The Best CS:GO Server Hosting (2020)

If you have tried to rent a game server at any point in the last 20 years or so you will have noticed that you have an immense choice of providers. The number of companies that have come and go is astronomical and only a small selection have survived over the years.

The game hosting companies that have survived the test of time have done so by cutting costs (and prices along with them), evolving their control panels and providing top notch support. Any company that has failed at any 3 of these factors has slowly decayed away.

In my best Counter Strike: global Offensive server hosting guide (that you are reading now) I pick apart my top 10 picks of 52 providers I have tested. You can read the summaries I have given, ensuring that I focus on the most important factors that you should be looking for.

You can read more about my process and how I pick the top 10 CS:GO providers featured below in this article here.

What are the most important factors you should look for in a game hosting company?

Best 10 CS:GO Server Hosting Companies

You may recognise some of these companies on this list, especially the more mature ones like GameServers.com and GTX Gaming. Use this guide as a starting point for your own research, I hope it is as helpful to you as it was fun for me making it.

Host Havoc - The Best All Round Host

Ranks #1 of 10 CS:GO hosts

Visit Host Havoc

The Positives

Dynamic and friendly team

Focus on providing an amazing service for a few games

Value for money feature-ful game hosting

The Negatives

Relatively new provider compared to others on list

Less locations worldwide

In this prime position is Host Havoc, a game hosting company that focuses on around 30 games only and strive to know them inside and out. The support team were fast and explained everything thoroughly to me so I could ensure that I don’t keep repeating mistakes.

The control panel was well laid out and managing my server once activated was a breeze. The checkout process was near perfect, I was up and running in minutes.

Me and 2 other friends tried out my test 10 slot server with Host Havoc and experience no hiccups once we all joined, its hard to find anything bad about these guys.

The pricing was at the lower end of the scale when compared to other providers on this list and I was able to pay with PayPal like I always do for this sort of thing.

Unfortunately they only seem to serve English speaking territories; like America, Europe and Australia though.

GameServers.com - The Best Established CS:GO Host

Ranks #2 of 10 CS:GO hosts

Visit GameServers.com

The Positives

Back by a huge data-center company

Host lots of different games

Provide hosting directly to game companies

Probably the oldest game hosting company

Servers in every region

They don't pay for their Truspilot account

The Negatives

High price compared to others

Outdated website

If you can get past the outdated website that GameServers.com uses to sell their services then you will find a truly stable industry leader.

This company is backed by a huge data center company that are known for providing the built-in game servers that come with many titles. If you scroll through the default server lists when you a buy a new game you will probably be looking at architecture ran by GameServers.com.

The pricing is a bit on the high-side like you would expect from an industry leader but for that price you get a stable platform thats well thought out. The support is amazing too, they know the games they offer (a lot of titles!) as well as the control panel workings.

If you need a server in a non traditional location then chances are this company will have you covered with a low ping data center near you. Countries such as Japan and India are usually hard to find CS:GO server hosting for but these are covered too.

LOW.MS - The Best Budget CS:GO Host

Ranks #3 of 10 CS:GO hosts

Visit LOW.MS

The Positives

Team made up of experienced members who had left a different provider

A large catalogue of niche games

Competitively priced

The Negatives

A fairly new company

For the newest host on this list, LOW.MS have seriously hit the ground running. It was formed when staff and founders from other game hosting companies got together to create a new enterprise.

You can see the quality of their website which follows through the checkout all the way to the control panel. Everything I needed for server maintenance was within hands reach and when I fired a few test support tickets at them they were quick to react and sort my issues.

You can pay using the traditional payment methods with LOW.MS and you have the choice of European, American, Australian or an Asian data center for your game server to live.

Nitrous Networks - The Best US CS:GO Host

Ranks #4 of 10 CS:GO hosts

Visit Nitrous Networks

The Positives

Backed by a large gaming brand

Easy to use modern website

The Negatives

Less locations to choose from

My experience with Nitrous Networks was pretty good, they have a great looking website and control panel that filled made customer journey pleasant.

