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The Best Plugins for Your Minecraft Server

Last modified on Jun 22, 2022 in plugins

mc head By ApexHosting

Recommended Plugins

Overview

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 on just Spigot, knowing which ones to pick for a Minecraft server can be a daunting task. As we know how difficult choosing plugins can be, we’ve gone ahead and compiled a list of our top recommended plugins!

Now for sake of consistency, this list does not take into account the Minecraft version you are running. This is because some will be running servers ranging from 1.5.2 to some of the most recent Minecraft updates. Because of this, we try to maintain a broad perspective on our choices based on our experience using them, the reliability of the plugin, and its flexibility to work on the different versions.

Non Premium Plugins

EssentialsX
A phenomenal plugin. It offers over 100 commands and features useful on just about every server. Really a must-have for any server.

LuckPerms
With ease and accessibility in mind, LuckPerms is the perfect plugin to setup ranks and permissions on your Minecraft server. This plugin offers not only an in-game editor but comes with an online editor that can be opened from your browser!

FAWE
One of the most popular plugins, Worldedit, but with speed, optimization, and ease of use in mind. This plugin will boost not only the normal aspects of WorldEdit but will boost the performance of plugins that usually depend on WorldEdit.

WorldGuard
This plugin is the perfect way to protect your Minecraft server. Worldguard allows protections to be added to spawn or other builds across the server. A huge plus on top of that is the ability to use flags to set certain variables true or false such as player damage.

GriefPrevention
While WorldGuard keeps its protection focused around server admin builds such as Spawn, GriefPrevention keeps the players in mind. Having this plugin will allow the community to protect their builds, chest, and more!

ClearLagg
As a server owner, one of the most frustrating areas of development is lag reduction. ClearLagg is a great plugin to get as it will monitor the server lag and offer optimizations and commands to assist in lag reduction!

CoreProtect
A must-have for any server owner! Coreprotect offers a full database of actions on your server. If a house was griefed, if a chest was raided, if the land was blown up, Core protect will be able to find the exact time, and player/mob that affected the block, chest, etc. This plugin will also allow you to rollback any area on the map to a time before it was destroyed.

Vault
A very simple plugin with no commands or in-game usage, however, hundreds of plugins require Vault in order to function properly. This plugin should definitely be downloaded for safe measure.

Dynmap
Imagine being able to view your entire world from a website. Well, this is exactly what Dynmap does. With Dynmap, you can display the servers full world into an online web browser, allowing you to view different terrains, where players are located, and much more.

NuVotifier
A great plugin that allows the server to be notified anytime a vote is sent for a Minecraft server list.

Voting Rewards
This plugin goes great with NuVotifier as it allows the owner to set rewards anytime a player on the server votes.

PlaceholderAPI
A plugin that allows the use of placeholders for a variety of popular plugins. This will display information from the plugin such as the player balance, level, factions, and more.

Viaversion
Want your server to have support for all of the newest versions of Minecraft without having to upgrade it on the servers end? Viaversion is just the way to do this! This awesome plugin will allow players to join your server on multiple different Minecraft versions.

protocolsupport
Similar to Viaversion, Protocolsupport allows players to connect to the server with versions older than the server is set to.

Citizens
A very popular plugin used to create NPCs. This plugin has many great uses ranging from statues to AI characters that can interact with players.

Holographic Displays
The perfect way to give players some server information. Commonly seen in server spawns, this plugin will project text holograms that can provide all types of information such as useful commands, the number of players online, and much more.

SkinRestorer
A great plugin for offline servers. When setting a server to offline mode, skins are removed. However, with Skinrestorer the players skins will be readded along with the ability to change a players skin using a single command.

NametagEdit
This plugin allows users to change their name tags and the names reflected on the tab list.

Staff+
Moderating a Minecraft server is now easier than ever before! Staff+ allows the server staff to warn, ban, blacklist, go invisible, and much more.

OldCombatMechanics
1.9 Minecraft changed the mechanics of combat. Luckily with this awesome plugin, servers can now be reverted to pre 1.9 fighting mechanics.

Premium Plugins

McMMO
One of the oldest plugins around, McMMO is a common plugin for survival servers adding all sorts of enchancements to the base game such as new skills.

Featherboard
A very common plugin seen on most of the world’s largest servers. Featherboard displays a graphic to the right of your Minecraft screen showing your name, level, and any other options that the server owner wishes to set.

LiteBans
The perfect ban management plugin is here! Litebans will allow servers to ban players through their IP, UUID, and name. On top of that, it allows the ban and kick screen to be customized, chats to be toggled, and lockdown on the server to be enabled.

DeluxeChat
A great way to format the servers chat! DeluxeChat offers an easy to use formatting system to add tooltip messages, custom chat colors, and much more.

ShopGUI+
One of the most important parts of a Minecraft server is the economy. For a successful server economy, a shop will be needed. ShopGUI+ is the perfect way to create a shop as it does not require building a structure in-game with signs. With this plugin, you can easily create and use a GUI shop.

UltraPermissions
This awesome plugin strives to make creating groups/permissions easier than ever before. With permissions being one of the most difficult parts for server owners to learn, UltraPermission has created a GUI that can be used in-game for managing players, adding permissions, and creating groups.

CMI
This wonderful plugin is the perfect replacement for EssentialsX. CMI adds hundreds of useful commands and features to your servers such as kit editors, item finders, portal systems, and much more!

Bannerboard
Such an interesting plugin! Bannerboard will use maps in Minecraft to render custom images. This plugin is commonly seen on bigger servers as they use an image of their logo for the server banner.

Spartan Anti-cheat
With security being one of the most important parts of a Minecraft server, having an anticheat plugin is key. Spartan AntiCheat is the perfect anti-cheat plugin for any medium-sized server. It includes false positive detection, performance optimizer, monodirectional targeting, and so much more!

VoteParty
This awesome plugin will reward all players with custom rewards once the server reaches a set number of votes.

Conclusion

While this list does include some great recommended plugins for your server, it’s only scratching the surface. With over 40,000 plugins out there, there is no limit to the types of plugins that can be found for a Minecraft server. Please keep in mind that when downloading a plugin, it should always be checked for dependencies.

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