Plugins or mods: pick the family first
Every Minecraft server software belongs to one of two families. Plugin servers (Paper, Purpur, Spigot) add features on the server only, and players join with a normal, unmodded game. Mod loaders (Fabric, Forge) change the game itself, and usually every player needs the same mods installed. The two don't mix: a plugin won't load on Forge and a mod won't load on Paper. Why you can't mix them.
Plugin servers
- Players join with the normal game
- Thousands of plugins: protection, economy, minigames
- Paper, Purpur, Spigot
- They can't truly add new blocks or items
Mod loaders
- New blocks, mobs, dimensions and machines
- Huge modpacks on CurseForge and Modrinth
- Fabric, Forge
- Every player installs the same mods
What Paper is, and why it's the default
Paper is a fork of Spigot, which itself grew out of CraftBukkit, focused on performance and stability. It rewrites slow parts of the server, moves chunk loading and generation off the main thread, fixes a long list of bugs and exploits and adds hundreds of settings to tune. And it runs almost every Bukkit and Spigot plugin.
For a survival server, an SMP or a minigame lobby, Paper is the right answer nine times out of ten. It's the default when you order from us, and switching later is a few clicks in the panel's Versions tab. Once it runs, these are the Paper settings worth changing.
When a Vanilla server is the better choice
Vanilla is Mojang's official server exactly as it ships: no plugins, only datapacks and command blocks. It's slower than Paper under load, but every mechanic behaves exactly as in single-player. That matters to technical players: redstone timings, farms designed around vanilla spawning, and the duplication glitches that Paper patches.
- Choose Vanilla for a technical redstone world, a pure survival experience with a few friends, or testing datapacks.
- Choose Paper for anything with plugins, more than a handful of players, or a server you want to run smoothly on less RAM.
Every option at a glance
| Software | Family | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper | Plugins | Almost every SMP and community server | Patches a few vanilla glitches |
| Purpur | Plugins | Paper plus hundreds of extra gameplay settings | More knobs to get wrong |
| Spigot | Plugins | Old setups that specifically ask for it | Slower than Paper; few reasons to pick it today |
| Vanilla | None | Technical worlds, pure survival, datapacks | No plugins; heavier under load |
| Fabric | Mods | Light and performance mods, quick updates | Content mods need matching client mods |
| Forge | Mods | The big classic modpacks | Heaviest on RAM; slower to update |
| Sponge | Plugins | Sponge plugins, including on modded servers | A smaller plugin library |
| Velocity / BungeeCord | Proxy | Several servers behind one address | A proxy, not a game server |
All of them are available when you order an EnduranceNodes server, along with Bedrock options such as Bedrock Dedicated Server, PocketMine-MP and Nukkit. The other half of the decision is which Minecraft version to run.
So what's the best Minecraft server software?
There isn't one best; there's a best for what you want to do:
| You want… | Run |
|---|---|
| A private SMP with friends | Paper |
| Lots of plugins and custom gameplay settings | Purpur |
| A technical redstone or farm world | Vanilla, or Fabric with Lithium |
| A modpack from CurseForge or Modrinth | Whatever the pack uses: Forge or Fabric |
| Java and Bedrock players together | Paper with Geyser and Floodgate |
| Several servers behind one address | Velocity in front of Paper servers |
If you remember one thing
Paper for almost everyone, Vanilla (or Fabric with Lithium) for technical worlds, Forge or Fabric when a modpack decides for you, and Velocity when one server isn't enough. Choose the family first and the rest follows.
Questions people ask
For performance and plugins, yes. Vanilla is better only when you need exact vanilla mechanics, such as technical redstone or farms that rely on glitches Paper fixes.
No. Paper runs plugins. For mods you need a mod loader such as Fabric or Forge, and players install the same mods.
Purpur is built on Paper and adds hundreds of extra gameplay options. It runs the same plugins; pick it if you want to tweak gameplay beyond what Paper allows.
Yes, and your world carries over: Paper moves the Nether and the End into their own folders on first start. Take a backup first, then switch from the panel's Versions tab.
Rarely. Paper runs Spigot plugins and is faster, so Spigot is mostly for old setups that specifically require it.
About this article: It comes from what I have learned running EnduranceNodes, and it is published here first. We sell Minecraft hosting, so everything I say about us can be checked on this site, and I point out where we are not the best fit.