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Paper, Purpur, Fabric, Forge or NeoForge? Which server engine to choose

Updated 25-10-2026

The server engine decides whether you can install plugins or mods and how efficiently the server runs. Here is how the popular engines differ and which one to pick.

Plugins: Paper and Purpur

  • Paper is the most popular engine for servers with plugins. It plays like Minecraft but runs much faster, and it supports Bukkit, Spigot and Paper plugins (EssentialsX, LuckPerms, WorldGuard and thousands more).
  • Purpur is Paper with extra configuration options, e.g. riding mobs or custom mob settings. Plugins work the same.
  • Spigot is the older engine Paper grew out of. Today Paper is almost always the better choice.

Mods: Fabric, Forge and NeoForge

  • Fabric is lightweight and gets new game versions quickly. It has many performance mods, e.g. Lithium and FerriteCore.
  • Forge is the classic engine of big modpacks, especially on older game versions.
  • NeoForge is the successor of Forge, used by most new modpacks from version 1.20.

A mod only works on the engine it was made for: check it on the mod's page. Plugins do not work on modded engines and the other way round.

The plain game: Vanilla

Vanilla is the official Mojang server, without add-ons. Paper plays the same but faster. It does fix some game bugs, e.g. TNT duplication, so players who build technical farms sometimes prefer Vanilla or Fabric.

Which one to choose

  • You want plugins: Paper, and Purpur when you miss an option.
  • You want a ready modpack: the engine the modpack names (the panel sets it itself when it installs the modpack).
  • You want a few mods: Fabric or NeoForge, depending on which one the mods are for.
  • You want the plain game: Paper or Vanilla.

How to change the engine

  1. Make a copy in Backups.
  2. Go to Add-ons → Engine → Change engine and pick the engine and the game version.
  3. The world and the files stay on the server.

Do not move to an older game version than the one the world was created on. Minecraft does not support that and the world may get damaged.

New game versions need a newer Java: Minecraft 1.20.5 and newer runs on Java 21, versions 1.18–1.20.4 on Java 17. You change Java in Server settings → Startup → Environment.

Please confirm