Why your Aternos server shuts down, and how to keep it online
Aternos stops your server minutes after the last player leaves. That is not a fault, it is how free hosting works. We compared the four ways to keep it online.
By RunAFK Team · RunAFK
You set up a server on Aternos to play with friends. Everyone logged off, you took a short break, and by the time you came back the server was down. You started it again, waited in the queue, gave it a few minutes. Next day, same thing.
This is not a fault. Aternos does it on purpose, and the reason makes sense. It is still annoying.
Why it shuts down
Aternos is free. It runs thousands of Minecraft servers on shared hardware without charging anyone. The only way that works is by constantly handing resources around.
An empty server still eats RAM and CPU. Holding that capacity while nobody is playing means pushing someone who does want to play into a queue. So Aternos stops a server a few minutes after the last player leaves and returns the capacity to the pool.
The queue you sit in at peak hours is the same story: there is only so much room in that pool.
So the problem is not your server. It is how free hosting has to work.
Ways to keep the server online
There are four options. All of them work. They cost you different things.
1. Rent paid hosting
The direct fix. On paid hosting your server does not stop when it empties, there is no queue, and the hardware is yours alone.
The cost is money. A small server starts at a few dollars a month and climbs with player count and mods. If you play regularly with a group and want the world to be permanent, this is the solid answer.
2. Idle in game on your own computer
You join the server and leave your character standing there. The server sees a player, so it stays up.
Free, but your computer has to stay on. Minecraft keeps running, it draws power, the machine heats up, and you cannot comfortably use it for anything else. Keeping a server alive overnight this way is not practical.
There is also the obvious failure: if your connection drops or the machine sleeps, the server stops anyway.
3. Run a bot program on your computer
Instead of the whole game, you run a small program that only connects to the server. Far lighter than launching Minecraft.
Still free, but two drawbacks. Setting it up takes some technical comfort — downloading it, configuring it, keeping it running. And it is still tied to your machine, so it dies when the machine does.
4. A bot that runs somewhere else
The bot runs on another machine, not yours, and stays connected to your server. You can shut your computer down and the bot is still there, keeping the server up.
That is what RunAFK does. The bots run on our machines, with nothing to install and no plugin on your server. It is free because you earn time by opening short sponsor links instead of paying.
What to watch out for with a bot
The whitelist. If whitelist is on in your Aternos panel, the bot is not on the list and gets rejected with "You are not white-listed on this server". Add the bot's username to the whitelist.
Online mode. Aternos servers ship with online-mode on, which means the server asks Mojang to verify the account. In that case the bot has to use a real Minecraft account. With online-mode off, any username works.
Whose server it is. If you are not the owner, ask first. Connecting a bot without permission is against the rules on most servers.
Your host's terms. Every host has its own rules. Worth a look before you set a bot up.
Which one should you pick
If your server hosts a real community and needs to stay up, paid hosting is the solid answer. You pay for it, and in exchange you stop managing the problem.
If you play now and then with a few friends and only need the server up while you are on it, you need none of this. That is exactly what Aternos is for.
If you are in between — you want the server to stay up but you do not want a monthly bill — a bot running somewhere else is the sensible middle. You can close your laptop, and there is nothing to install.
Setting it up with RunAFK
Create an account, add your server address, define a bot, and press start. The bot connects within seconds.
Time spent running comes out of your balance. You top that balance up by opening short sponsor links — no payment, no card details.
If whitelist is on, remember to add the bot's username in the Aternos panel. That is the reason behind most bots that will not connect.