Minecraft Education and Visualmodder license considerations |

Breaking Down the Price Hike: Minecraft Education Edition and an Alternative Approach

The Price Change

The licence for Minecraft Education Edition (hereafter “Minecraft Edu”) for commercial organisations (that is, camps, clubs, homeschooling organisations, etc., rather than fully-eligible K-12 academic institutions) is currently listed at US $36 per user per year.
For eligible academic institutions, the price remains dramatically lower — US $5.04 per user per year.
In short: If you’re a school district with full education licensing, you get a preferential rate. If you’re a club, camp or individual licence buyer, you pay the higher “commercial” price.

While the $36 price is a recent announced increase, the key issue many users face is that the model remains per-user, per year. So every individual learner needs their own licence annually.

Why This Matters (and the implications)

Pros

From a vendor point of view, user-based pricing is straightforward: you know how many people you have, you pay for that many licences.
It aligns cost to actual usage (in theory): if you have 10 students, you pay for 10 licences.
For organisations with predictable and stable student numbers, budgeting is simple.

Cons

For clubs/camps where students change frequently, or for drop-in models, paying per user can escalate quickly.
In an educational environment with many part-time or rotating users, you might be paying for licences that sit idle much of the time.
It creates a barrier: smaller organisations might find the “per user” cost too high.
It can limit flexibility: imagine needing to drop a licence mid-year because a student stops — the vendor requires full year payment.

An Alternative Approach: VisualModder’s Pricing Model

Here’s where a different model stands out. VisualModder is a plugin + hosting solution built around the standard Java version of Minecraft, aimed at teaching coding and Minecraft-based classes. Their pricing works per server, rather than strictly per user.

From their website:

Independent license (self-host your server + plugin): 120 CHF/month or 700 CHF/year (covers up to ~25 concurrent students) for one server instance.
Hosted full-support option: 3000 CHF per half-year for one server instance (again up to ~25 concurrent students) for organisations wanting “all handled for you.”
Importantly:

“The license and support pricing is per server and covers up to 25 concurrent students. The license is not tied to individual students, but to the number of students connected at the same time.”

So, compared to Minecraft Edu’s per-user model, VisualModder says: “We charge per server instance, you can have up to 25 students concurrently, and we don’t require a licence for every single student individually.”

Head-to-Head Comparison

Feature	Minecraft Education	VisualModder
Billing unit	Per user (per year)	Per server instance (concurrent users limit)
Example cost (commercial licence)	US $36 per user/year	~700 CHF/year for server license up to ~25 students concurrent
Flexibility for rotating users	Lower flexibility: each user needs a licence	Higher flexibility: as long as fewer than concurrency cap, students can rotate
Scalability & cost predictability	Cost grows linearly with number of users	Cost grows with number of servers / concurrency, not necessarily total students
Best for	Organisations with fixed cohort of users	Organisations with varying users, rotating classes, many part-time users
Administrative overhead	Assigning licences to each user/account	Managing server(s) and concurrency but fewer licences to worry about

What This Means in Practice

Let’s walk through a hypothetical scenario:

Organisation A uses Minecraft Edu. They have 30 students in a term, each needs access. They purchase 30 licences at US $36 each → US $1 080 per year.
Organisation B uses VisualModder. They require a server for up to 25 concurrent students. They pay 700 CHF (~US $760 depending on current FX) for the year for that server. They may have 50 students rotating through, but never more than ~20 at once. The per-student effective cost becomes much lower.

If Organisation B grows to 50 concurrent students, they might need a second server licence (so ~1 400 CHF/year). But for many clubs/camps, concurrency is limited (e.g., one class at a time) so the server model is efficient.

In contrast, the per-user model gets expensive fast if you have many users (even if they’re not all concurrently active). And the switching of users (adding/removing) may incur administrative burden.

Considerations & Caveats

The per-server model doesn’t mean “unlimited students” — VisualModder caps “concurrent users” (e.g., 25 at a time). If you run parallel sessions you may need multiple servers.
Per-user models (like Minecraft Edu) offer advantages: individual accounts, tracking progress per student, easier assignment, and standard schooling workflows (Microsoft 365 integration).
Licensing terms matter: organisations must check eligibility (academic vs commercial). Minecraft Edu explicitly distinguishes “Education” vs “Commercial” licences.
Support, features, and ecosystem differ: Minecraft Edu may offer built-in lesson plans, curriculum alignment, and teacher resources. VisualModder may focus on coding, mod/plugin flexibility, and hosting.
Location & currency: VisualModder uses Swiss Francs and is a Swiss-based solution; currency conversion and local hosting considerations apply.
Tool maturity and ecosystem: Minecraft Edu is backed by Microsoft and arguably more “plug-and-play” in typical K-12 contexts; VisualModder might require more server management (unless you choose their fully-hosted option).

Final Thoughts

If you’re running an educational club, after-school programme, or homeschooling setup where students rotate and you don’t need each individual student permanently licensed, a “per-server” model like VisualModder’s might offer better cost-efficiency and flexibility.

On the other hand, if you have a stable enrolment of students who each need continuous access, and you’re already within a Microsoft ecosystem (Microsoft 365, user accounts, etc.), the per-user model of Minecraft Edu might make sense — even at US $36 per user per year — because of the administrative simplicity and full support.

It really comes down to:

How many students do you have?
How many are active concurrently vs how many rotate?
Do you care about per-student tracking/licensing or is concurrent access enough?
What resources (server hosting, IT support) do you have available?
Which ecosystem (Microsoft vs self-hosted/Java version) fits your curriculum?