The first version of Minecraft Pocket Edition (MCPE) was released in the summer of 2011. The one major problem is that it has always been far behind the PC version of Minecraft, though, it’s quite understandable as the game has to be reprogrammed to work on mobile devices.
Despite the slight set back in terms of features compared to the PC version of Minecraft MCPE has a steadily growing player base, and about six months ago a huge interest spiked as many interesting and helpful features was introduced to the multiplayer part of the game.
Minecraft PE can be played both in singleplayer and multiplayer mode. To play multiplayer you can either choose to connect to other people’s servers or create one on your own.
How to Connect to Other Peoples’ Servers in MCPE
Find a MCPE server via website
MCPE has a couple of hundred active servers. By “active” I mean public servers that have a steady player base and are up 24/7. You can’t find any of the servers’ IP addresses in-game. Instead you should open up a server list website and find one of your liking, copy its IP and port and choose to connect to an external IP in MCPE. I prefer to use MCPE Index for this purpose as they have a (mobile friendly) responsive design, thorough information, sort options and just an easy to use server list.
MCPE server apps
If you prefer to use an app for this purpose instead there is currently one such application released for iOS. It’s called Server List for Minecraft PE. There is also another app called PocketMine but it’s more of a server software than server list (more about this one below).
How to Create a MCPE Server on Your Own
PocketMine is the most widely used software to create a MCPE server.
It’s an open source software which you can download and use to host a server on your computer or mobile device for free. They also have an iPhone app for $2.99 which allows you to very create a server through the app. No knowledge about servers is required!
Minecraft Realms is another soon to come option to host Minecraft servers supported by Mojang (the creators of Minecraft).
It will be subscription based which mean it will cost approximately $15 per month. Minecraft Realms is currently in closed alpha which means it’s still in its early progress and only accessible to a couple of hundred specific persons.
Should I use PocketMine or Minecraft Realms?
If I were to compare PocketMine and Minecraft Realms at their current state I personally think PocketMine is more attractive, mainly because of its one time fee, $2.99 compared to Minecraft Realms which is expected to cost almost 5 times more per month. The upside with Minecraft Realms though will be that it is hosted by Mojang’s servers and not on your own mobile device or computer.
