When running a Minecraft Server, you can choose from a large amount of Server Jars to use for your server. But why would you pick one over the other? What makes certain Jars better than others? Read on to find out!
Recommended Server Jars:
Paper
Paper is our go-to for running server, your server with us will be automatically deployed with Paper. Paper is a fork of Spigot which aims to have better stability and performance. Because it is built on the Bukkit API, you can use the same plugins as you can with Spigot.
Paper is highly recommended for running a server as it fixes exploits, bugs while increasing the performance and stability of your Minecraft Server.
Tuinity
As of 08/17/2021 Tuinity will be merged into Paper and stop being an independent project.
Tuinity is a fork of Paper, aimed at bringing more experimental features and options to your server. It is also known to increase TPS on higher player count servers, thus creating a smoother experience for your players. So if you run one of those, you might want to give Tuinity a shot!
Fabric
Fabric is a lightweight but still experimental modding jar for your Minecraft Server. It is super lightweight and modular, and also targets the snapshots of Minecraft Updates. Fabric is often looked at as the better version of Forge due to its faster updates and higher stability. However, Fabric does have a lot less mods to use, but generally more for newer versions of the game.
Forge
Forge is the most well known and versatile Modding API there is for Minecraft. It basically has no limits for mods and allows you to have endless possibilities for what mods you can run on it. All the Modpacks you know will most definitely run on Forge, making it a widely used jar. Forge mods however are generally slowly updated and are mostly used for less modern versions of the game.
Other Jars:
Spigot
Spigot is a fork of the Bukkit project, which enabled an API for plugins into Minecraft. This jar is also what most other jars are built on, like Paper. Spigot to this day is still the most used jar there is available, but offers less performance and stability compared to Paper.
Purpur
Purpur is a fork of Paper and Tuinity with the goal of providing new and interesting configuration options, which allow for creating a unique gameplay experience not seen anywhere else. If you are after the more Vanilla game, you will most likely not want to use Purpur as it changes quite a few game mechanics.
Vanilla
Vanilla, the good 'ol jar provided by Mojang themselves. The Vanilla jar is basically the bare minimum you can get for a server. With this, you sadly don't have the option to make use of the plugin API. The Vanilla jar also is not optimized very well and only recommended for small servers you might run with friends. If you have more than 10 players on a server, we do not recommend you run the Vanilla jar.
Airplane
Airplane is a relatively new jar which is still in testing stages. However, there is a Lite version available, which might be useful for your server if you run large player servers or networks. Airplane is a highly optimized jar meant for scaling to your needs. Airplane can also take advantage of modern CPU's and their multiple cores, thus making it more appealing for large servers. Use at your own risk!