How to Choose Minecraft Server Software: Vanilla, Paper, Purpur or Folia

Every Minecraft server starts with a jar file, and the one you choose decides which plugins you can run, how the server behaves under load and how much of its configuration you can change. It is the cheapest decision to get right at the start and the most annoying to change later, because plugins are built for a particular family of servers.

The four options in one paragraph each

Vanilla is the server Mojang publishes. It has no plugin support, so everything you add must be a data pack or a mod loader. It is the right choice for a handful of friends who want the game exactly as shipped.

Paper is a fork of the Minecraft server focused on performance and on correcting gameplay inconsistencies. It also provides the plugin API most plugin authors target. Its documentation describes it as a drop-in replacement for CraftBukkit and Spigot, which means a Spigot plugin will normally run on it. If you have no strong reason to choose otherwise, this is where to start.

Purpur is a fork of Paper. Its own site describes it as built on Paper and aimed at giving server owners as much configurability as possible, and it supports plugins written for the Bukkit, Spigot and Paper APIs. You change the jar and keep your plugins.

Folia is also a fork of Paper, but a very different one. Its README explains that it splits the loaded world into independent regions that each tick on their own thread, so a server with players spread far apart can use many CPU cores at once.

What Folia changes for plugins

This is the point people miss. On Folia there is no single main thread, and code that touches the world must use the schedulers the project provides so that it runs on the right region. The README states that every plugin is expected to need some modification, and a plugin has to declare support by adding folia-supported: true to its plugin.yml, otherwise it will not load.

The same README recommends hardware with at least sixteen cores for the design to pay off, and says the project will not merge into Paper. That makes Folia a deliberate choice for a large server with a spread-out player base, not an upgrade for a small survival server.

Questions that settle it

• Do you want plugins at all? If not, vanilla is enough.
• Do the plugins you need list Paper or Spigot support? Choose Paper first.
• Do you want finer control over gameplay settings than Paper offers? Consider Purpur, and read its changes before you switch.
• Do you run a large server with players across a big world, on a machine with many cores, and do all your plugins declare Folia support? Then Folia is worth testing.

Before you commit

Check each plugin's page for the platforms it supports. MCRank's listings tag platforms from each project's own compatibility information, so you can read them side by side on the intent pages, but the project's page is the authority.

Run a test server with your real plugin list before you move a live world. Switching between Paper and Purpur is usually a jar swap; switching to Folia is a migration. Take a backup before any change of software, and keep the old jar so you can go back.

Finally, update on a schedule. Server software receives security and performance fixes, and plugins assume you are on a recent release. Choosing a fork is a decision to keep up with it.