SparkBox / Guides / Factorio server setup

Host your own Factorio server (one click, no command line)

· Updated 18 September 2026 · SparkBox team

The factory must grow — even when your PC is off. A dedicated Factorio server means your shared world runs around the clock on your own hardware: friends drop in whenever they like, autosaves happen on your box, and nobody is paying a hosting company £5–10 a month for the privilege. SparkBox sets one up in a single click, and this guide covers the two things people actually get stuck on: joining, and opening the right port.

In this guide:
  1. What you're actually installing
  2. Install it (one click)
  3. Joining your server
  4. Letting friends in from outside
  5. Passwords, fresh maps and mods
  6. When something goes wrong

1. What you're actually installing

Factorio has an official headless server — the game without the graphics, built to run on a box in a cupboard. That's what SparkBox installs. There's no web page for it and nothing to log into: the server sits quietly on your box, and everyone plays by connecting to it from inside the normal Factorio game.

SparkBox Apps page — one-click install cards for every module
SparkBox Apps page — one-click install cards for every module

The first start generates a fresh map automatically, so there is genuinely nothing to configure before playing.

2. Install it (one click)

  1. Open your SparkBox dashboard and go to Apps.
  2. Find Factorio Server and click Install.
  3. Give it a minute — the first start downloads the server and generates your map.

That's the whole install. Because the server has no web page, you won't get a tile that opens in the browser — the app card's notes remind you how to join instead.

3. Joining your server

  1. Open Factorio on your gaming PC.
  2. Pick Multiplayer → Connect to address.
  3. Enter your box's address with the port on the end — on your home network that looks like 192.168.1.50:34197.
Versions must match. The server runs the current stable Factorio. If your game is on the experimental branch, Factorio will refuse the connection with a version message — switch your game to stable (or wait for stable to catch up), and it connects.

4. Letting friends in from outside

  • On a NAS or home PC: forward UDP port 34197 on your router to your SparkBox's local address. Every router words this differently (“Port Forwarding”, “Virtual Server”, “NAT”) — search your router model plus “port forwarding”. Note it's UDP: some routers make you pick, and TCP won't work.
  • On a VPS: nothing to do — SparkBox opens its own firewall for the port, and friends connect to the server's public address.

Friends then join the same way you did: Connect to address, your public address, :34197 on the end.

A note on the VPN. If you run SparkBox's Media apps, those deliberately route through your VPN. Your game server deliberately does not — players need a stable address, and a VPN exit would break every connection. This is by design; nothing to change.

5. Passwords, fresh maps and mods

Everything the server owns lives in one folder you can reach from the SparkBox Files app: modules/factorio/config/factorio.

Vaultwarden — your own private password manager
Vaultwarden — your own private password manager
SparkBox dashboard login screen
SparkBox dashboard login screen
  • Password-protect the server: open server-settings.json in that folder, set game_password, then restart the app from the dashboard.
  • Start a fresh map: delete saves/sparkbox.zip (and any autosaves you don't want) and restart — a new world generates.
  • Mods: drop mod zips into the mods folder and restart. Everyone joining needs the same mods — Factorio will tell them exactly which ones on connect.

6. When something goes wrong

“My friend can't connect.” In order of likelihood: their game version doesn't match the server (stable vs experimental); the router forward is TCP instead of UDP 34197; or the forward points at the wrong local address.

“The log says Matching server connection failed: Missing token.” Harmless. That's the server trying to advertise itself on Factorio's public server browser, which needs a factorio.com login. Direct connections and LAN play don't use it at all.

“It got slow late-game.” Very large factories are CPU-hungry by nature. SparkBox gives the server sensible resource room by default; if your box has headroom, a Backer can raise the per-app limit in Settings.

Legend supporters can also ask Tom AI in the dashboard — it reads the server's actual logs and explains errors in plain English.

Questions, or did this not match your box?

Every guide here came from a real problem someone hit. If yours behaves differently, say so — that is how these get corrected, and how the fix gets prioritised.

Ask in the community →

We answer there rather than in a comment box, because that is where the people who have already solved it are.

About this guide: Written against a live SparkBox install. If something here doesn't match what you see, tell us in d/sparkbox.