Minecraft Bedrock Dedicated Server 26.44/26.50.27 (BDS)

Bedrock Dedicated Server (BDS) is free server software for Bedrock Edition (consoles, mobile devices, Windows Store), optimized for performance (its also supporting cross-play between devices). Below you can download versions for official releases or previews/betas (currently the 26.X series).

System Requirements and OS:

BDS is lightweight but requires a compatible CPU and RAM. A minimum of ~1 GB of RAM is required for 1-5 players, more is needed for large worlds. Officially supported on Ubuntu 22.04 (LTS) and newer (may require libssl1.1 instead of libssl3 and libcurl4). macOS isn't directly supported but you can use a Linux container.

Differences between BDS and Java, plus alternatives:

This is a pure vanilla Bedrock server straight from Mojang. Unlike the Java version (server.jar on TCP 25565, Bukkit/Spigot/Forge) it doesnt use Java or Forge mods. Modding on Bedrock is done through add-ons: behavior packs (new mob mechanics, recipies, etc.) and resource packs (textures, sounds).

Third-party servers like PocketMine-MP (PHP) and Nukkit support plugins, but there are drawbacks. PocketMine doesn't support new biomes, caves, or many Bedrock features. Nukkit on the other hand is faster, and updated more often than PocketMine, but still lags behind BDS in terms of cross-platform compatability. Overall BDS is the go-to official option without plugins and supports all the latest features for Bedrock.