The test support tickets I submitted got answered timely and thoroughly which paired with the pricing being low-mid range made this company a good contender for the “best value for money” provider.

They offer all of the important locations to choose from (EU + USA) and accept most of the usual payment methods that people use, obviously including my recommended method: PayPal.

GTX Gaming - The Best BIG CS:GO Host

Ranks #5 of 10 CS:GO hosts

Visit GTX Gaming

The Positives

Experienced UK based team

Cover almost every game

Loads of server locations

The Negatives

Some regions require additional fee

GTX Gaming are experts at “economies of scale”. They know how to provide lots of games to lots of people in order to keep costs down and ensure they compete on price. If you are after a cheaper but featured Counter Strike hosting experience without sacrificing support then these guys are ideal.

The team behind GTX Gaming have been operating for over a decade as this brand and know the industry well. Speaking to the support staff it was obvious this was a serious operation that stretches across the globe, although they are based in the UK.

You are able to host your CS:GO server at many locations around the world but more exotic locations like Brazil are charged at a premium, so keep this in mind during your research.

Serenity Servers - The Best Half Life CS:GO Host

Ranks #6 of 10 CS:GO hosts

Visit Serenity Servers

The Positives

Offer a cheap entry level package

The Negatives

Smaller company offering only a few games

Few server locations

Serenity Servers are on the lower scale of pricing (but they are definitely not the cheapest on this list) but fall down when it comes to support and control panel features.

They focus more on hosting Half Life based games but i’m not sure if that’s a plus or a negative in this case.

Streamline Servers - The Best Global CS:GO Host

Ranks #7 of 10 CS:GO hosts

Visit Streamline Servers

The Positives

Passionate about server performance

The Negatives

Usually pretty expensive

Streamline Servers are hardcore when it comes to server hardware, using water-cooled monsters called HPGS+. You can expect amazing performance as standard but like everything in this world, it comes at a price.

These guys are at the higher end of the pricing spectrum but do have an amazing network of global locations to choose from if you are in the western world.

Bisect Hosting - The Best Budget Host

Ranks #8 of 10 CS:GO hosts

Visit BisectHosting

The Positives

Cheap

Lastly is Bisect Hosting, a company that was purely Minecraft server hosting focused for many years and then branched out into other games. What they did do when they made this shift was create a discount provider option for many games but unfortunately their CS:GO isn’t as cheap as some of the better providers and its fallen behind.

They offer a budget solution but with a pricing that isn’t cheaper than some of the above companies reviewed. I would recommend Bisect Hosting for Minecraft but not so much for CS:GO.

Ping Perfect - The Best UK CS:GO Host

Ranks #9 of 10 CS:GO hosts

Visit Ping Perfect

The Positives

Support a community of Twitchers

Wide range of games

Lots of global locations

The Negatives

Support was a little slow

With plenty of American and European server locations (as well as some Russian ones too) PingPerfect offer a decent value for money package for those requiring basic Counter Strike: Global Offensive server hosting.

My experience with this company was good, everything was set up quickly. Although the support wasn’t as quick as some of the others I had tested in the same cost category, the problems I asked for help with were sorted out in the end.

Interestingly, you are able to save some money off the price of your server by allowing them to put their brand on it. This is something that most people pay a premium for (think Gucci for example) so this is a strange feature of this offering.

Fragnet - The Best Bitcoin CS:GO Host

Ranks #10 of 10 CS:GO hosts

Visit Fragnet

The Positives

Lots of server locations

Server hosting experts

Backed by a large server company

The Negatives

Outdated website

Expensive starter package

Fragnet only do a premium offering for Counter Strike: Global Offensive server hosting, a lot of the others default to a basic package and then charge more for a premium upgrade. The higher price that Fragnet does charge matches the other providers on this list but its a bit annoying that you are forced in that direction.

These guys feel a bit left behind when I tested their control panel and support wasn’t the quickest, annoying for a premium product.