Free servers on Tick Hosting stay online through a renewal system: a quick, one-click action from your dashboard that keeps the server alive. Missing it is not immediately catastrophic, but understanding the actual timeline is worth five minutes of reading.
How renewal works
Each free plan has its own renewal rules, how many renewals you can do per day, how long you have to wait between them, and how many hours each renewal adds to your server's remaining time. A lighter plan might allow one renewal a day that keeps you online for a full day; a higher-tier free plan might allow several renewals a day, each adding a shorter block of time, with a short cooldown between clicks. Your dashboard always shows your specific plan's exact numbers and your next available renewal time.
Renewing itself takes a few seconds: open your server dashboard and click Renew, confirm the verification check, and your expiry time extends immediately.
What happens if you miss one
If your server's time runs out before you renew, it gets suspended, not deleted. A suspended server is still fully intact, your world, builds, and configuration are untouched, it just is not running. Logging in and clicking renew brings it straight back online, and a suspended server can always be renewed immediately regardless of the normal daily limit or cooldown, specifically so recovering from a missed renewal is never blocked.
The real deadline: deletion
A suspended server is not permanent. If it goes unrenewed for an extended period, it is eventually deleted for good, and this cannot be undone afterward. The exact grace period depends on your server's plan and location, your dashboard shows the countdown once a server is suspended, so check there rather than assuming.
One important exception: a server that is created but never started or renewed even once behaves differently, and is cleaned up on a much shorter timeline than a server that has actually been used. If you create a server, start it, and let it become part of an active project, you get the full grace period described above. If you spin one up and immediately abandon it without ever logging in again, do not expect the same runway.
Setting yourself up to never miss one
- Check your dashboard's renewal countdown regularly, especially if your plan requires more frequent renewals.
- Renew as soon as it becomes available rather than waiting until the last moment, cooldowns mean waiting too long can cost you a renewal cycle.
- If you manage a server with other people, you can grant a trusted sub-user renewal permission specifically, so the responsibility is not on one person alone.
If you outgrow the renewal cycle entirely
If remembering to renew is more hassle than you want, premium plans run 24/7 with no renewal system at all, you pay once and it simply stays online. See our guide on migrating from free to premium if you decide to make the switch. Full details also live in our help center, and Discord is there if a renewal ever gets stuck.