Check your ping before you buy

Try your ping before you pay

You don't need a server to know your ping. We measure it live from your device to each region on our site, and when the free trial is open you get a real server to play on with your friends before you pay.

Where to see your ping

Your ping shows beside every live region on these pages:

• The regions page: each region with its location and your ping to it, and a Create your server here button
• The Pick a region step on the create page, before you pick a plan
• The Where our servers are section on the home page
• The Pick a region step on the trial page, when the trial is open

How we measure it

Your browser sends short requests to one of our machines in each region and times the round trip. We repeat it several times and show the middle value, so one slow reading doesn't change the result. The figure is a live measurement from your device, not an estimate.

Your server is set up in the region you pick, the same one we measured. So this figure is the closest guide to your ping in the game, though the number the game shows can differ a little.

Ping depends on the distance and the route between you and the region, not on the game. So a region's figure holds whichever game you play.

Read the figure

Bars and a color beside the figure read it for you:

• Green, three or four bars: a good ping
• Yellow, two bars: a fair ping, which you may notice in fast fights
• Red, one bar: a high ping, and you'll feel the lag

Ping shows most in fast fights between players, as in Rust, and least in building and co-op play, as in Minecraft and Valheim.

While it measures, you see Measuring ping…. If you see Couldn't measure, the measurement didn't finish. Press Try again. This is about the measurement only, and the region still takes orders.

Tips for an accurate reading

• Open the page on the network you play on: your home network or your mobile data. If you play on a console, open it from a device on the same network.
• Turn off any VPN while you measure, because it changes the route between you and the region.
• Measure at the time you usually play, because network load changes through the day.
• Send the regions page to your friends so each of them knows their own ping, since you all share one server.

Bots

A bot has no region to pick and no ping to check: it talks to Discord or Telegram, not to players, and we choose where it runs.

Try a real server free

When the free trial is open, the trial page gives you a 2 GB server for 3 days, with no card. It's a real server like any paid one, so the ping you see in the game is your real ping.

What the trial needs

• A Serverk account, and we never ask for a card.
• A Discord account linked to it: join our Discord server and type /link. Every step is in the Discord guide.
• Staying in our Discord server: the trial is for its members, so don't leave while your server runs.
• A Discord account 30 days or older.
• One trial per person: one per Serverk account and per Discord account, across game servers and bots. If you try a game server, you can't take a bot trial after it, and the other way round.

Claim your server

1. Open the trial page and pick a game. The page lists the games the trial plan fits. Games that need more RAM, such as Rust and ARK, aren't in it, and for their ping the region's figure on the regions page is all you need.
2. Pick a region. We measure your ping to each region here too, as on the regions page. A region the trial can't use shows its reason: Soon, No room or Not ready. Is your region not available? Press Open a ticket and we'll reply there.
3. Finish the steps under What you need. If you don't have an account, press Create an account to claim, and your picks are kept.
4. Press Claim your free server. We set it up the way we set up any paid server. Then join it with your friends and try your ping in the game.

The bot trial

When bots are offered, pick what you want to try on the trial page: Game server or Bot. The bot trial is free for 3 days on the same conditions, with no region to pick. Press Deploy a bot free, then add your bot's code from a GitHub repository, a template or a zip file.

When the trial ends

• Your server's panel shows how much of the trial is left, and on the last day we remind you when it ends.
• To keep your server, press Subscribe and keep it in the panel or in the email before the trial ends. The same server keeps running with its files and settings, with nothing to set up again.

If the trial is closed or you already used it

The ping on the regions page is enough to pick your region. The first paid server on your account carries a money-back guarantee, and the full terms are on the refunds page.