Hosting
Still there when you get back.
Ask for a canyon, shut the laptop, go to school. The world keeps running without you, and so does Cog. Come back and the canyon is cut, the waterfall is running, and your mates are already down at the bottom of it.
The lighthouse they built, still standing at -384, -324. Drag it round.
Nothing to install
Your friends join with the game they already own
Cog lives on the server, so nobody needs anything on their end. No mod to hunt down, no version to match, no launcher, no download before anyone can play. Send your friends the address, they add it to their server list, and they are standing next to you.
Nothing to configure
No port forwarding, no router, no arguments
Nobody has to log into a router or work out what a port is. The world is properly hosted, so it is up whether or not your home internet is, and it does not fall over because the person hosting it went to dinner.
Always on
The world runs while you are at school
Close the lid and the world carries on. Your builds are there tomorrow, your town is there next week, and Cog still knows where your house is and what you asked them for last time.
Your own server
Your world is yours alone
Every world runs on its own server. Nobody else's world shares a save with yours, and nothing that happens in one reaches into another. Your blocks, your inventory, your town, your rules.
Backups
A bad afternoon is not the end of the world
Worlds are backed up on a schedule, so a wrong turn is something you roll back rather than live with. Anything Cog builds in creative can be undone on the spot — and because they checks their own work, you find out straight away rather than three days later.
Whitelist
Open to everyone, or just your mates
Leave the world open if you want people to wander in, or whitelist it so only the players you have named can connect. It is one switch, and it is the one most families reach for. See Safety for how it sits alongside everything Cog will and will not do.
Questions
Hosting, specifically
Do my friends need to install a mod?
No. Cog runs on the server, not on anyone’s computer, so your friends join with an ordinary, unmodified copy of the game. They add your server the way they would add any other.
Do I need to set up port forwarding or a router?
No. The world runs on a hosted server, so there is nothing to configure at home and no router settings to touch.
What happens when I close my laptop?
The world keeps running. It is not on your machine, so turning your computer off does not turn the world off. Cog can be mid-build when you go, and finished when you come back.
Can I keep my world private?
Yes. Run it whitelist-only and it accepts nobody except the players you have named.
Which game do I need?
Minecraft Java Edition. Hytale is next — it entered Early Access in January 2026 and was built for exactly this kind of thing.
What happens if a build goes wrong?
Cog tells you, because they measure their own work. Creative-mode builds can be undone, and worlds are backed up on a schedule. See Verification and Safety for the detail.
Be in the first worlds.
We are opening a small number to begin with. Put your name down and we will tell you when yours is ready.