No. Nobody joins a network of yours and nothing is routed into your LAN. The program opens one connection out to a FadeHost relay, and the relay answers on the ports of your address only.

Hamachi is free for my group. Why change?

If five machines and a VPN client on each of them suits you, it works. People move when a sixth friend turns up, when somebody wants to play on a console or a phone, or when they are tired of walking a new player through installing a VPN before they can join.

Does my IP stay private?

Yes. Players connect to the relay, not to you, so your home address is not in the server list or in anybody's logs.

Can I use it for games other than Minecraft?

Yes. Anything that listens on a TCP or UDP port: Valheim, Terraria, Palworld, Factorio, Mumble and the rest. Presets fill in the ports.

FadeHost Bridge vs Hamachi

Hamachi has been the answer to this problem since long before any of us: a hosted VPN that makes a handful of machines behave as if they were on one network, which is enough to play together.

Both answer the same question: how do friends reach a game server running on your own machine? Here is how the two compare, with Hamachi's own pages as the source for everything said about it.

How each one works

Hamachi is described on its own site as a hosted VPN service that extends LAN-like networks to distributed teams, mobile workers and gamer friends. Everyone installs the client and joins your network, and then each machine can reach the others on a virtual address. It is free for up to 5 computers in a network; past that the Standard plan is $49 a year for 6 to 32 computers, Premium $199 a year for 33 to 256, and Multi-Network $299 a year.

Bridge does not put anybody on a network. The program on the machine running the server opens one connection out to a relay, and the relay publishes the game ports of that server at a name. Players type the name in Minecraft, with nothing installed and nothing joined.

Side by side

	FadeHost Bridge	Hamachi
What your friends install	Nothing, they type an address	The Hamachi client, then they join your network
How many players	As many as your server and your upload can carry	Free for up to 5 computers in a network, paid plans above that
What players type	name.play.fadehost.net in the Minecraft server list	A virtual network address, after joining the network
Bedrock, phones and consoles	Bedrock rides the same name on its own port	No client to install on a console
What is exposed	Only the ports on your address	A network your machine is a member of
A page your friends can open	A join page per address	No
When your machine is off	A screen naming the server and who to ask	Nothing to connect to
A Minecraft login check in front of the server	Login protection on Pro	A network password instead, no account check
Hosting when the PC is not enough	A hosted server on the same account, from free	Not a host
Price	One address free, Pro $3 a month or included with any paid subscription	Free to 5 computers, then $49 a year and up

Hamachi as its own pages described it on 6 October 2026: Hamachi pricing and product description, vpn.net. Check its site for current pricing.

Hamachi's pricing page is the only source used here. We did not test the client, and the plan limits are quoted as its own page states them.

Where the difference shows

Hamachi asks every player to install software and join your network before they can play. Bridge asks nothing of them: the server gets an address, they type it, and the only machine running our program is yours.

A sixth friend is a plan change on Hamachi. On Bridge the number of players is a question for your server and your upload, not for the address.
A VPN puts other people's machines on a network with yours. A game port on a relay does not; the relay carries only the ports you put on the address.
Console and phone players cannot install a VPN client at all. Bedrock on the same name is the way they get in.
When the evenings get busy, the world moves to a server here and nobody installs anything then either.

What Bridge costs

One address is free: two ports, 300 GB of traffic a month, and an address nobody connects to for 30 days is released. Bridge Pro is $3 a month or $30 a year and gives four addresses, eight ports each, a name you choose, your own domain, login protection and no traffic cap. Every paid FadeHost subscription includes Pro, down to a $2.50 server slot. The numbers are on the limits page.

Frequently asked questions

Is Bridge a VPN?: No. Nobody joins a network of yours and nothing is routed into your LAN. The program opens one connection out to a FadeHost relay, and the relay answers on the ports of your address only.
Hamachi is free for my group. Why change?: If five machines and a VPN client on each of them suits you, it works. People move when a sixth friend turns up, when somebody wants to play on a console or a phone, or when they are tired of walking a new player through installing a VPN before they can join.
Does my IP stay private?: Yes. Players connect to the relay, not to you, so your home address is not in the server list or in anybody's logs.
Can I use it for games other than Minecraft?: Yes. Anything that listens on a TCP or UDP port: Valheim, Terraria, Palworld, Factorio, Mumble and the rest. Presets fill in the ports.

Give your server a name

One address is free and the program takes a minute. When the PC stops being the right place for the world, the same account hosts it.

Get an address

Also compared: playit.gg, e4mc, ngrok. Or read the Bridge docs and the host comparisons.