How to Pick the Right Minecraft Server Type

Paper, Folia, Fabric, Forge, Vanilla, Velocity, BungeeCord, or Waterfall — how to choose the right Minecraft server software the first time.

August 6, 2026 by Terabit Editorial / 10 min read

Minecraft Server Software Plugins Mods Proxies Beginner Guide

"Server type" is the first dropdown on the Minecraft order form, and it is the one choice people second-guess most. This guide tells you which option to pick, why, and what you give up by picking it. The short version: most people want Paper, and none of these choices are permanent.

The one-minute answer

You want a server for friends, with plugins like permissions, land claims, or mini-games — pick Paper. This is the right answer for the large majority of servers.
You want to play a modpack from CurseForge or Modrinth — check the pack's own page for its loader and pick Forge or Fabric to match. The pack decides, not you.
You want a handful of light performance or utility mods, on a recent Minecraft version — pick Fabric.
You want the game exactly as Mojang ships it, no plugins or mods — pick Vanilla.
You have hundreds of concurrent players spread across a huge world, and you have already confirmed your plugins support it — pick Folia.
You are building a network of several servers players can move between, like a lobby plus survival plus creative — pick Velocity, in addition to your actual game servers.
You are migrating an existing network that depends on BungeeCord-only plugins — pick BungeeCord, or Waterfall if your current setup already runs it.

If none of those describe you, pick Paper. It is the default selection in our configurator for a reason.

The two questions that decide everything

Almost every wrong answer comes from getting one of these two questions backwards.

1. Plugins or mods?

These are different things, and the software that runs one will not run the other.

Plugins are server-side only. You install them on the server, and players connect using an unmodified Minecraft client. Nobody has to download anything. Land claims, permissions, economy, anti-grief, chat formatting, and mini-games are all plugin territory. Paper and Folia run plugins.
Mods change the game itself. The server and every player need the same mod files at the same versions, or they cannot connect. New blocks, new dimensions, new machines, and full modpacks are all mod territory. Fabric and Forge run mods.

If your community is "join with the IP and play", you want plugins. If your community is "install this pack, then join", you want mods.

You cannot mix the two ecosystems. A Forge server will not load a Bukkit plugin, and a Paper server will not load a Fabric mod. Choosing the wrong side here is the only mistake on this page that means rebuilding rather than adjusting.

2. One server, or several?

One world, one server — you need exactly one server type, and you are done.
Several servers players hop between without disconnecting — you need a proxy plus one server per destination. The proxy is extra, not instead.

Server types

These run your world. Pick exactly one.

Paper

The default selection, and our recommendation for most servers.

Paper is a heavily optimised build of the Minecraft server that keeps full compatibility with the Bukkit and Spigot plugin APIs. In practice that means the entire mainstream plugin ecosystem works on it, plus a large set of performance fixes and configuration options the official server does not expose.

Pick it if you want plugins, good performance, and the widest possible pool of guides, plugins, and support answers.
Trade-off — none worth worrying about for a normal server. Some very old plugins written against unusual internals can misbehave, but this is rare.
Start here: configure a Paper server.

Folia

Folia is a fork of Paper that ticks the world in independent regions across multiple threads, instead of running the whole world on a single main thread. On the right workload this lifts a hard ceiling that no amount of extra CPU can otherwise fix.

Be honest with yourself about whether that is your workload. Folia only helps when players are spread far apart, because separated regions are what gets parallelised. Hundreds of players standing in one town do not benefit.

Pick it if you run very high concurrent player counts across a large world, and you have already verified that every plugin you depend on explicitly supports Folia.
Trade-off — this is the big one. Plugins must be written for Folia's threading model, and most are not. Assume your existing plugin list does not carry over until you have checked each one.
Start here: configure a Folia server.

Fabric

A lightweight mod loader with a small footprint and a fast release cadence. Fabric versions are typically available very soon after a new Minecraft release, which matters if you want to play on the newest version rather than waiting.

Fabric is also the home of most of the well-known server performance mods, so it is a reasonable pick even for a lightly modded survival server.

Pick it if your modpack targets Fabric, or you want a small set of mods on a current Minecraft version.
Trade-off — every player needs the matching mods installed. Some mods are server-side only, but do not assume it.
Start here: configure a Fabric server.

Forge

The long-established mod loader, and the target for most large, well-known modpacks. If you are thinking of a big tech-and-magic pack, there is a good chance it is Forge.

Pick it if the pack you want to play says Forge.
Trade-off — large Forge packs are memory-hungry and slower to update to new Minecraft versions than Fabric. Match the Minecraft version the pack asks for rather than the newest one available.
Start here: configure a Forge server.

