Creating a Sons of the Forest server: the two possible paths

Setting up a Sons of the Forest server always comes down to choosing between two philosophies: doing everything yourself with Endnight's free tools, or delegating the infrastructure. Both lead to the same thing, a co-op island playable by 8, but the road is nothing alike. Here are both, with no grey areas.

The manual route, step by step with SteamCMD

Get the Dedicated Server

The server doesn't install from the standard Steam library: it goes through SteamCMD, Valve's command-line tool. Once SteamCMD is unzipped, the app_update command with the Sons of the Forest Dedicated Server ID downloads all the server binaries.

Generate and locate dedicatedserver.cfg

On first launch, the executable creates a dedicatedserver.cfg. This is the heart of the setup: name, slots, game mode. We devote a whole guide to it, How to configure a dedicated Sons of the Forest server.

Open the UDP ports

This is the step that makes half the people give up. The server listens on UDP ports that you have to forward from your router to the machine's local IP (NAT / port forwarding), then pass your public IP to the players. A dynamic IP, the Windows firewall and above all your ISP's CGNAT can block incoming connections.

What self-hosting really costs you

• A machine that stays powered on continuously, or the server is gone.
• The manual updates to the server with every Endnight patch, without which players are stuck on an incompatible version.
• Your personal IP exposed, with no attack filtering.

The automated route: the host

Here, no more SteamCMD or NAT. You pick a plan, and the Sons of the Forest server is provisioned in seconds with an address ready to share. At Fly-Serv, FlyPanel installs the binaries, applies the patches and restarts the server without you touching a single command line.

A good yardstick: if you spend more time configuring your router than chopping wood in the game, the host has already paid for itself.

The verdict

For a test among tinkerers, SteamCMD is enough. For a stable island that runs without you, launch your server at Fly-Serv from €7.99/month, instant delivery and Anti-DDoS included. Curious about the real budget? See How much a Sons of the Forest server costs.