Ways to Pay for Game Server Hosting
Renting a game server shouldn't mean changing how you like to pay. So there are two ways to do it, and you can switch between them whenever you want.
Pay through Stripe and your server renews itself in the background. Pay with crowns and you top up a balance whenever it suits you, and your server takes what it needs each cycle. Neither is the "proper" way — pick whichever fits how you run things.
Pay through Stripe
The straightforward one. Choose your server, check out through Stripe, and you're playing minutes later. Your payment method is charged automatically at each renewal, so there's nothing to remember and nothing to top up.
Because it's Stripe, you're not limited to a card — pay by card, PayPal, or any of the other methods Stripe offers at checkout, including the ones your phone already has set up.
Cancel any time from your account. No notice period, no phone call, no retention script.
Good if: you run one server, you want it to just keep running, and you'd rather never think about billing again.
Pay with crowns
Crowns are Rampart's prepaid balance. You buy them when you want, they sit in your wallet, and each billing cycle your server draws what it costs. When the balance runs low, you top up — or you don't, and the server winds down. You're never signed up to anything.
That turns out to matter more than it sounds:
- Nothing recurring. Buy crowns once and you're done. There's no ongoing arrangement sitting against your payment method.
- Prepay a season. Drop in enough for the summer, forget about it, come back in September.
- Nobody quietly carries the group. Whoever happens to own the server isn't the one seeing everyone else's costs land on their statement each month.
- Everything is itemised. Your wallet page lists every crown in and every crown out, with what caused it. Top-ups, renewals, refunds — all of it, in order.
Wallets have a maximum balance so you can't over-fund by accident. Your wallet page always shows how much more it can hold.
Good if: you'd rather not have anything recurring set up, you're splitting costs with other people, or you just prefer paying for things up front.
Or use both
You don't have to choose once and live with it. Turn on auto-bill via Stripe if crowns run low and your balance is used first, with Stripe quietly covering the gap only if the wallet can't.
Prepaid when you're organised, safety net when you're not. Your server stays up either way.
Community wallets: share the bill
This is the part groups tend to like.
A community wallet is a shared pot of crowns. You create one, and you get a share link. Anyone with that link can put crowns in — including people who don't have a Rampart account at all. They pay, the pot goes up, done. No signup wall between your clan and the server they want to play on.
Paste the link in Discord and it unfurls properly, with your community's name, description and image.
Who can do what
You decide, per member:
| Permission | What it lets them do |
|---|---|
| Spend on servers | Point a server's billing at the shared pot, or take it off again |
| Manage members | Invite people and remove them |
| View transactions | See the full history of what went in and what went out |
Give someone all three, or none of them. Anyone can still contribute crowns either way — putting money in never requires permission. As the person who created the wallet, you keep control of it regardless.
How the billing works
Link a server to the community wallet and its renewals come out of the shared pot. If the pot is ever short, the server owner's personal wallet covers that cycle instead, so the server doesn't drop just because someone forgot to chip in. Unlink it at any time and billing goes back to normal.
Every contribution and every charge is listed, so nobody has to take anyone's word for where the crowns went.
Worth knowing
Contributions into a community wallet are one-way. Once crowns are in the shared pot they belong to the community and can't be pulled back out to a personal wallet. That's deliberate — it's what stops a shared pot from being drained by whoever gets there first — but it's worth saying plainly before you contribute.
Common questions
Do I need to set up a payment method to play?
No. If someone else funds a community wallet and gives you permission to spend from it, you can run a server without entering any payment details of your own.
Which payment methods can I use?
Checkout runs through Stripe, so you can pay by card, by PayPal, or with the other methods Stripe offers at checkout. Or skip all of that and pay with crowns from your wallet.
What happens if my balance runs out?
We email you before the renewal if your balance won't cover it. If a payment still can't be taken, the server is suspended, not deleted — your world, your saves and your settings stay where they are. Top up and it comes straight back.
Can I get a refund?
Yes, within the cooling-off period shown at checkout. You choose whether it goes back to your original payment method or lands in your wallet as crowns.
Can I switch between Stripe and crowns later?
Any time, from your subscription's payment settings. It takes effect from the next renewal.
Can I earn crowns?
Sometimes. We run occasional rewards — linking your Discord account is the usual one. Anything currently available shows up on your wallet page.
Get started
Browse servers and pick your game. Check out through Stripe, or top up your wallet first and pay with crowns.
Setting one up for a group? Create a community wallet, share the link, and let everyone chip in.