What are Minecraft Realms and How to use them? Beginners Guide.

Minecraft is a game that is best enjoyed when you play with friends. In a single-player world, the player might enjoy the first few days of solitude, but after a while, you get really bored. It doesn’t hurt to get some company apart from the mindless villagers who keep saying ‘hmmmmm, uhhhmm!

While Minecraft is a very popular game, the multiplayer feature isn’t very accessible. At least compared to today's standards, where players can start playing with their friends in a game without worrying about the technical stuff that goes behind the screen. The multiplayer experience wasn’t outstanding in Minecraft before, but it has improved over the years.

You can actually play Minecraft online with your friends, and there are ways to go about it. Either you setup up your own server to play with your friends (many third-party companies do this), or you can stay in the Minecraft ecosystem and buy Minecraft Realms. The realms subscription is an offering by Mojang to encourage people to stay on their platform.

But many players get confused; they don’t understand how to use and start playing. After all, the players only care about playing the game and not technical jargon. So in this blog post, we’ll guide you through setting up a Realms server, explain what the different Realms variations are, if there are some other alternatives, and is Realms actually worth it. So let’s get into it!

What is Minecraft Realms?

Minecraft Realms is a server hosting platform that Microsoft introduced to the game to ease the process of playing online with friends. Before Realms was a thing, Minecraft players had only one option, going through the extremely tedious process of setting up their own server via third-party companies who often didn’t even do the work properly.

Realms allow the player to skip all these steps and start playing right away. You simply have to buy a subscription, and depending on the plan you choose, your costs will be different. The subscription will be recurring depending on the plan you decide; many players take a monthly substitution to pay for the Realm every month.

So if you’re a person who just wants to start playing with his friend and don’t want to worry about all the server-related stuff, Realms is your best choice. They have excellent documentation on how to set up the server. If you ever get stuck, you know it'll be resolved as a big company like Microsoft is handling this project.

Realms is a different hosting solution for different versions of the game. The Java Edition of the game doesn’t connect with the bedrock version of the game, and we know this. Hence the Realms service for the JAVA Edition is a bit different from that of the Bedrock edition. We’ll go into more detail about the differences in detail in a while, but first, let’s discuss the pricing model for this service.

Minecraft Realms Cost

The Realms hosting servers for the JAVA edition of the game are called REALMS, and the Realms hosting servers for the bedrock editions of the game are called REALMS PLUS. It is essential to know the difference, so keep that in mind.

Realms

For the JAVA Edition of the game, Mojang studios have 4 different plans, basically. Let’s take a look at them

$7.99 / Month

This plan will keep recurring every month; you won’t have to manually buy the subscription every month. So if you’re going to be playing this world for a while, you can take this plan as this is the cheapest one in the long run.

$9.99 /Month

This is similar to the $7.99 plan, but Mojang takes extra money in this one as this plan expires after 30 days, and you’ll have to manually buy once again. This is best suited for those who don’t plan on using the strive for more than 1 month.

$26.99 / 90 days

Like the $9.99/Month plan, this 90 days plan also expires after 90 days.

$47.99 / 180 days

This plan also expires a set amount of time.

Realms Plus

The advantage of using the REALMS Plus and having the bedrock version of the game is convenience. The code written for Java edition doesn't support any other platform. Whereas the Bedrock version of the game allows the player to cross-platform with every other platform running Minecraft Bedrick edition, express for the Java players.

Plus, it is a bit cheaper than the Java edition realms packages. Here are the packages for Realms Plus

$3.99/Month

This plan is recurring. Hence $3.99 will be going to Mojang every month. This is the cheapest plan for the Bedrock edition. It allows up to 3 players, including you.

$7.99/Month

This is once again a systematic plan; the only reason it is a bit highest than the $3.99 is because of the added marketplace content that it gives the players. You can get more than 150+ Marketplace packs. Plus, it allows up to 11 players, including you.

Minecraft Realms Pros and Cons

Pros

Ease of setting up

The main thing that attracts players toward the Realms service is the ease of setting up a server. While traditional methods for setting up a multiplayer server have come a long way and have become very user-friendly, there still is a lot of resistance when players try to start a new server. Again, a player wants to set up a world and invite his friend to play, and Realms allows it.

