Mechanically, the difference is one flag in the room configuration. In practice it changes what your room is.
The actual difference
| Public | Private | |
|---|---|---|
| Discoverable | Listed in Haxball's in-game room list. Strangers find you. | Invisible. The link is the only door. |
| Who joins | Anyone browsing, at any hour, in any mood. | Exactly who you gave the URL to — and whoever they forward it to. |
| Moderation load | Continuous. Assume you need admins or a script. | Low. Social pressure does most of the work. |
| Availability | Capped by Haxball per IP address — in our experience two. | Effectively limited by the host's capacity, not by Haxball. |
| Good for | Growing a community from nothing; a permanent pub room. | Leagues, scrims, training, staff rooms, anything with a fixture list. |
Why public capacity is scarce
This is the part that surprises people shopping for hosting: public room slots are limited by Haxball, not by the server.
Haxball restricts how many rooms originating from one IP address appear in the public list. The practical ceiling we see is two. It does not matter how much CPU or memory the host has — a machine capable of running dozens of private rooms can still only put a couple in the list.
So when you see public plans priced above private ones anywhere in Haxball hosting, that is why. A private room consumes capacity that is cheap to add. A public room consumes a slot that is fundamentally limited, and the only way to have more of them is to have more addresses.
A consequence worth knowing before you plan around it: good public slots genuinely run out. If your season starts in three weeks and you need a listed room, secure it early rather than assuming it will be there.
What a public room is really like
Being listed works. People do browse the room list, and a well-named room with players in it fills up on its own — that is how most Haxball communities were built.
What comes with it:
- Strangers, constantly. Including at 4 am, including people who have never read your rules and are not going to.
- Moderation is not optional. Own goals, chat abuse, people who join to ruin it. Without admins present or a script enforcing rules, a listed room degrades.
- Your name is your advert. It is the only thing a browsing player sees. "Big Room" tells them nothing; "3v3 Futsal — EU — no own goals" tells them whether to click.
- Player count is self-reinforcing. Rooms with people in them attract more people. Empty rooms stay empty. Getting over that first hump is the hard part.
What a private room is really like
Quieter, and much more controllable:
- Only your people. Which means predictable behaviour and almost no moderation overhead.
- Fixtures actually work. Nobody occupies the slot your league match needs.
- The link is your security, and it leaks. Anyone you share it with can share it onward. For anything sensitive, add a password as well.
- No growth. A private room will never bring you a new player. If you need recruitment, you need something listed.
Which one you need
- Starting from nothing, want players? Public. There is no substitute for being in the list.
- Have a Discord and a roster already? Private. You do not need discovery; you need a room that is free when you say it is.
- Running a league or a tournament? Private for the matches, no question.
- Running a community properly? Both — a listed room to recruit from, and a private one for scrims, staff and fixtures.
That last combination is common enough that it is worth planning for from the start rather than discovering it when your public room is too busy to host your own league final.
Either kind, hosted properly
Private plans start at €4.99/mo; public capacity comes with the Arena plans. Both run 24/7 in the location closest to your players.
See the plansWhere to go next
- How to host a Haxball room — the full walkthrough.
- The headless host — where the
publicflag actually lives. - Room scripts and bots — how listed rooms stay civil without an admin awake.