Best Minecraft plugins for a friends server
Plugins need a server that supports them: Paper, Spigot or Purpur, not the plain vanilla server. For a small group of friends we would start with Paper, which runs Spigot and Bukkit plugins too, then add a permissions plugin, land protection, backups and a few comforts. Below are 20 plugins that Modrinth shows with a build for Minecraft 26.3, chosen by a method written on this page. It is a starting point, not an endorsement.
Java Edition 26.3. Data from Modrinth as of 2026-10-04; supported versions change, so check the project page before you install.
Which server software do plugins need?
A plugin is built for the Bukkit plugin interface, so it only runs on a server that provides it. The options for a friends server:
- Vanilla
- The server from Mojang. Plugins are written for the Bukkit interface, which the vanilla server does not provide, so it does not load them: using plugins means picking one of the servers below.
- Spigot
- The long-standing plugin server. Its project site announced builds for 26.3 on its home page. It is not downloaded ready-made: Spigot’s own BuildTools program builds the jar on your computer from Mojang’s server, because of a 2014 takedown request, per the Spigot wiki.
- Paper
- Paper’s documentation describes it as a Java Edition game server designed to greatly improve performance and offer a more advanced API. Its getting-started page calls it a drop-in replacement for CraftBukkit and Spigot. It also loads plugins written specifically for Paper, which may use features Bukkit plugins do not have.
- Purpur
- Purpur’s site describes it as server software based on Paper that supports plugins written for the Bukkit, Spigot and Paper interfaces, with a focus on many configuration options.
- Folia
- Paper’s documentation describes Folia as a fork of Paper that adds regionized multithreading to the dedicated server. Its FAQ says servers that spread players out, such as SMP or skyblock, benefit most, and that the server should have a sizeable player count. For 2 to 10 friends we see no reason to start there (our judgement). The filter below shows which listed plugins have a build tagged for Folia.
Which one for a small friends server?
Paper, in our judgement: it runs the plugins in this list, and 20 of the 20 plugins below have a Paper build for 26.3 against 15 with a Spigot build. The list was chosen for Paper, so read that count as a property of this list. We have not benchmarked Paper against Spigot or Purpur, so we make no speed claim.
Choose before you build the world. Paper’s getting-started page says moving from Spigot to Paper needs no changes, while its migration guide says that as of version 26.1 a world cannot move directly from Spigot or CraftBukkit to Paper and has to go through vanilla first. The two pages disagree, so make a backup before you switch, and do not plan on switching back: the migration guide says Paper does not support going back to Spigot, and that data loss is possible.
Purpur is a reasonable second choice if you want its extra settings. Every plugin here still needs a Paper, Spigot or Bukkit build, which Purpur loads.
Adding a plugin
- Download the plugin’s .jar file from its page. Some are shipped in a .zip: take the .jar labelled for Bukkit or Paper.
- Put the .jar in the plugins folder at the root of your server, then restart the server.
- When the server has started, type plugins in the console (or /plugins in game). A plugin listed in green is running; red means it is not enabled, which for a new plugin usually means it failed to load. The first place to look is logs/latest.log.
- Most plugins create a folder with their own name inside plugins the first time they run: that is where their settings file is. Read the plugin’s page for the commands and permissions it adds.
Paper’s documentation warns that a plugin has full, unrestricted access to your server and to the machine it runs on, so install only from sources you trust.
Is 2 GB enough?
Our Minecraft server RAM calculator never recommends less than 2 GB, a floor it takes from the Minecraft wiki’s server tutorial. Its own rules of thumb, which are assumptions and not measurements, put a small vanilla server for a handful of friends at 3 to 4 GB and a Paper server with plugins at 4 to 6 GB. So 2 GB is a minimum for a very small server, not a comfortable target for plugins. Modrinth does not publish how much memory a plugin needs and we measured none, so no per-plugin figure is shown.
Looking for mods rather than plugins? See Minecraft mods that players do not need to install.
The plugins
Grouped by need, then by name. Use the filters to narrow by the server software a plugin runs on (Purpur loads Paper, Spigot and Bukkit builds) and by need; the “Builds for 26.3” row shows the tags the author gave. With JavaScript off, the full list is shown.
