One of the most exciting parts about hosting a Minecraft Server is the ability to customize it past Vanilla Minecraft, and one of the best ways to do this is with plugins. Unlike mods, plugins do not need to be installed client-side and do not need any special software client-side to run. However, if you want to run plugins you will need to have your server as either Craftbukkit, Spigot, or Paper. Plugins can provide a multitude of extra commands to better manage the server and add in fun and useful mechanics, such as the ability to set who can access and build in certain areas, add prefixes and suffixes to names, create different ranks with access to different commands, add RPG elements, add virtual economies, and many more. There are thousands of plugins available on the Bukkit and Spigot repositories that you can choose from to spice up your server. It’s likely that if you have played on Minecraft Servers, you have had experience with some plugins. While plugins are great, they can sometimes be a bit difficult to use and install if you have not done so before. This is why we have a knowledgebase full of useful tutorials for a variety of popular plugins that will teach you how you can install the plugins, configure, and use them.
Whether you’re making a Factions or SkyBlock Minecraft server, rules are an important aspect to ensure safety and fairness. Most owners don’t want exploiters or cheaters to ruin the fun for everyone else. Some may list the rules on signs or in holographic tex...
As you play through vanilla Minecraft, you are constantly having to avoid danger to stay alive. While survival mode does not have a harsh death penalty like in hardcore, having your dropped items despawn can be discouraging for anyone who experiences...
When playing through Minecraft for a long time, players tend to hone their skills in various fields. Whether it is redstone, building, or PvP, these skills can be fun to build up, but many do get to experience true rewards for their efforts. This is rectified...
Doors are a staple part of the Minecraft server experience, whether you are building in creative or staying safe from monsters in survival. While there are numerous types of doors, they are generally limited to either being a block or two wide. Normally,...
Experiencing nighttime in Minecraft can already be unnerving since there are lots of hostile creatures, especially with creepers roaming around ready to explode. However, some players may feel this isn’t challenging enough and desire more difficulty. F...
Customizing your Minecraft account is an extremely important and popular feature in the game, as it allows you to personalize your character for anyone to view. However, changing your skin while in-game is never simple and may create frustration. This...
Chat formatting lets you control what the chat looks like when anyone speaks in-game. This is how you typically set group names and generally change the formatting to make players or groups stand out. Chat formatting in Paper is made up of two parts....
One of the main Minecraft features is collecting materials to build bases and craft items. However, as many players likely know by now, there is tons of junk in-game that fills up chests. This can be a big problem, as sorting through all your chests to...
One of the best things about a Minecraft Server is being able to customize it past Vanilla Minecraft. Adding plugins is just the way to do it, and a great way to bring life to your server is with Citizens, a Minecraft plugin that enables the creation...
While playing with friends on your Minecraft server, some may want to form groups to continue their adventure. This allows the party of users to have better success at collecting resources, battling monsters, and building bases. By default, Minecraft...
Making a Minecraft server introduces many possibilities, with a common one being an economy for players to sell and buy materials. Most of the time, users have to collect items to trade for in-game currency at an existing shop. This can be hard for some...
Hosting Minecraft servers by default has player combat, which is used in many different servers. Although, users can leave in the middle of combat and cause issues such as robbing the killer of loot. This, among other problems, makes fighting unfair and...
This plugin is best used when in the hands of server mods and server hosts, people who need to know when something happened and who did it, or even if something happened. We all have had that friend who says they got diamonds, but you’re never really s...
Enchantments are an everyday occurrence on a Minecraft server, as they often become the focus after you move to the mid-to-late game. Whether you’re looking to increase your damage output or have the most overpowered gear, enchanting is the way to go. A...
Vanilla Minecraft can be lots of fun with friends on a dedicated server, allowing you and others to experience a peaceful adventure. However, some owners may want to add more entertaining features that’ll spice up the gameplay. This can be done through S...
