Which Minecraft Server Type to Choose: Vanilla, Paper, Purpur, Fabric or Forge

The short answer

• You just want to play with friends: Paper. It plays almost exactly like ordinary Minecraft and runs faster. Vanilla works too.
• You want plugins (homes, protection for buildings, ranks, shops, minigames): Paper, or Purpur if you like to tune the game with extra settings.
• You want mods (new blocks, machines, magic, big modpacks): Fabric for light mods and quick updates, Forge or NeoForge for big classic modpacks. Players usually need the same mods too.
• You want to play a ready-made modpack: take the loader and the version that the modpack asks for. Both are listed on its page.
• You build redstone machines and farms that must work exactly as in the official game: Vanilla.

That is all most people need. The rest of the article explains why.

Two families: plugins and mods

Server types fall into two families that don’t mix.

• Plugin servers: Paper, Spigot and Purpur. Plugins add features on the server side, and players usually join with the ordinary game and install nothing.
• Mod servers: Fabric, Quilt, Forge and NeoForge. Mods can change the game itself, with new blocks, creatures and dimensions, so players usually need the same mods on their own computers.
• Vanilla: the official server from Mojang, with neither.

A plugin doesn’t work on a mod server, and a mod doesn’t work on a plugin server. How plugins are installed is covered in a separate article.

Vanilla

This is the official server from Mojang, with nothing added.

• The plus: it behaves exactly like the original game, so redstone machines and farms that depend on precise mechanics work as in single-player. New versions of Minecraft arrive on it the same day.
• The minus: no plugins and no mods. It is also not optimized the way Paper is, so it copes worse with many players, and it has few tools for managing players beyond the built-in commands.
• A good fit for a small group of friends who want the plain game, and for technical players.

Paper

The most popular choice for survival servers and minigames. Paper is an optimized version of the server: it fixes many bugs, handles a busy world more smoothly than Vanilla, and runs plugins written for Spigot and Bukkit.

Honestly, it is not a perfect copy of the official game. Paper fixes a few bugs that technical players use for tricks, such as some duplication methods. For ordinary survival you won’t notice any difference.

Paper usually gets a new version of Minecraft soon after the release. Plugins sometimes take longer to catch up.

Spigot

The older server that Paper started from. Plugins for Spigot run on Paper as well, but Paper is faster and fixes more, so there is rarely a reason to pick Spigot. Choose it only if the author of a plugin says Spigot is needed.

Purpur

Purpur is built on top of Paper, so it runs the same plugins, and it adds a large number of extra settings: you can tweak mobs, rules and small features of the game without any plugins. If you like tuning the game, it is a good choice. If not, Paper is simpler: more servers use it, so there are more answers online when something breaks.

Fabric and Quilt

Fabric is a light mod loader. It is known for quick updates to new versions of Minecraft and for a big choice of mods, including ones that make the game run faster. Many mods need an extra mod called Fabric API.

If a mod adds blocks or items, players need Fabric and the same mods on their own computers, while a server-only mod needs nothing from the player. Quilt is a fork of Fabric that runs most Fabric mods. Unless a modpack asks for Quilt, take Fabric.

Forge and NeoForge

Forge is the long-standing mod loader with many large modpacks, especially for older versions of Minecraft. NeoForge is a newer fork of Forge. Most new mods for recent versions are made for NeoForge or Fabric, while Forge keeps many older packs alive.

The loader and the version of Minecraft must match the mod or the modpack exactly. A pack made for Forge 1.20.1 needs Forge and exactly 1.20.1: do not move it to NeoForge or to version 1.21.

Big modpacks need a lot of memory, often more than a free server has. Light sets of mods usually run fine on zuboku; for a big modpack, first check on its page how much memory it recommends.

Which version of Minecraft to pick

The newest version has the newest features, but the plugins and mods you want may not support it yet. Check the page of each plugin or mod first and pick a version that all of them support. Since 2026, new versions of Minecraft are numbered by year: 26.1, 26.2, 26.3. Packs for older versions keep the old numbers, for example 1.20.1 or 1.21.1.

Your friends have to play on the same version as the server. On Paper, the ViaVersion plugin can let players with a newer version in as well.

Moving to a newer version is normal (on a modded server, only once the mods support it). Going back to an older version is not: Minecraft doesn’t support it, and a world that was played on a newer version may fail to load or be damaged.

How to change the type on zuboku

1. 1Stop the server and make a backup on the Backups tab. The type can only be changed while the server is off.
2. 2Open the Software tab and choose the type from the list: Vanilla, Paper, Purpur, Spigot, Fabric, Forge, NeoForge or Quilt.
3. 3Choose the version of Minecraft. For some types you can also pick the version of the loader (the Loader build field): leave it empty and the recommended one is used.
4. 4Apply the change and confirm it, then start the server. The first launch takes longer: it downloads the new files.

The panel warns about two things: mods and plugins of the old type may stop working after the change, and a world that has already been played on a newer version can’t be opened on an older one. That is why the backup comes first.

Frequently asked questions

Which type is the fastest?

For plugins, Paper and Purpur: both are tuned for speed. For mods, Fabric is the lightest, especially with performance mods. Vanilla is not optimized the way Paper is, so on a busy server it is slower than Paper.

Do my friends need to install anything?

On Vanilla, Paper, Spigot and Purpur, usually no: all you need is the normal Minecraft: Java Edition (Bedrock Edition players can’t join, whatever device they play on). On Fabric, Quilt, Forge and NeoForge, usually yes: the same loader and the same mods. Some mods work on the server only.

Can I have plugins and mods at once?

Not in a clean way. There are hybrid servers that try to do both, but they are rarely stable, and we don’t recommend them. Decide which of the two matters more to you.

Will my world survive a change of type?

Going from Vanilla to Paper or Purpur is usually safe: Paper converts the world by itself. Going back from Paper or Purpur to Vanilla or to a mod type needs some manual work with the world files. A switch to or from Spigot is the riskiest: Spigot stores worlds in a different layout, so since version 26.1 a direct move between it and Paper is impossible, and data can be lost. Leaving a modded server for one without mods is risky too: blocks and items that came from mods disappear, and the world may fail to load. Make a backup either way.

What next

If you chose a plugin server, learn how to install plugins. Plugins and mods run on your server with full access, so take them only from the author’s page or a large catalog such as Modrinth or CurseForge, and read the security checklist. If you are just getting started, the step-by-step guide to making a server shows the three ways to run one.