This list was last checked on 2026-10-04; versions may have moved on.
“Required” means the project must be installed on that side, “optional” that it works without it there, “not supported” that it has no part for that side.
Showing 20 of 20 plugins
Permissions
LuckPerms
Permissions: groups and permissions that control what each player can do.
Protection and anti-grief
GriefPrevention
An anti-griefing plugin that its author describes as self-service: players protect their own builds. Read its documentation for how it works.
Orebfuscator
Hides ore from X-ray cheats by changing what the client is sent about hidden blocks.
Paper already has a built-in anti-X-ray, configured per world (see Paper’s anti-X-ray guide); we would try that first.
WorldGuard
Region protection: mark areas where only chosen players can build, and switch individual game rules on or off per area.
Per its page, it needs a Bukkit-based server such as Paper and its WorldEdit companion.
Backup and rollback
Chronos Backups
Scheduled and manual backups of your world, started with the /chronos command.
Per its page it saves only the most important parts of the world, to keep backups small, so it is not a copy of the whole server folder.
InventoryRollbackPlus
Saves player inventories at set moments so an admin can restore them, for example after a death or a bug.
StellarProtect - CoreProtect Alternative
Logs what players do to blocks so you can look up and undo changes; presented by its author as an alternative to CoreProtect.
Maps
BlueMap
Generates 3D maps of your worlds, viewed in a web browser.
It runs its own web server: friends need its port to be reachable to view the map.
Chat and voice
DiscordSRV
Bridges Minecraft and Discord chat; can forward the server console to a Discord channel.
Its console channel runs what is typed in it as console commands, so restrict that channel to admins.
Simple Voice Chat
Proximity voice chat.
Players who want to talk install the matching client mod, and the server needs extra setup, including an open UDP port (24454 by default); see the project wiki.
Version compatibility
ViaBackwards
The reverse of ViaVersion: lets players on an older game version join a newer server.
ViaVersion
Lets players on a newer game version join a server that runs an older one.
Quality of life
AxGraves
A grave (a death chest) appears where a player dies and holds their items.
Its page describes the graves as lootable: check who can open them in the settings.
GSit
Lets players sit, lie down and crawl, with commands such as /sit, /lay and /crawl.
SetHome
Players save homes with /sethome and teleport back with /home; the number of homes and a cooldown are configurable.
TreeTimber
Cutting one log of a tree with an axe brings the whole tree down.
VeinMiner
Breaking one block of an ore breaks the whole connected vein; configurable.
Modrinth files it as a datapack and its page says it also works on a vanilla server; the builds listed here are for Paper and its forks. Optional add-ons (a client hotkey, an enchantment version) are not needed for the base behaviour.
WildRTP
The /wild command teleports a player to a random spot in the world.
Performance and monitoring
Chunky
Generates the world around a point ahead of time, so exploring later causes less lag; jobs can be paused and resumed.
TabTPS
Shows the server’s TPS (ticks per second, the speed the game runs at) and other figures in the player list, a boss bar or the action bar.
Its display settings are in the plugins/TabTPS/display-configs folder, and each display has its own permission.
No plugin matches this filter. Choose “All” to see the whole list.
How the plugins were chosen
We read Minecraft’s current release from Mojang’s version manifest and queried Modrinth’s public API on 2026-10-04, and stored the result; nothing on this page is fetched live. The steps:
- Modrinth’s search was run once for each Minecraft version (26.3 and 26.2) on projects of type plugin that load on Paper, Spigot or Bukkit, sorted by downloads; we read the top 100 results of each search and checked every candidate on its own project record. A few well-known plugins were added by name when the search facets leave them out (for example because Modrinth tags them as libraries).
- Each project has a build for 26.3 (the current release on that date) that loads on Paper, as a Paper, Spigot or Bukkit plugin, and lists both 26.3 and 26.2. The server software shown is the one with a build for 26.3.
- Player side is “unsupported” or “optional”: a player can join without installing it. Server side is “required” or “optional”. The project is approved and is not a library, except WorldGuard and DiscordSRV, which Modrinth tags “library” and which we kept on purpose.