Minecraft server owners can implement a vast range of addons, such as Bukkit plugins that can enhance gameplay. For example, a popular feature that players enjoy is in-game images, making branding and events easier to do. This can help promote your server,...
A large part of vanilla Minecraft is travelling to The End to face the Ender Dragon itself. While it can be exciting, the suspense and challenge will mostly fade after it is defeated. The dragon can be respawned, but it often stops there. This is where...
Dual wielding in Minecraft is an already beneficial feature Mojang added, as it gives players an extra inventory slot for food, shields, or blocks. However, this doesn’t allow you to mine materials or hit mobs from your left-hand, making it pointless t...
Enchanting equipment in Minecraft allows you to create powerful gear to fight other players or slay the undead. Unfortunately, there are limited levels that you can use for each item. The maximum one for many enchants are 5, which isn’t too high at a...
Hosting Minecraft servers allows for so many new and exciting features, such as Paper plugins, that add unique aspects to your gameplay. In many PvP and other combat-based servers, naming weapons and armor is an important element. This is due to the item’s n...
In the world of Minecraft servers, a decent spawn point is vital for players looking to get started. Whether this is a resource-rich biome in vanilla or a hub for servers, the spawn is where the first impression is made. While the base game has commands...
Minecraft has many features to offer players, from combat to exploration. However, when you aren’t fighting zombies or discovering new biomes, there are other activities to enjoy. One of these is fishing, allowing players to catch sea creatures and u...
Obtaining items is a staple part of Minecraft servers, whether they are used for survival, decoration, or other crafting materials. Oftentimes, owners will provide systems to allow players to gain more items through tasks or rewards. One of the most common...
Vanilla Minecraft is all about exploring. Whether it’s exploring vast caves or trekking the great mountains; after a long time of this the desire for a fresh approach to travel heightens. This is especially true when dealing with large heights....
Installing plugins on your Minecraft server may add tons of unique commands and features for players to use. Most of these require assigned permission nodes before any ability usage. This process is done by group or rank management plugins, with GroupManager...
Playing Minecraft with friends can bring challenging adventures and tasks, but sometimes players want to take it easy. This can be done by decorating bases or relaxing as they admire their creations. An extremely popular feature in servers is the ability...
Within Minecraft, plugins are often used to expand gameplay, while proxy servers link multiple servers together. It is possible to add plugins to the proxy server as well, which can further expand the gameplay elements across all servers. With...
Hosting a Minecraft server with your friends and other players can be fun, but vanilla gameplay can become dull. This leads to a desire for new changes, something that can add tools, cosmetics, commands, among other features. If you run a Paper, Spigot,...
When playing on Minecraft servers, one of the most common ways for players to express themselves is with the use of skins. Skins are the perfect way to add customization to Minecraft characters. While these are great, when running an offline server, or...
Building in Minecraft is a relaxing experience, possibly even the most important part of the game, but as fun as it is, placing blocks one by one can easily become tedious. Large structures have hundreds, if not thousands of blocks in them, and putting...
When playing on a Minecraft server, there is always the chance of encountering troublesome players who enjoy griefing bases or looting. Griefing is often a cause for players departing from a server, due to their hard work being lost. Introducing Grief...
As an owner of a Minecraft server, one of the key variables you need to pay attention to are ranks. Many server owners wonder how they can make someone an admin on a Minecraft server. A ranking system allows you to create a hierarchy, differentiate the...
On a variety of servers, you may notice that each player is given a set of ranks, whether they are static, or you gain new ones. These ranks can be configured with custom permissions, allowing a difference between staff members or normal players....
ShopGUI+ is a premium Bukkit plugin that allows you to add a custom shop to your Minecraft server that can be accessed via the /shop command. This plugin is the basis for your server’s economy. It allows you to set up GUI based shops that players can bu...
When hosting a Minecraft server, providing information to players is important for gameplay and the server’s health. Much of this information is provided through various announcements, whether it is a reminder to vote or listing how many active players a...
