Summary
Choosing which Minecraft server type to install depends on specific needs and preferences as a server owner. Vanilla servers offer the classic Minecraft gameplay experience without additional features or modifications. Bukkit/Spigot/Paper servers provide various plugins and customizations to enhance gameplay and add new features, such as items, mobs, or game modes. Modded servers offer the most extensive range of gameplay modifications, with custom mods and mod packs that can radically alter gameplay and introduce new mechanics.
How to Choose Which Minecraft Server to Install
Choosing which Minecraft server to create can be pretty daunting for new server owners. In this guide, we will be going over the major types of Minecraft servers and which server work best for difference scenarios.
Vanilla Minecraft
- The most basic of Minecraft Servers. Perfect for those that would like to get into the Minecraft action without much thought behind the scenes. Vanilla Minecraft is ideal for players creating servers to be used by a few players. For anything over ten players, BisectHosting suggests creating a PaperMC server, as explained later in this tutorial.
- Offers the quickest start to Minecraft and allows server owners to set and forget. No need to change any settings, this is Minecraft out of the box working just like any single-player world.
- Limited in scope, not allowing plugins or mods, and doesn't allow any customization outside of what Minecraft Bedrock allows.
- Isn't Optimized for servers as it is built around single-player. Most Minecraft server owners with over ten players will have trouble with lag, especially as players move away from each other and create farms.
- Perfect for beginners to Minecraft servers, but owners will want to quickly switch to one of the more optimized server options.
Bukkit/Spigot/Paper
- CraftBukkit was the first widely used plugin support platform, but is dated and is rarely used with most servers nowadays.
- Spigot is a fork of Bukkit and what essentially took over the Bukkit platform. Spigot offers all of what Bukkit offers, but with more optimization and better structuring to allow servers to run smoothly.
- PaperMC takes all of what Bukkit and Spigot did so well and further optimized an already well-running machine.
- PaperMC is now the go-to for most server owners and is what we at BisectHosting suggest everyone runs over Spigot and Bukkit.
Choosing which Minecraft server type to install depends on specific needs and preferences as a server owner. Vanilla servers offer the classic Minecraft gameplay experience without additional features or modifications. Bukkit/Spigot/Paper servers provide various plugins and customizations to enhance gameplay and add new features, such as items, mobs, or game modes. Modded servers offer the most extensive range of gameplay modifications, with custom mods and mod packs that can radically alter gameplay and introduce new mechanics.
How to Choose Which Minecraft Server to Install
Choosing which Minecraft server to create can be pretty daunting for new server owners. In this guide, we will be going over the major types of Minecraft servers and which server work best for difference scenarios.
Vanilla Minecraft
- The most basic of Minecraft Servers. Perfect for those that would like to get into the Minecraft action without much thought behind the scenes. Vanilla Minecraft is ideal for players creating servers to be used by a few players. For anything over ten players, BisectHosting suggests creating a PaperMC server, as explained later in this tutorial.
- Offers the quickest start to Minecraft and allows server owners to set and forget. No need to change any settings, this is Minecraft out of the box working just like any single-player world.
- Limited in scope, not allowing plugins or mods, and doesn't allow any customization outside of what Minecraft Bedrock allows.
- Isn't Optimized for servers as it is built around single-player. Most Minecraft server owners with over ten players will have trouble with lag, especially as players move away from each other and create farms.
- Perfect for beginners to Minecraft servers, but owners will want to quickly switch to one of the more optimized server options.
Bukkit/Spigot/Paper
- CraftBukkit was the first widely used plugin support platform, but is dated and is rarely used with most servers nowadays.
- Spigot is a fork of Bukkit and what essentially took over the Bukkit platform. Spigot offers all of what Bukkit offers, but with more optimization and better structuring to allow servers to run smoothly.
- PaperMC takes all of what Bukkit and Spigot did so well and further optimized an already well-running machine.
- PaperMC is now the go-to for most server owners and is what we at BisectHosting suggest everyone runs over Spigot and Bukkit.
Modded Minecraft
- Modded Minecraft is often run on 3 different mod loaders, Forge, Fabric, and the newer Quilt.
- Forge is used mainly for large and game-changing mods that need a lot of changes to Minecraft to run properly. Forge also uses its own launchers as playing forge mods will not be playable through vanilla Minecraft.
- Fabric is a lightweight mod and plugin loader that allows players to still run both Bedrock and Java editions of Minecraft while loading into a server running Fabric.
- Quilt is an even lighter weight mod loader that is a fork of Fabric, which allows most (not all) Fabric mods to be compatible with the Quilt API.
- Quilt is the newest mod loader to the family of Minecraft which comes with its own issues. BisectHosting allows for Quilt ran servers, but we suggest Fabric over Quilt for the time being.
In Conclusion
Choosing a Minecraft server can seem daunting, but a lot of the choices can be made much simpler with some easy explanations. If Vanilla Minecraft is the most appealing, PaperMC will solve most if not all problems. Outside of Vanilla, modded Minecraft can be ran depending on which mods are required!
- Modded Minecraft is often run on 3 different mod loaders, Forge, Fabric, and the newer Quilt.
- Forge is used mainly for large and game-changing mods that need a lot of changes to Minecraft to run properly. Forge also uses its own launchers as playing forge mods will not be playable through vanilla Minecraft.
- Fabric is a lightweight mod and plugin loader that allows players to still run both Bedrock and Java editions of Minecraft while loading into a server running Fabric.
- Quilt is an even lighter weight mod loader that is a fork of Fabric, which allows most (not all) Fabric mods to be compatible with the Quilt API.
- Quilt is the newest mod loader to the family of Minecraft which comes with its own issues. BisectHosting allows for Quilt ran servers, but we suggest Fabric over Quilt for the time being.
In Conclusion
Choosing a Minecraft server can seem daunting, but a lot of the choices can be made much simpler with some easy explanations. If Vanilla Minecraft is the most appealing, PaperMC will solve most if not all problems. Outside of Vanilla, modded Minecraft can be ran depending on which mods are required!
