Choosing A Server

Monthly Servers

Monthly servers mostly are virtual private servers, meaning that the server you purchase for a month will be shared by others. If you want a dedicated or bare metal server option that only you will be using, it will generally cost a lot more if you find a provider selling that.

You can find a list of monthly server providers in Server Providers.

Pros

24/7 Uptime - Unlike an on-demand cloud server, you can keep monthly servers on at all times during your rental period of the server. This is great for running restocks, as well as not having to move bots, profiles, proxies, tasks, etc. often, which can be a hassle when running for drops with cloud servers that are hourly.

Additionally, you will retain the same IP address with no additional work on your end or additional fees behind keeping the same IP. This can be helpful if you use IP authenticated proxies, so you don’t have to keep reauthorizing different IP addresses for the proxies that you use.

Cost - The cost of running a monthly server will be a lot cheaper than running an hourly cloud server throughout the month. Additionally, most server providers offer a discount code that you can use as well to bring costs down.

No Additional Fees - All fees are typically provided to you upfront, so you don’t have to worry about extra hidden costs like you’d sometimes see with cloud server providers.

Cons

Reliability - When using a monthly server, be advised that many providers do oversell their servers quite commonly, and a lot can lag heavily during drops. Purchasing lower end servers will see this happen commonly. Be sure to do some research and check within AM to see if a certain provider has good feedback or not.

These monthly servers often can work just fine outside of drops when less people are running, due to more resources being freed up.

Customization - Most server providers do not allow for customization of hardware specs, and oftentimes you are forced to purchase specifications that may not be as good of a combination of what you can get through services such as AWS or a pc you can build/purchase yourself.

Cloud Servers

Cloud servers from providers like AWS (Amazon) and GCS (Google) are another option available for sneaker servers.

Not all cloud server providers allow for sneaker bots to be run on them, such as Vultr.

Pros

Customization - AWS and GCS offer a lot of different hardware spec and internet speed options. This allows you to select an option that is more catered to the number of bots and tasks you plan to run.

Monthly server providers oftentimes do not sell specs that may be more beneficial to certain users, such as higher amounts of RAM without having to purchase more CPU cores which may not be needed.

Reliability - AWS has proven to be very reliable for most people, and is often considered to be the best server provider available for botting. Even during drops where many people are using AWS servers, they hold up very well, even without utilizing dedicated server options.

Cons

24/7 Uptime - Due to these being hourly on-demand servers, it can be quite expensive to leave them running at all times. You will not be able to leave them running all day for restocks unless you want to pay the hourly costs of leaving it running.

Cost - The cost of running a monthly server will be a lot cheaper than running an hourly cloud server throughout the month. Additionally, most server providers offer a discount code that you can use as well to bring costs down.

Accidental and/or Hidden Fees - It’s very easy to leave a server running on accident. The server will continue to run and incur hourly costs even when you disconnect from it. Many people will realize this later but they will be charged for all of those hours it was on, and would have to contact customer service to maybe be given a refund for those accidental hours.

GCS

Google Cloud Servers are often regarded as poor performance during drops, and are not as good of an option in terms of reliability and performance during drops.

One benefit to GCS is the free $300 sign up credit that you can use however, but once you abuse it too many times, Google will generally ban you from using it.

Personally, I would not advise to run GCS for sneaker botting. You are much better off using AWS for performance reasons.

Setup Guide

You can find a brief setup guide here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AEnz_ryZ5jGhtsslItusNXzy80Kp-UAbhcmO98C3v64/edit

AWS

AWS does have options available for on-demand and monthly, but they are handled under two services - EC2 for on-demand and Lightsail for monthly. Lightsail servers aren’t intended for more hardware intensive purposes like you’d want for botting, so keep this in mind when selecting a server.

AWS EC2 servers are the best possible cloud servers that you can use from my experience. However, they can be a bit pricey if you plan to run them often.

AWS Pricing

AWS EC2 servers are based on hourly rates. You can find pricing for AWS EC2 servers here: https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/on-demand/.

Note that if you use a dedicated server option, it will increase the hourly rate of the server. You can find additional dedicated server rates below, which will vary depending on the server type you choose.

https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/dedicated-hosts/pricing/

Selecting an Instance

You can view the different offerings for EC2 instances here: https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/

For me, a c5n.2xl server has been enough to run two bots and a few hundred tasks just fine. If you think you need higher specs, you can try an instance type like c5n.4xl. Reference earlier parts of this guide in order to help figure out what instance type is right for you.

AWS Credits

Many people use AWS credits to cover the costs of using their servers. The advantage of using AWS credits to pay for AWS services used during a month is that credits can be purchased for cheaper value that will cover AWS billing costs. For example, if you purchase $100 AWS Credit for $50, then you can cover up to $100 in your monthly AWS bill with that credit.

AWS credits are a lot more expensive to obtain now however, since Amazon caught onto a lot of the abuse with credits that was happening and changed how EDU credits with their servers worked. You can purchase AWS credits from some providers still however, that can come in various prices, such as $50 for $100 AWS Credit.

AWS Credits generally have what’s known as an event code. An event code can be something like EDU-ENG-FY2020-IC-Q2-4-AWSEDUCATE-PROMO-100USD. Each of these event codes will have a certain number of activations allowed before AWS will restrict you from adding more. For example, if you had three of the same event codes, but AWS only allows you to have two of that event code active at a time, then you will not be able to apply the third event code to your account until you use up at least one of that same event code. This will reset at the end of each billing period, which for AWS is the first day of each month generally.