Survival Minecraft players, whether they are builders, miners, or redstone engineers, will all eventually run into the same problem. Sooner or later you will run out of resources for your build or suddenly need an item you haven’t found yet. Chest shops m...
One of the biggest concerns for server owners is lag. Lag can be caused for a variety of reasons, whether it’s from what you build, collect and mine on your server or the hardware your server runs on. However if you host with Apex hardware shouldn’t be ...
Non-Player Characters are a very useful tool available for your Minecraft server. Creating npcs makes the server look very well-polished, and they can be used to perform functions such as teleporting players and opening custom shops. Citizens2 is the...
When running a Minecraft server, having a successful economy is often vital to promote player trading and effort. While shops can be configured to sell blocks and items, this can often become repetitive and does not promote a variety of gameplay styles....
Hosting your Minecraft server can be lots of fun, but the default version of the game doesn’t allow for much control. If you want to set homes, have teleportation, kits, sign commands, and more, then you can do that through plugins. However, there are t...
Vault is used on nearly every server for storing various data as well as allowing plugins to hook into one another. There is little to no configuration to be done here as Vault is mostly an install and forget type of plugin that allows your server to...
Creating a shop on a server comes with a lot of difficulties. If you don’t have some kind of security system, you are left hoping that someone doesn’t come along and steal all of the items in your shop. If you choose to use redstone, an angry creeper can...
Building some kind of mob farm is a common goal for Survival Minecraft, but it isn’t always easy. If you don’t have access to the creative menu you may have to go spelunking for a dungeon or use glitchy game mechanics to force mobs to spawn. Both of ...
When playing on a server, you may occasionally notice that some include elevators. Oftentimes, these are built into the spawn-hub and are used to access separate parts of the structure. For example, a multi-floor shop may feature elevators for quick access....
One of the perks of owning a Minecraft server is the option to enable offline mode. This lets people with unofficial copies of Minecraft join the server, but you lose access to whitelists and player skins in the process. The standard Steve skin is a classic,...
Your Minecraft server can appear dull in-game because of the lack of personalization and customizable features, which leads owners to find plugins for that. For instance, using the TAB to view the connected players does not have any headers or footers...
As you host and play on a minecraft server, adding protection from griefers is a must-have. After spending hours of hard work on a build, having someone destroy it can ruin your desire to play and have fun. Thankfully WorldGuard, a Minecraft plugin, adds...
As a Minecraft server owner, relaying information to players is a crucial part of the experience. In vanilla Minecraft you are mostly limited to books or signs in order to give information to others. This changes with the use of Holographic Displays,...
Building in Minecraft is time consuming, especially if you’re trying to create a large spawn or hub for your server. This is amplified when you add highly detailed decorations to the structure, which always looks nice after completing it. However, many p...
One of the great ways to customize your Minecraft server is with plugins. With thousands of plugins, your server has endless possibilities from creating Factions to having an online map of your server. Dynmap is an awesome way to expand your server outside...
Simple Voice Chat is a proximity chat mod and plugin that allows you to chat with other nearby players without having to join a discord server or voice channel. This mod gives an extra level of immersion to the game and is a must have for any hosted Minecraft...
You may have seen servers with a variety of game modes, minigames, and worlds. Being able to bring a diverse gameplay to your users is a dream of many server owners. Sadly, this can’t be done with a single server. However, with Bungeecord you can create a...
While Minecraft is a game of what seems to be infinite possibilities, after a while the gameplay may become bland and repetitive. You can only beat the Ender Dragon and skip through the credits so many times before they start to lose their charm. Luckily,...
Plugins are an excellent way to add new functions and features to your server. When experimenting with plugins, restarting the server frequently can make the process a bit tedious. It would be much easier if there was a way to manage plugins without having...
