Why Paper is the most popular choice
Paper powers more Minecraft servers than any other software. It's a fork of Spigot that adds significant performance improvements, deeper configuration, and better security — while staying fully compatible with the Bukkit plugin ecosystem.
What makes Paper fast
Paper rewrites many of Vanilla's slowest code paths. The most impactful improvements:
- Async chunk loading — chunks load on background threads instead of blocking the main thread
- Optimized entity ticking — entities outside player range tick less frequently
- Better pathfinding — mob AI uses fewer CPU cycles
- Lighting engine improvements — faster lighting updates
- Region file optimization — faster world saves
The result: a Paper server can comfortably hold 2–4× the player count of Vanilla on the same hardware before TPS drops.
Plugin compatibility
Because Paper extends the Bukkit API, every Bukkit/Spigot plugin works on Paper — including the legacy ecosystem of plugins from 2012+. There are also Paper-only plugins that take advantage of Paper's extended API for even better performance.
Most popular Paper plugins
- EssentialsX — Essential commands like /home, /warp, /tpa, /spawn, /msg
- LuckPerms — The standard permissions plugin for everything
- WorldEdit — Build at lightspeed with selection-based editing
- WorldGuard — Region-based protection against grief
- Vault — Economy & permissions API used by hundreds of other plugins
- Dynmap — A live web map of your world, viewable in any browser
- CoreProtect — Block logging & rollback for grief recovery
Paper version coverage
Paper supports Minecraft 1.8 through the latest release. Newer versions get the most active development. We auto-install the latest stable Paper build for whichever Minecraft version you choose.