Minecraft Proxy Software

On a network, players connect to the proxy and the proxy connects them to a backend server: a lobby, a survival world, a minigame. Moving between backends is a change of target rather than a new connection.

Velocity is the proxy maintained by the PaperMC project. It is designed for performance and security, with a plugin API of its own. Its modern forwarding sends the player's real identity to backend servers, signed with a secret, so a backend can verify it came from the proxy.

Gate is a proxy written in Go by Minekube. It is designed to be light, to support Java and Bedrock networks and to run with a small memory footprint, and it can be extended in Go or used as a library.

For most Java networks that already use Paper, Velocity is the natural fit because it is built alongside it and has the largest plugin ecosystem. Choose Gate if you want to extend a proxy in Go or need its particular features.

Security is the part people miss. Set the forwarding secret, bind backends to a private network or firewall them so only the proxy can reach them, and never run backends in offline mode on a public address.

Which proxy has more plugins? Velocity has a large plugin ecosystem, and many popular plugins ship a Velocity version.

Can players bypass the proxy? Only if the backend servers accept direct connections. Firewall them and enable the forwarding secret.