When playing vanilla Minecraft, spending plenty of time within your world is a crucial part of the gameplay experience. After playing through your world for a prolonged amount of time, you may wish to expand your efforts without directly giving up or...
Players looking to enjoy Parkour in Minecraft may decide to use custom maps or WorldEdit schematics for this gamemode. Sadly, this is highly limited due to the finite amount of obstacles and blocks in-game. For instance, completing one of these maps requires...
Minecraft has many features that enhance the gameplay, such as the ability to use a blast furnace to efficiently smelt ores. Unfortunately, sometimes there aren’t enough quality of life mechanics to help players enjoy the game. For example, being unable t...
No matter where you travel to on a vanilla Minecraft server, you will find mobs scattered everywhere. From the overworld cows to fearsome wither skeletons, they make the game more exciting to play through. In most cases, many players find that mobs are...
Survival in Multiplayer Minecraft can be a fantastic way to spend time with friends, as overcoming challenges and building amazing bases can be enjoyable. However, for Hardcore players, most servers aren’t difficult or interesting enough. This is due t...
Hosting Minecraft servers opens the doorway for potential issues, such as griefers and thieves. This can lead some owners to search for solutions, such as chest protection. This possible feature can prevent other players from stealing or destroying valuable...
Whether you’re setting up a combat gamemode or survival minigame Minecraft server, there are many unique features to possibly add to enhance the gameplay experience. These can range from having a kill counter to safezones, but some can directly help p...
While you chat in your Minecraft server, you will notice that the text is plain and features no colors or symbols. This is problematic when using LuckPerms to display ranks or prefixes, as they will not appear in-game by default. Luckily, the LuckPerms...
As you play through a vanilla Minecraft server, magic exists in the form of enchantments, but is rarely considered “real” magic. When players picture magic, they often think of spells, abilities, and items that do more than add a fire effect to your swo...
Playing with your significant other on Minecraft can be tons of fun, especially while exploring the luscious world. This is amplified on servers, as multiple groups of lovebirds can band together to enjoy their favorite game. However, some players may...
Minecraft is an already established survival game that challenges players to stay alive, but lacks realistic features. For example, there is no need to drink water despite your character breaking and placing many blocks. This can become problematic for...
Structures in Minecraft offer a wide range of valuable items, resources, and mobs to slay. Whether these are villages or woodland mansions, players use them for obtaining powerful gear or materials. However, sometimes there aren’t enough structures o...
While playing on your Minecraft server with friends, some players may want more entertainment. This tends to involve using plugins, introducing you and others to a wide variety of features. One of these is called Brewery, allowing players to create many...
Minecraft servers can occasionally encounter lag due to various reasons, possibly disrupting gameplay for your players. Solving this can involve tons of optimization, with some being overly complicated and difficult to implement. However, an easy way...
In almost any Minecraft server, players search for mineral ores to craft better equipment, obtain in-game money, among other activities. Depending on the game type, this can be a long or difficult process. For instance, Skyblock servers don’t have natural c...
Protecting your Minecraft server from griefers or random players is an important element to ensure your world’s progression. No one would want to build for hours on end to only have it blown up by a troublesome user in-game. The EssentialsX AntiBuild p...
The default chat format from Minecraft is simple with no colors, which can make it less appealing to your players. You might even want to change the symbols for containing the player’s username to match your design. Luckily, EssentialsX Chat allows y...
Building is a major aspect of Minecraft, allowing players to create structures for survival or unleash their creativity. Oftentimes, troublesome users will attempt to ruin this fun by placing lava, using TNT, and more. Protecting against these threats...
Customizing your structures with decorations on Minecraft servers can take many different forms. Whether you’re using default paintings or vegetation, there’s lots of possibilities. However, using plugins for Spigot or Paper provide you with even mor...
One of the best features of Minecraft is the ability to join servers and play with others. This is especially true when teaming up with friends, but problems may arise if some play on Java Edition while others play on Bedrock. By default, servers are...
