Private SMP or public server?
A private SMP is invite-only: a whitelist, a Discord where the group lives, and a world nobody else can join. A public server is a different job altogether: anti-cheat, moderation shifts, server lists and a lot more staff. Most groups should start private. It's far easier to open a stable server than to fix a chaotic one.
Private SMP
- Whitelist: you know every player
- Few rules, mostly common sense
- One or two admins are enough
- Grows only by invitation
Public server
- Anyone can find it and join
- Room to grow into a real community
- Needs anti-cheat and active moderation
- Griefers and alt accounts become a daily job
Roles and permissions: who can do what
The most common way an SMP ends is a trusted friend with too much power and a bad day. Give rights in layers:
| Role | Who | What they can do |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | You | Everything, including the panel, billing and backups |
| Admin | 1–2 people you'd trust with your house keys | Rollbacks, bans, server commands |
| Moderator | Active players who keep the peace | Mute, kick, teleport to check reports |
| Player | Everyone else | Play, claim land, set homes |
Set it up with LuckPerms groups rather than op: OP is all or nothing, and some permission nodes quietly hand over the whole server. For the control panel, give people their own sub-user with only the buttons they need.
Rules people actually read
Five clear rules beat fifty that nobody reads. Pin them in Discord and show them when people join. A good starting set:
- No griefing or stealing, including “jokes”.
- No hacked clients, x-ray or duplication glitches.
- Respect other people's builds and land claims.
- Lag machines and giant farms need an admin's OK first.
- Arguments go to Discord, not to someone's base.
Say what happens when a rule is broken, and apply it to your friends too: nothing kills a community faster than rules that only apply to some. Writing rules people actually read has more on wording them.
Griefing: prevent it, then be ready to undo it
On a whitelisted SMP, griefing usually comes from inside: a falling-out, a bored player, an alt account nobody noticed. Two plugins cover almost all of it: a claims plugin, so players protect their own builds, and CoreProtect, which records every block placed or broken and every item taken from a chest. With it, “someone stole my diamonds” becomes a lookup and a rollback instead of a fight.
Backups and seasons
Every EnduranceNodes plan includes backup slots you can create and restore from the panel, and the node's drives are mirrored in RAID 1. Neither protects you from a mistake you make today and only notice next week. A routine does:
- An automatic backup every day, set up with the panel's scheduled tasks, before the daily restart.
- One copy a week downloaded to your own computer or cloud drive.
- A manual backup before every update, plugin install or version change.
A backup routine that actually saves you walks through it step by step.
Plan seasons too. After a few months worlds get huge, the end-game is done and new players feel late to the party. Many SMPs reset every three to six months with a new seed and keep the old world as a download. Announce it early and let people vote on the date.
Growing the community without breaking it
Growth comes from the people you already have. Run small events (a build contest, a dragon night, a market day), post screenshots in Discord, and link the game chat with DiscordSRV so people who aren't online still feel part of it. When you open the doors, do it in waves and keep the whitelist: players invited by current members fit in far better than strangers from a server list.
If you do go public, our guide to getting players and keeping them covers server lists and voting, and why paid ads rarely work.
How much server a community needs
A private SMP of up to 15 players on Paper rarely needs more than 4 GB. Communities of 20–40 with a few dozen plugins sit comfortably at 6 to 8 GB. Past that, processor speed matters as much as memory, which is why we chose a Ryzen 7 9700X.
| Your server | RAM to start with | Plan that fits | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private SMP: 10 players, 20 plugins | 3 GB |  Ares | $6.00/month |
| Community: 25 players, 40 plugins | 5 GB |  Atenea | $9.00/month |
| Busy server: 50 players, 60 plugins | 7.5 GB |  Hades | $12.00/month |
If you remember one thing
Keep it private until it's stable, hand out power in small doses, log everything and back up on a schedule. Then put your energy into events and people, which is what actually makes an SMP last.
Questions people ask
Turn on the whitelist with whitelist on and add each player with whitelist add <name>. Keep online-mode=true so nobody can join using someone else's name.
One or two you fully trust, plus moderators with limited rights if the server grows. More admins means more people who can make mistakes with powerful commands.
None stops it completely. A claims plugin prevents most of it, and CoreProtect shows who did what and rolls it back.
Automatically every day, and by hand before any update or plugin change. Keep at least one recent copy off the server.
When the world is so big or so finished that new players feel lost. Many servers run seasons of three to six months; let your community vote.
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.