, Rust, and Terraria.

Apex Hosting vs Shockbyte: Comparing Core Features

Server performance & hardware

Both Apex Hosting and Shockbyte deliver solid, mid-tier hardware performance for Minecraft servers, but there are a few key differences worth noting.

• Apex Hosting uses a mix of AMD Ryzen and older Intel Xeon CPUs, depending on the location.
• Shockbyte, on the other hand, primarily runs on AMD EPYC processors.

Both have mixed reviews with performance.

Customization & plugins/mods

Shockbyte wins slightly here, offering one-click installation for both modpacks and plugins, while Apex only supports one-click modpack installs. Installing individual plugins on Apex requires manual uploads through the file manager.

User interface & usability

Apex’s Multicraft panel feels a lot more outdated. Shockbyte’s control panel is more modern and user-friendly, allowing better navigation.

However, both providers use separate billing panels, meaning you’ll juggle multiple logins for billing, tickets, and server control.

Uptime & reliability

Both hosts maintain good uptime once servers are live, but Shockbyte’s hibernation delays and Apex’s aging hardware can cause interruptions. Neither provides truly instant start times like newer Minecraft-focused hosts.

Community & support

Support is where both hosts fall short in 2025. Apex provides faster responses but still suffers from inconsistent billing support wait times. Shockbyte, meanwhile, continues to receive criticism for 5–12 day support delays.

Apex Hosting vs Shockbyte Pricing

One of the big things between Apex Hosting and Shockbyte is their pricing. Apex offers more standardized package while Shockbyte has options for premium and budget. Let's take a closer look at their pricing.

Apex Hosting pricing plans

Standard: $3.99/GB but the bigger your package the cheaper the GB. You can get $3.50/GB for 8GB or $3.25/GB for 32GB.

Pricing info via Apex Hosting

Apex offers straightforward pricing but upsells heavily DDoS protection, premium support, plugin installs, and modpack creation.

Shockbyte pricing plans

Shockbyte’s pricing starts at $3.99 per GB of RAM for premium plans:

• 3GB RAM - $11.99/mo
• 4GB RAM - $15.99/mo
• 5GB RAM - $19.98/mo
• 6GB RAM - $23.99/mo
• 7GB RAM - $27.99/mo
• 8GB RAM - $31.99/mo

They also offer budget plans for $1.99/GB of RAM. They dont clearly mention the differences between premium and budget.

Apex Hosting vs Shockbyte User Reviews

Apex Hosting user feedback

⭐ Rating: 4.3/5.0

Generally people rate their support quite low. Their support can be slow and inexperienced with complex issues. People also bring out performance issues quite freqeuently noting that servers crash.

I was originally with mcprohosting, but then Apex purchased the company. Ever since I've had a poor experience. They charge a fortune but then their servers constantly lag + crash even when you have more than enough RAM (no problem with different host).

Majority of reviews are positive but they get more negative reviews than Bisect or some other high-rated hosts.

Apex has easy guides to follow and they make it super easy to set up a server step-by-step.

When ever I have experienced an issues (usually through a lack of knowledge on my end) the support staff have always been so quick and kind with their assistance.

Summary: Easy setup, but mixed performance and inconsistent support.

Shockbyte user feedback

⭐ Rating: 3.9/5.0

While Shockbyte is far more modern and up to date with modern standards, it struggles even more than Apex Hosting with customer support. Their billing support can take 1-2 weeks to respond to issues and technical support can exceed 24-hour windows.

One user noted:

"They never respond to support tickets. I purchased a server days ago and am having issues and can't even play it."
– Trustpilot review

Another one said:

“Customer service is nowhere to be found. Been waiting 5+ days and still no response on my ticket.”
— Trustpilot review

Majority of Shockbyte reviews are negative which is where their 3.9 rating comes from.

Summary: While Shockbyte’s feature set is functional, its slow support is definitely a killer.

Alternatives to Apex Hosting and Shockbyte for the Best Minecraft Server Hosting Solution

While Apex Hosting and BisectHosting are among the most recognized names in Minecraft hosting, it’s important to remember that both operate as multi-game hosting providers. They have also the worst-rated support teams out of all major hosting providers.

That’s where WiseHosting stands apart.

WiseHosting is the highest-rated host built exclusively for Minecraft, with every feature, from hardware to panel design, optimized around Minecraft performance, mods, and player experience.