Be careful not to stack too many AWS credits in one month. In some cases, Amazon can remove all of your active AWS credits if they think you are abusing credits.

Setup Guide

You can find a setup guide here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12mtatXLFHpp2iSv65hB1I2VWKnVn38WrT0FFT_sAzMY/edit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhWHxX3KksQ

I’ve personally used c5n.2xl or c5n.4xl generally, and both have worked great for me to run two bots and a few hundred tasks. Select the one you think you will need depending on the number of bots you will be running.

If you plan to run a lot of bots, consider making a few servers to split up traffic. Remember to keep an eye on your task manager to ensure hardware resources are not being overloaded and can handle your bots.

Dedicated Instance

AWS gives you the option of choosing a dedicated server vs a standard virtualized server. However, if you choose to run a dedicated server instance over a shared server instance, there are extra hourly fees incurred.

Personally I don’t think it’s worth paying the extra money for a dedicated server from AWS. Even though a virtualized AWS server would be shared with others, AWS does do a good job of not allowing too many people to be using one physical machine at a time. This means that you won’t really experience a lot of lag, even during drops where traffic on AWS servers would be otherwise high.

More information on dedicated servers from AWS can be found here: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/amazon-ec2-dedicated-instances/.

Elastic IP

When you turn an AWS server off, you are likely to receive a new IP address the next time you turn your server on. This can be a nuisance if you use proxies that are IP Auth instead of user:pass, or have to redownload the .rdp file every time.

You can use what’s known as an elastic IP, to have the IP of the server stay the same regardless of the server being turned off or not.

The process of how to set this can be found here:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/elastic-ip-addresses-eip.html

Note that there is a monthly charge associated with owning an elastic IP. However, this cost is very low, at about $$0.005, which would amount to approximately $3.60 a month.

Viewing Monthly Charges

Instructions for how to view your monthly bill and specifics of it can be found here: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awsaccountbilling/latest/aboutv2/invoice.html

Monthly Vs Cloud Servers

Monthly servers and on-demand cloud servers each have their own pros and cons as listed previously. Ultimately you’ll have to decide which solution you want to go with on your own. If you’re having some trouble deciding which one you’d like to use, take the additional points below into consideration.

Subscription Term Length

You can purchase a server from many providers. When you purchase servers from providers, you are generally just renting an already existing server. How long a server will be available for you to use will vary depending on the provider you purchase from. Most monthly server providers will sell them to you for 30 day rentals

Cloud server providers such as Amazon or Google operate on a more on-demand system, depending on which option you choose.

If you don’t want to be locked in for a full 30 days, then a cloud server can be a better option for you as you are not locked into a service agreement.

Initial Drop vs Restocks

Some people purchase a cheaper monthly server just to run for restocks, and then use another solution for drops such as a dedicated cloud server from AWS for example.

This is one route you can take when determining the proper setup for your bots. The reasoning for this is to use a more dependable server like AWS for drops when a lot of people are running, and then using a monthly server to run restocks. AWS is generally considered to be the most stable server provider, and holds up well, even during drops with heavy traffic.

You could also consider running for drops on a cloud server, and then running restocks with your home pc.

Cost

If you only care to run for initial drops on a server and not for restocks, then it can be cheaper to just use an hourly cloud server to just run for a few hours and then shutting off your server. You can get a quality server from AWS for less than $1/hour.

The price of a monthly server will vary depending on the provider and specs you choose. Refer to Server Providers for a list of providers, options and pricing.

Convenience

Using a monthly server can oftentimes be more convenient than running an hourly cloud server.

You don’t have to move bots, profiles, tasks, proxies, etc. from server to server if you plan to run your bot(s) on multiple computers, and instead can just keep it on one pc.

This is especially helpful for restocks, so you can start your tasks as soon as possible. Waiting for an AWS server to boot up when restocks are starting will slow you down greatly.

Selecting a Region for Server

Most monthly server providers will sell you servers that are located in Virginia, much like proxies. However, you can find servers in areas including:

• Virginia/Ashburn

• New York

• Chicago

You should ideally purchase the one that is located physically closest to the location of where your proxies are hosted. If your proxies are located in Virginia, you should look to purchase a server located in Virginia for lowest possible pings.

• Virginia Server ↔ Virginia Proxies

• New York Server ↔ New York Proxies

• Chicago Server ↔ Chicago Proxies

Note that this is just what is preferred for absolute lowest pings. You can run from a Virginia server with New York proxies and you’d be fine from my experience. In this scenario, you can slightly lower the delays of your bot by maybe 50-100 ms to compensate.

For most websites, it’s not really important to have your server and proxies located right next to the site’s servers. For example, you don’t necessarily need to use VA proxies to hit Supreme, Footsites, Finish Line, Supreme, Yeezy Supply, etc. anymore. You can hit perfectly fine with NY proxies as an example. This applies to most sites. This was more beneficial in the older days when you could run low delays and hit a site as fast as possible. Due to things like rate limiting now on very low delays, this small difference in lower latency isn’t going to help you as much anymore, and differences of latency can generally be compensated by lower delays.