Vanilla

The official server exactly as Mojang ships it. No plugin API, no mod loader.

This is less limiting than it sounds. Datapacks, command blocks, and server.properties still work, so a lot of custom behaviour is achievable without any third-party software.

Pick it if you want reference behaviour, you are testing something against an unmodified server, or you simply do not want any extra moving parts.
Trade-off — no plugins, no mods, and none of Paper's performance work. If you later want a permissions system or land claims, you will be switching to Paper.
Start here: configure a Vanilla server.

Proxy types

Read this before ordering a proxy: a proxy does not host a world. It sits in front of your game servers and moves players between them. On its own, there is nothing to play. A network is a proxy plus at least one real server, ordered separately.

If you are running a single world, you do not need any of these.

Velocity

The modern proxy, and the right choice for any new network. It is faster, uses less memory under load, and has a stricter security model than the older options — in particular, its modern forwarding mode properly verifies that connections to your backend servers came from the proxy.

Pick it if you are building a network today.
Trade-off — it uses its own plugin API, so BungeeCord plugins do not run on it unmodified. Most actively maintained network plugins ship a Velocity build.
Start here: configure a Velocity proxy.

BungeeCord

The original Minecraft proxy. It works, it is widely documented, and a long tail of older network plugins target it and nothing else.

Pick it if you are migrating an existing network that depends on a BungeeCord-only plugin you cannot replace.
Trade-off — older architecture, higher overhead at scale, and its default forwarding mode requires you to firewall your backend servers correctly or anyone who finds them can join while spoofing another player's identity.
Start here: configure a BungeeCord proxy.

Waterfall

A fork of BungeeCord with additional patches and fixes, kept drop-in compatible with BungeeCord plugins.

Worth knowing before you pick it: Waterfall has been deprecated by its maintainers, who now point users to Velocity. We still offer it because existing networks run on it and a forced migration is disruptive, but it is not the right pick for something new.

Pick it if you are already running Waterfall and want a like-for-like move.
Trade-off — no longer actively developed. Plan a migration to Velocity rather than building on it.
Start here: configure a Waterfall proxy.

What about Spigot, Bukkit, Purpur, NeoForge, and Quilt?

These names come up constantly, and most of them are already covered by an option above.

Bukkit and Spigot — the plugin API and the server that popularised it. Paper is built on top of Spigot and runs Spigot plugins, with better performance and more configuration. If a guide says "Spigot server", Paper does the job.
Purpur — a fork of Paper that adds a large number of gameplay-tweaking options. Everything it does is optional; Paper covers the same plugin ecosystem.
NeoForge — a fork of Forge used by many newer packs. Check which one your pack names, since the two are not interchangeable.
Quilt — a fork of Fabric with a compatibility layer for Fabric mods. Smaller ecosystem; Fabric is the safer default.
Geyser — for letting Bedrock Edition players join a Java server. It is not a server type, it is software you add to a Paper server or a proxy.

If you need one of these specifically and it is not in the dropdown, open a support ticket before ordering rather than after.

Sizing notes

Your server type affects what hardware is worth paying for.

RAM is what actually scales. It grows with player count, world size, view distance, and above all mod count. A large modpack can need several times the memory of a plugin server with the same number of players.
CPU threads mostly do not scale. Minecraft ticks the world on a single main thread, so past roughly four threads you are usually paying for capacity the server cannot use. Our configurator says as much on the CPU slider.
Folia is the exception. Regionised ticking is the one case where more threads translate into more headroom, so size CPU up if and only if you are genuinely running Folia.
Proxies are cheap. A proxy shuffles connections rather than simulating a world, so it needs far less of everything than the servers behind it.

Attacks are the other thing worth planning for, since public Minecraft servers get probed constantly. Every plan includes DDoS protection by default.

Changing your mind later

The choice is reversible. You can switch server type after ordering using our game switch feature, so treat this as a starting point rather than a commitment.

What does and does not survive a switch:

World data carries over. Your world is standard Minecraft data, and it moves between server types.
Moving within an ecosystem is easy. Vanilla to Paper, or Paper to Purpur, is close to a drop-in change.
Moving between ecosystems is not. Plugins do not become mods. Going from Paper to Forge means finding new equivalents for everything you had, and any data those plugins stored is left behind.
Modded worlds do not downgrade cleanly. A world generated with mods will have blocks and dimensions a plain server cannot understand. Take a backup before any switch involving mods.

Take a backup first, whatever you are switching. Our backup and restore workflow covers how to do that safely.

Trusted references

Related guides

Once your server type is chosen, work through the rest of the setup path: