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Curseforge App One-stop-shopfor Minecraft Servers

Minecraft is one of the two best-selling video games of all time where players have always used Multiplayer to play together, either by renting a realm or through a 3rd-party paid server hosting.

CurseForge is the leading platform for installing and launching Minecraft modpacks, with 305K+ mods available - yet server owners still rely on external hosting to run a server while managing the modpack separately in our app.

A-Z product design // b2b2c • desktop app // 2026 q2-q3

3 core stepsHost, Share, Join
Flow’s session duration in-appFlow’s session duration in-app
Migrated 66% of the flow to our productsMigrated 66% of the flow to our products
CurseForge app with the Minecraft servers feature

problem & research

Hosting servers using 3rd-parties

Up until now, publishing your server on Curseforge meant choosing a modpack on Curseforge or uploading your own, then setting up and paying separately on a 3rd party site specifically for hosting servers.

That’s 2/3 of one flow happening outside of Curseforge App, an entirely ad-supported client that already has over 370 servers with 212K+ avg. active players.

I researched server hosting solutions like Aternos, BisectHosting and Shockbyte,
as well as products with a plan-based payment.

One direct competitor offering in-app server creation

One direct competitor, a major player in Minecraft UGC platforms, already offers in-app server setup and payment.

Setup first, pay after. Minimum friction in between

Setup and payment across most hosting sites is lean: choose modpack, pay, configure when ready.
That's true for BisectHosting, Shockbyte, and Modrinth - CurseForge's direct competitor.

Hosting revenue solutions exclude mod creators from revenue

No hosting service ties creator payout to server hosting itself.
Curseforge is the only place where modpack and mod creators get paid per server running on their modpack, in addition to our pay-per download model.

alex

A Claude skill setting ground for deep research

Before this project, I built Alex - a Claude skill modeled as a CurseForge developer rooted in the tight-knit, niche Minecraft community.

I used it throughout to surface the community’s stance on servers, terminology, flow logic and messaging, as a starting point for further research with actual CF developers.

A conversation with Alex, the Claude skill modeled as a CurseForge developerRomiAlex flagged that the pricing plans details might be too technical for our users. It suggested to explain what plan they should choose based on basic server details.

the challenge

The process has to be short and well informative

As concluded from the research, the whole creation and payment process has to be straight forward.

However, payments and crediting is an extremely sensitive subject in the Minecraft community - it’s all about crediting the rightful developers and making sure everybody involved is compensated accordingly.

I made sure we’re completely transparent about the payment and crediting of the developers responsible for the server’s Modpack.

flow

Same process, more time in app

before

01 (3 steps)3rd party
Setup Server
023rd party
Pay
03curseforge
Server is up

after

01 (3 steps)curseforge
Setup server
02tebexsister product
Pay
03curseforge
Server is up

solution

Create a server → play with friends in 7 minutes

Four features shipped simultaneously

Host a Server

new feature

Four-step modal: modpack, plan, region, review.

  • Modpack selection comes first with a default ‘latest file’ selected.
  • Choosing a region suggests the lowest-ping (highest speed) by default
  • Payment is currently made through Tebex, Curseforge’s sister product, in-browser.
    A "Checkout in progress" screen guides the user and references back to the checkout flow.
RomiOriginally, stakeholders requested that there’s no default file selected for technical reasons. I successfully pushed to have a default file to avoid friction pre-payment.
Create server modal, step 1: choose modpack
1/4 - choose modpack
Create server modal, step 4: pre-payment summary
4/4 - pre-payment summary

Manage Servers ["My Servers" tab]

new feature

Hosted and joined servers in one place, with live status.

  • Manage splits into two actions: subscription stays inside CurseForge, server-level settings open Shockbyte's control panel.
  • Canceling starts a warning period before permanent deletion, a development constraint.
    The modal swaps the action to "Renew Plan" so hosts have a clear way back before it's gone.
My Servers tab with hosted and joined servers

Share a Server

new feature

Two ways to bring friends in:

  • A temporary deep link that directly installs the server and its modpack for players
  • An import code as the manual alternative, redeemable inside CurseForge
Share server modal with a deep link and an import code

Public Servers Tab

improvement

The tab lists standalone Curseforge servers pulled from Tebex, created before the in-app flow existed.

  • The old copy-the-IP method had to stay, so I brought it in line.
  • Redesigned to match the new Servers features.
Redesigned public servers tab

outcome

Same flow, increased session duration

Migrated 66% of the flow to our products

Increased flow’s session duration in-app

reflections

Well-thought messaging > pleasing everybody

One thing I’d do differently is make sure the messaging is fully aligned across Product, Marketing, and Community before launch.

While the goal was to communicate the value behind the pricing (“Support Developers”), the lack of transparency on the pricing ended up raising a flag for the community.

In retrospect, I would have worked more closely with the Marketing and Community teams to make sure the content and messaging in the product matched the way we were communicating it elsewhere.

Better to align on one clear message across teams, rather than letting each platform tell a slightly different story.