- We then looked at well-known plugins by name and at the top of Modrinth’s search, one by one on each project’s page, and kept a few per need that a private server of about 2 to 10 friends can use. We left out libraries, shops and economy plugins, minigames, login and proxy tools, menus and holograms, world-generation content and plugins whose flags are unset on Modrinth.
So the list is our judgement of fit for a small private server, not a ranking. A plugin missing here may simply be good and not picked, or not on Modrinth. The page shows no popularity figures. Listing is not an endorsement, we have not tested these plugins on a server, and each one has its own licence and its own required companions (the “Needs” row, from the project’s own build for the current release): read its page.
Well-known plugins that are not in the list
EssentialsX and CoreProtect have projects on Modrinth, but no build for 26.3 was listed there on 2026-10-04, and spark’s Modrinth project only has builds for mod loaders, so the criteria leave them out. On Hangar, Paper’s plugin repository, neither EssentialsX nor CoreProtect listed a Paper build for 26.3 on that date either; check their authors’ pages before you decide. You do not need to install spark on Paper: Paper’s documentation says Paper has bundled the spark profiler since 1.21. For block logging we list StellarProtect, which its author presents as an alternative to CoreProtect.
FAQ
Is Spigot or Paper better?
For a small friends server we would start with Paper: it runs Spigot and Bukkit plugins and is described by its documentation as designed to improve performance. Spigot is available for 26.3 too. We have not benchmarked either, so we do not claim one is faster. Choose before you create the world, and back up before you switch.
Is 2GB enough for a vanilla Minecraft server?
It is the floor our RAM calculator uses, taken from the Minecraft wiki’s server tutorial, for a very small server. Our rules of thumb, which are assumptions and not measurements, put a handful of friends on vanilla at 3 to 4 GB and a Paper server with plugins at 4 to 6 GB. Use the calculator for your own player count.
What are good SMP plugins?
For a survival server with friends, start with a permissions plugin (LuckPerms), land protection (GriefPrevention or WorldGuard), a way to undo damage (block logging, backups and inventory restore), then comforts such as graves and home points. The list above shows our picks per need; read each project page before installing.
Do my friends need to install the plugins?
No: every plugin in the list is marked by Modrinth as not needing a client install. Voice chat is the exception to read carefully: a player can join without it but needs the client mod to talk.
Can I use Fabric or Forge mods on a Paper server?
No. Paper’s documentation says Paper does not support Fabric or Forge mods, and that you would need to find plugin replacements. For mods that players do not need to install, see the server-side mods list.
Sources
- Paper documentation: Paper (accessed 2026-10-04)
- Paper documentation: Adding plugins (accessed 2026-10-04)
- Paper documentation: Getting started (migration from Spigot) (accessed 2026-10-04)
- Paper documentation: Migration guide (accessed 2026-10-04)
- Paper documentation: Paper plugins (accessed 2026-10-04)
- Paper documentation: Profiling (bundled spark) (accessed 2026-10-04)
- Paper documentation: Configuring Anti-Xray (accessed 2026-10-04)
- Folia documentation (accessed 2026-10-04)
- Folia documentation: FAQ (accessed 2026-10-04)
- Purpur: PurpurMC (accessed 2026-10-04)
- SpigotMC: home page (release announcement) (accessed 2026-10-04)
- SpigotMC: BuildTools wiki (accessed 2026-10-04)
- Hangar, PaperMC plugin repository (accessed 2026-10-04)
- Mojang version manifest (accessed 2026-10-04)
- Modrinth API documentation (accessed 2026-10-04)
- Modrinth terms of use (API usage) (accessed 2026-10-04)
Each entry links to its Modrinth project page, where its authors’ own description, versions and licence are. Names, software, flags, licences and required companions come from the API on 2026-10-04; the one-line descriptions are ours.
Unofficial list, not affiliated with, approved by or endorsed by Modrinth (Rinth, Inc.), PaperMC, SpigotMC, Purpur, Mojang or Microsoft. Data was taken from Modrinth’s public API on 2026-10-04 and may have changed since. Minecraft is a trademark of Mojang. Modrinth is a trademark of Rinth, Inc.