Essential Server Plugins

A new Paper or Spigot server can do very little for players on its own. There is no way to give a moderator more power than a visitor, no home or teleport commands and no common language for plugins to display data. Three kinds of plugin fill those gaps, and they are usually the first thing installed.

Permissions decide who may run which command. A permissions plugin lets you create groups, such as member and moderator, give each group a set of permissions and let groups inherit from one another. It is the foundation for every other plugin, because they all ask it before they act. LuckPerms is the widely used option and runs on Paper, Velocity and several mod loaders, so one set of rules can cover a network.

Everyday commands are the small things players expect: setting a home, teleporting to a friend, joining a warp, reading the rules and claiming a kit. EssentialsX bundles these and an economy in one download that you can switch off piece by piece.

Placeholders let one plugin show another's data. PlaceholderAPI defines a shared syntax, so a tab list, a scoreboard or a chat format can display a player's rank or balance without custom code for every pair.

Install these deliberately. Each one is a dependency for others, and the order you configure them in matters: set up permissions first so the rest can use the groups you defined.

Do I need all three? Not always. Permissions are close to universal. EssentialsX and PlaceholderAPI are worth installing when you want their commands or other plugins ask for them.

Which should I configure first? Permissions. Create your groups before configuring plugins that grant access through them.

Are these plugins safe on a network? They run on each server. LuckPerms can share one database across servers so permissions stay consistent; plan the storage before you scale.