No, you do not have to pay to go on World of Warcraft private servers. But if you want to Donate money to your private server developers you can and in most private servers donating gives you the best gear you can get.
I recomend going on WoWlegacy private server or WoWBeez private server, they are both very good private servers for PvE and PvP.
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WoW private servers crash often, do not generally have friendly GMs (usually server owners friends), really bad economy, and can be full of bugs and what not. it is better to just pay the fifteen dollars a month and play on the official servers.
u gotta pay for it.
Pay for a server/host your own server. If you host your own, it will be laggy for other players because you have poor upload from home.
If you're asking about official servers, then no, as you have to pay for your account before making a character and choosing a server (unless you play the 2 week trail but as soon as that ends you must pay to continue playing no matter what server your characters are on). If, however, you're referring to private servers, then yes. You'll have to find them yourself, though.
Correction. It is not against the law to make a RuneScape Private Server. If that server should begin to charge people to play their game, and profit from it, then it would be considered copyright infringement. Simply making one to learn how to use JavaScript, have fun, etc. is not illegal. My advice, go ahead and play, but don't pay for any servers. Chances are, it's not worth it. I am the CEO of Game Ryte Studios and we have a RuneScape Private Server. We are not violating JaGex's copyright protection because we are not making money off of it, except for donations, which is not considered as profit, because it is a donation. I have talked with JaGex employees about this, and they concur with what I say.It is copyright infringement and it is illegal, regardless of commercial.