Hi! I’m thinking about setting up a game server I can fully host and manage myself, maybe on a VPS or home server. I'm mostly interested in hosting games like ARK or Minecraft for a small group of friends. Nothing massive, just something stable, customizable, and not too resource-hungry.

I’ve seen a few management panels and containerized setups mentioned around here like Pterodactyl, AMP, and Docker images, but I also want to find more options. I'm comfortable with Linux and self-hosting most of our tools, so I’m looking for a solution that gives more control than relying on commercial hosts or pre-built setups. Any recommendations for software, tools, or even good practices when self-hosting game servers? Thanks in advance!

Quick update: Thanks, everyone, for the replies and suggestions! I ended up going with Nitrado instead, mostly for the convenience and stability. It gave me enough customization to tweak the ARK server settings the way I wanted, and setup was way faster than doing everything from scratch. It’s been smooth and easy to manage especially for a casual group.