Portforwarding alternative for Minecraft

Portforward, the headache for most people while setting up a Minecraft server to play with friends. It sucks, doesn't it, while we trying to play with friends, the port forwarding hassle won't let us play. Don't worry, My aim from this guide is to make the process of port forwarding as simple as possible by using a free opensource alternative called playit.gg

playit.gg offers port forwarding for many games, but for this guide, we will be sticking to the Minecraft section. The fascinating thing about this is that it offers both bedrock and java support for port forwarding. Also if you need help setting up Java or Bedrock server, feel free to check my posts on that as well. So with that said let's get to business.

Setting up playit.gg

Downloading and installing playit.gg is as simple as a walk in the park, thanks to its creators. Just click here or go to a web browser of your choice and type playit.gg, you should land on a page that looks something like this.

Select the Java or the Bedrock version, for this guide I am gonna go with the Java edition.

Click yes, for "Can you start and run your server?" and yes again for "Are you able to connect to your server locally?" if so feel free to check out my guide on, How to set up a Java Minecraft Server?

Click on the windows.exe to download the windows version. Now when you the program for the first time, you will be redirected to a login page. Make an account there, guest version, if you want to try playit. Otherwise a permanent account. Make sure to verify your email before continuing.

Now, after account creation and verifying click on tunnel from the new window which opens. Select the game you want to port-forward. Now it will ask you if you can connect using the default IP address and port number, which is 127.0.0.1:25565 
If you set up everything correctly you should be able to connect using this address.

If you have changed the IP address or port number, select no in the window, It will help you configure and change the settings manually.

Now when you click add tunnel / set-IP, we can see a randomly generated tunnel address. This is the address which you should give out to your friends.

If you have multiple Minecraft servers, you can name them to identify them easily. There is an option for custom names also, to check that out click edit and you can set your custom IP address. The custom domain is super cheap, at the time of writing this article it is only 1$ per month or 6$ per year. But there is a free alternative to that as well.

Feel free to subscribe to my newsletter, if you want to get alerts about the post which tell you the workaround for custom domain. With that said, I hope this guide was easy to follow along and you have successfully port forwarded. If you have any questions, concerns or comments, feel free to express them in the comment section.