While developing a Minecraft server, many owners decide they want multiple worlds for their players to enjoy. This is an extremely common feature in the community, as it provides you with the means to host factions, skyblock, prison, and other game types...
Hosting your own Minecraft server with Apex Hosting allows you to fully customize the gameplay, but does have limitations. For instance, you’re unable to create custom items or blocks. If you’re interested in attempting this, then look no further tha...
Advancing in your Minecraft world involves collecting immense amounts of resources, with some being harder to obtain than others. This forces players to explore and hunt down specific materials, such as diamond ores or ancient debris. However, some users...
While customizing your Minecraft server, some players may want a wide variety of new features to try out. These can be teleporting to bases, receiving starter items, among many other aspects. Setting this up typically involves using plugins, as they’re a...
Setting up a Minecraft server can be a challenging task, as there’s lots of customization. One of these is the tab list, providing players with useful information. Examples include websites, commands, latency, ranks, and more! These details are considered e...
When owning a Minecraft Server, the wide range of versions available can be both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, you can easily adjust the version to fit whichever mods or plugins you need, but players may become frustrated when they need to constantly...
Exploring in Minecraft involves collecting many different materials, as the world contains lots of items to find. This can easily overwhelm your inventory, especially if you don’t have an ender chest or shulker box. For instance, underground exploration i...
Fans of the Tinker’s Construct mod may want to use it on their Minecraft Spigot or Paper server, as it doesn’t require anyone else to install anything before playing. This can be difficult to achieve, as there’s many plugins online that don’t live up...
There is only one kind of bow in Minecraft, the normal one with no special abilities besides using arrows with potion effects. This can be frustrating if you’re creating a customized PvP server or simply wanting more abilities with your projectiles. F...
There’s countless resources to collect and use in Minecraft, with the vast majority of them being above ground level or in different dimensions. This may lead some players to want more valuables underground, especially if they love mining ores. By default, t...
Hosting a Minecraft server allows you to fully customize the gameplay, leading to creative gamemodes and unique experiences. One of these is giving players permission to use head blocks, such as mob skulls. By default, they’re already in the game but l...
While playing on your Minecraft server, there can be times when you want to have more entertaining features. This is amplified when gaming with friends, especially on factions or skyblock gamemodes. There are many plugins for Spigot and Paper that allow...
Minecraft server owners may be interested in adding plugins to implement new commands and features. In some cases, the desired outcome from those plugins aren’t what you want, thereby leading you to customize new commands from scratch. The good news i...
Defeating mobs in Vanilla Minecraft can be a wonderful pastime, as it provides players with loot and a challenging experience. After doing this for a while, some may feel it’s too repetitive and desire new changes to enhance their gameplay. Fortunately, p...
In the world of Minecraft server hosting, ranks and cosmetics are often a desire for most players. When using a permissions plugin like LuckPerms, a player’s rank can appear in the chat, but server owners may wish to take an additional step forward. I...
Playing on a Minecraft server can be a fun time, as individuals will interact with each other constantly. Whether it is a friendly chat or challenging each other in minigames, it is dependent on all players behaving and following the rules. Oftentimes,...
Minecraft server management is what every owner has to do, as this allows for plugins, enhancing the gameplay, and other essential controls. However, problems may arise if players try to use exploits, find hidden cheat commands, or more possible issues....
Advertising your Minecraft server is done through voting, with NuVotifier being the most popular plugin to do it. However, for Bungeecord and other connected servers, the setup can be a bit tricky for some owners. For instance, there are required preparations...
Playing on servers is a staple part of the Minecraft gameplay experience. Many of these servers include plugins that add an in-game economy, cosmetics, and much more. Oftentimes, some of these features will be available by logging into the server at least...
In a multiplayer-focused game like Minecraft, communication is key for both progress and entertainment. While using the in-game text chat or a voice call is sufficient, many players strive for a twist on this formula through a proximity-based chat. Introducing...