Marketplace Content

The Plugins that the community makes for the Minecraft servers are good, but the stuff created by Mojang is phenomenal. Some packages give you access to the marketplace content, which will add to your Minecraft world. You can see a different survival world and a different mini-game world where you and your friend go to unwind!

Crossplay

The bedrock edition of Realms allows you to crossplay with every device imaginable. Be it a PC, a mobile, an X Box, or a Nintendo Switch, the bedrock edition of the game allows crossplay. This is a massive deal for players who don’t share the same consoles, as now they can finally break platform barriers and start enjoying the game they love.

Cons

Minecraft Realms is an excellent venture by Mojang, but it has its disadvantages. Let's take a look at them.

Pricing

The Realms service is really costly; paying $7-8 every month is a lot for many Minecraft players. This price seems even higher when you consider the third-party companies who can provide the same service for as low as $0.79! Plus, most of the games out there don’t ask the player for money when they are going to play online.

Many new players that come to Minecraft are surprised that Minecraft asks for money from the players to play online with their friends. In contrast, games like Fortnite, PUBG, LOL, etc., allow the players to hang out and play with their friends for absolutely free of cost.

Plugin Support

The Realms service is pretty new, and most people who build mods and plugins for servers aren’t making any new stuff for the Realms players. Although Realms on Bedrock gives you access to the Company Curated Marketplace Content, it isn't enough as a single Company can’t match the output level of an entire community.

Easy hackable

The point above this ties into this point as well. As there isn’t a lot of community support for Realms, griefers and hackers will have their way in your server most of the time. It is a big issue plaguing Realms, especially if you're planning to run a factions server or a PvP style server; players can easily hack.

Minecraft Realms Alternatives

Minecraft Realms sounds like a great way to get started with the multiplayer experience for Minecraft. Still, suppose you don’t want to pay this premium price and are ready to get your hand a little dirty. In that case, there are a lot of different third-party solutions out there that’ll assist you in doing this.

Third-party server hosts have existed for years now, and they have managed to improve their UI to site more players. You can now search for Minecraft hosting on google and go with the company that fits your needs. You won’t have to pay a premium price. The number of plugins available for these servers is just crazy!

Most of the big servers like Hypixel and 2B2T are hosted on third-party servers, Realms wasn’t even a thing when these bing servers came into being. Plus, the Premium price that Mojang is charging is not worth it. If you can bear with 10-15 minutes of inconvenience, you’ll be saving a lot of money every month.

So going with a third-party option is a great idea, don’t be lazy; just go ahead and create a new server on your own; the money you save can be used to buy better plugins and mods!

How to use Minecraft Realms?

Using Minecraft Realms is pretty straightforward, and after reading through this blog post, you won’t ever get stuck while setting up a brand new Realms server.

Java edition

Before you can start using your Realm server, make sure you buy it by going to the Minecraft Realms option. In here, you’ll see a screen where the realism where you played on will be visible. To start a new one, simply click on the question mark on the top right-hand side of your screen, and a window will open asking you to purchase the service or try for free.

Click on any button, and you’ll be redirected to this page. Here you simply have to click on the purchase button and add your card details to initiate the service. You can also try the free service; if you are doing this for the first time, Minecraft offers a free month. After that, it’s on you if you want to renew the subscription or discontinue it.

And that’s how you buy a new Minecraft Realms server for Java Edition. Once you make the purchase, simply go back to the Minecraft home screen, and click on the Realms option. You will see that your newly purchased Real, ms server is now visible. You can now add players by simply inviting them over using the options given.

And that’s basically it; you can now start playing the game without worrying about the server backup as the games back up automatically on the server. Your friends can even join the server when you’re not online, and only one of you has to buy the service, so it becomes a lot more feasible when you all chip in the money.

Bedrock edition

The Bedrock edition is very straightforward; you won’t even need this guide to do it,l but now that you’re here, take a look at how it’s done.

To start a new Realms server, simply create a new Minecraft world like you usually do in Minecraft. After you change the settings of the world is to your liking, you're now ready to set up a new Reals server. An option will be visible next to the Create World button, saying, Create on Realms; you have to click that.

Then it’ll give you details about the packages, choose the package you want, go ahead with the transaction. You’ve created a brand new Realms server for you, and your friend's on the Bedrock Edition.

To add a friend, simply go to the Members option and add your friend. You can also make a backup of the world by downloading the world, but this won't be needed as the service include auto-backup.