What is Forge?
Forge (officially MinecraftForge) is the oldest and most popular Minecraft modding API. It's been the foundation of the modding community since 2011 and supports the largest selection of mods of any platform — including most major modpacks.
Why people choose Forge
- Mod selection — most mods are released for Forge first. CurseForge alone hosts over 70,000 Forge mods.
- Modpack ecosystem — nearly all the famous modpacks (RLCraft, ATM9, FTB OceanBlock, SkyFactory) are Forge-based.
- Stability — Forge has been refined over more than a decade.
- Community — the Forge modding community is huge and well-documented.
Famous Forge modpacks
- All the Mods 9 (ATM9) — Kitchen-sink modpack with 350+ mods. Tech, magic, exploration.
- RLCraft — Brutal survival overhaul. The most-played hard mode modpack.
- FTB Skies — Modern skyblock with progression and questing.
- SkyFactory 4 — Classic skyblock + automation + progression.
- Stoneblock 3 — Underground skyblock variant.
- Better Minecraft — Adventure-focused modpack.
Forge vs NeoForge
NeoForge is a newer fork of Forge that updates faster for recent Minecraft versions. They're closely related and many mods support both. See our Forge vs NeoForge comparison.
How Forge mods work
Both the server and every player's client must have the same Forge version and the same mods installed. Players who try to join with a Vanilla client (or different mods) will be rejected with a version mismatch error.