Monitoring your Minecraft server for suspicious activity can be a time consuming task, especially when preventing thieves or xray. Whether you’re wanting to determine if a friend stole an item or someone collecting too many diamonds, this process can t...
Building a server can be difficult, especially when you want to customize plugins and the in-game chat. Placeholders are an amazing feature that many plugins use to help with editing formats or settings in their respective files. A placeholder is a tool...
When you play through vanilla Minecraft, particles are constantly surrounding you. Whether it’s the bubbles from lava, a downpour of rain, or the smoke from a campfire, they are always present to the player. While these are cool, some players took it t...
Minecraft is a game with many numerous features and options, such as potion effects or powerful enchantments. While some may consider these to be magic, many may wish for a permanent form of magic boosts and abilities that is simply not available in the...
Creating any type of Minecraft server can be challenging, especially for those looking to better manage their PvP system. Whether you want factions or prison, player vs player combat is an important aspect of the gameplay. This is primarily for survival...
Many Minecraft Paper or Bukkit-related servers have a rank system, whether that’s LuckPerms or another permission management plugin. However, most rank plugins don’t allow for players to rank themselves up by paying for it with in-game money. Luckily, the...
Making an ideal Minecraft server for your players to enjoy is a difficult task, especially since there’s many factors to consider. One of these is collecting resources, as everyone needs to gather materials to craft equipment, building blocks, or for i...
Once you’ve installed a plugin using the Bukget feature you can easily update or remove the plugin from within the same section the respective plugins information is listed. When you install a plugin using Bukget you will notice a sudden change in the o...
When creating and running a Minecraft server, customizing its looks can be vital for keeping players interested. Whether it’s a unique server icon or a personalized message of the day, these can be helpful but are oftentimes limited in what can be changed. T...
Developing a Minecraft server tends to involve displaying useful information to players, such as rules, helpful commands, or other similar details. This can easily turn into a huge wall of signs, which may become harder to read or follow along in-game....
Managing a Minecraft server can be a challenging feat, as players can cause lag by a various amount of in-game activities. One of these is having too many entities at a singular location, causing gameplay-related problems for all players. This scenario...
As the owner of a Minecraft server, problematic players are a constant threat that needs to be dealt with. Most of the time, however, players will not dare to break any rules while staff are online. Whether you are trying to catch a player X-Raying, griefing,...
Minecraft’s world generation can be an exciting adventure for newcomers, as it contains countless structures and biomes to explore. However, this isn’t the case for everyone since the game has been around for many years, giving plenty of time to know the...
Plugins are the perfect way to customize a Minecraft server. The plugins ultimately build the theme of the server as they can be used for minigames, gametypes such as survival, server management, and much more. With over 40,000 plugins currently available...
Hosting a Minecraft server can be loads of fun, especially with minigame plugins. There are many types to try in your world, but most players are familiar with standard modes such as Spleef, Parkour, Skywars, among others. This can pose issues while creating...
Playing on your Vanilla Minecraft server with friends can be tons of fun, especially when building a large town together. However, if others come along and grief or raid your structures, then it may cause frustration. This commonly happens on public SMP...
Minecraft has always been about showing off in one way or another. This is true whether you aim to build the best house, have a cool skin, obtain the most powerful gear, or more. This is often brought to the next level on servers, as there are often many...
While mining is a massive part of Minecraft, many players find the overall process to be quite tedious. This feeling often grows as you advance into later stages of the game, as the time spent looking for ores can be put towards working on builds, exploration,...
Building on a Minecraft server can be tons of fun, however modifying your world through creative mode can be both slow and tedious. There are various plugins like WorldEdit that solve this issue, but they can be tough to use without a visual indication...
Protecting your Minecraft server’s world from griefers, cheaters, and other problematic players is common among owners. The most popular Bukkit plugin for this is WorldGuard, allowing you to create protected regions in-game that have configurable settings. T...