Built by Shulkercraft (2.4M subscribers), one of the community’s biggest names, WiseHosting turns what used to be a clunky hosting experience into a single, unified ecosystem for serious Minecraft players.

Deep Minecraft Expertise

Unlike Apex and Shockbyte, which supports dozens of different games, WiseHosting is Minecraft-only: every optimization, every support response, every engineering decision is crafted specifically for Minecraft Java and Bedrock servers.

After trying other hosting services with mixed but generally negative results, WiseHosting stands out as the most reliable, efficient, and supportive by far. The control panel is responsive and easy to use, and we’ve never once felt like I was fighting the system just to get my server running the way we want it.
Trustpilot review

One Unified Account

Apex and Shockbyte both require two separate logins, one for billing and one for your control panel, which can make management tedious.

WiseHosting eliminates that entirely with One Unified Account. Your billing, support, and server panel are seamlessly integrated, so you can open tickets, adjust billing, or restart your world, all from one login.

One-Click Addons for Everything

Installing mods or plugins manually is one of the biggest frustrations players face.

WiseHosting’s Addons Hub solves that. From here, you can install almost anything: mods, modpacks, plugins, or datapacks with a single click.

The support team, available tools, tips, overall clarity; all of it is so good. There is very clearly a lot of care placed into WiseHosting as it is. The response time to a server issue I had is incredible. Mods are very easy to add along with mod presets saving loads of time.
Trustpilot review

WiseHosting has a strong Presets library which has done-for-you configurations for mods and plugins like:

• 🧩 Crossplay (GeyserMC) for Java + Bedrock connections.
• 🌍 Dynmap and Bluemap for live map visualization.
• 🔊 Voice Chat for proximity-based in-game conversations.
• 💬 VotifierPlus for rewarding players on vote sites.
• ⚙️ Enable World Dupers, World Downloads, and more for Paper servers

Manage players with Live Player Manager

The Console tab provides real-time control with an integrated Player Manager. Ban, kick, whitelist, or OP players directly, no commands required.

For creators or admins managing multiple communities, this is a huge upgrade over manual console entry. You can see everything happening live and act instantly.

Easy to use customized Pterodactyl Panel

Clean, modern, and powerful, WiseHosting’s modified Pterodactyl control panel is easy to navigate for beginners while offering deep controls for advanced admins.

Quality-of-life utilities built-in

WiseHosting goes beyond “hosting”, it’s packed with server-side utilities that usually require separate websites or plugins:

• 🎨 MOTD Editor: Custom message editor with color palette and live preview.
• 📍 Coordinate Calculator: Instantly convert between dimensions or coordinates.
• 🧮 Enchantment & Resource Calculators: Handy math tools for game planning.
• 🧑‍🎨 Skin Grabber: Quickly load and preview player skins.

... and much more!

These tools eliminate context-switching, everything you’d normally open a separate tab for now lives in your hosting dashboard.

Version Switching & Mod Loader Control

WiseHosting’s Version tab makes it effortless to change Minecraft versions or server types in a few clicks. You can even Reinstall Version from Settings to reset only the core files without wiping your world.

This allows testing, upgrading, or rolling back between versions safely, something modded players will deeply appreciate.

WiseHosting Pricing

WiseHosting has on average of $3.25/GB, making it way better value to run your server.

WiseHosting customer reviews

⭐ Rating: 4.9/5

WiseHosting is not the highest rated by accident, it's by design. Here are a few real customer review pulled from the Minecraft community:

"What really sets WiseHosting apart from Minehut and other server hosts, is their fantastic support team. Every issue we’ve run into (usually due to mistakes on our end) has been resolved within the hour, with clear communication and professional help."

"I’ve been using WiseHosting for my Minecraft server for a long time now, and I honestly can’t recommend them enough. From the moment I signed up, the setup process was incredibly smooth and user-friendly."

"Shortly after Youtube identity Shulkercraft launched their service, Wisehosting, I have been a client. Without a doubt, using their service has been the easiest thing about becoming a Minecraft server administrator. Absolutely a customer for life."

The Question Isn’t Apex Hosting Vs. Shockbyte, It’s Why Not WiseHosting?

Both Apex Hosting and Shockbyte have earned their reputation over the years, offering decent performance and modding options. But they share the same drawbacks, multi-game focus, split accounts, extra fees for premium support while delivering lower value.

WiseHosting, on the other hand, is built exclusively for Minecraft. It gives you great performance, a modern all-in-one panel and free professional-level support.