To join, connect to this server address(25dollarphone.com) from a Minecraft Java Edition 1.21.10 client.
Join the discord server to stay in the loop on things happening on the server: https://discord.gg/QrbC9FEz
This server was made as an experiment to see if cheap smartphones really could be a replacement for things like Raspberry Pis and virtual private servers for hosting small services.
Q: Is this Minecraft server really being hosted on a $25 phone?
A: Yes.
Q: Which phone is it?
A: Moto G 2025 which has 4GB RAM and a 8core ARM64 CPU
Q: How is the phone $25?
A: In the US, smartphones often get sold at a loss by prepaid wireless service providers in the hopes that you will become a customer and start paying for wireless cell service through them. But you are in no way obligated to do so. You can simply buy the prepaid smartphone from a retailer like Walmart and not buy the wireless plan and simply use the smartphone as a WiFi-only compute device as I am doing for this server.
Q: How long will the server be around for?
A: Until the phone breaks or stops working.
Q: What are some of the limitations in place for it to work well on such low hardware?
A: It's a regular vanilla* survival Minecraft world but with a worldborder at 4000 blocks out and a player cap of 12 for now. Render and simulation distance have been set to 6 as well. Besides that, everything else is stock.
Long Live The Phone