Recommended Essential Plugins for Paper Servers
The core plugins every Paper server should consider for permissions, commands, grief protection, and monitoring.
Before You Install Anything
Everything on this page is a Bukkit plugin, which means Paper. Of the five Minecraft server types GameGrid offers, only Paper loads plugins - Vanilla, Fabric, Forge and NeoForge cannot, and a .jar dropped into a plugins/ folder on those is ignored.
The Mods tab installs Bukkit plugins for a Paper server from CurseForge. Plugins published only on SpigotMC, Modrinth or Hangar are not in that catalogue - download those yourself and upload the .jar to plugins/ from the Files tab. See How to Install Minecraft Plugins.
Two things you do NOT need a plugin for here: a Discord chat bridge and an in-game economy with a shop. Both are built into the panel, work on all five server types, and need nothing installed in your server. See Minecraft Economy and Item Delivery.
LuckPerms - Permissions Management
LuckPerms is the standard permissions plugin for Minecraft. It replaces the crude OP system with granular permission groups and inheritance.
Instead of giving players full OP, you create groups (e.g., "member", "moderator", "admin") and assign specific permissions to each group. Players inherit permissions from their group.
It supports tracks (automatic promotion paths), meta (prefixes/suffixes), and context-aware permissions (different perms in different worlds).
Download from hangar.papermc.io or luckperms.net. Works on Paper, Spigot, BungeeCord, and Velocity.
EssentialsX - Core Commands
EssentialsX adds the commands players expect on a survival server: /sethome, /home, /spawn, /tpa (teleport request), /warp, /kit, /back, /feed, /heal, and many more.
It also includes economy features (when paired with Vault), sign-based shops, and moderation tools.
Download from spigotmc.org or modrinth.com. It's one of the most installed Minecraft plugins.
EssentialsX is modular - you can install only the components you need (EssentialsChat, EssentialsSpawn, EssentialsProtect, etc.).
CoreProtect - Grief Rollback
CoreProtect logs every block change on your server: who placed or broke each block, when, and what type. This data lets you roll back griefing to a specific time and area.
Commands: /co inspect (click blocks to see their history), /co rollback u:[player] t:[time] r:[radius] (undo a player's changes in an area).
It's essential for any public survival server. Without it, griefing is permanent - with it, you can undo any damage in seconds.
Download from spigotmc.org or modrinth.com. The database can grow large over time, so configure pruning in the config file.
spark - Performance Profiling
spark is a free profiling plugin that helps you find the cause of server lag. It's lightweight and doesn't impact performance when not actively profiling.
/spark profiler start/stop - Records CPU usage by plugin/system and generates a flamegraph.
/spark heapsummary - Shows what's consuming your server's memory.
/spark tps - Shows your server's ticks per second (20.0 = perfect, below 15 = noticeable lag).
If your server is lagging, spark tells you exactly what to fix. Download from spark.lucko.me or modrinth.com.
Other Recommended Plugins
Vault - A dependency that many other plugins require for economy and permissions integration. Install it even if you don't use it directly.
ProtocolLib - Another common dependency. Required by plugins that need to intercept or modify network packets.
DiscordSRV - bridges Minecraft chat with a Discord channel. Note that GameGrid already provides a chat bridge with no plugin at all, on every server type, so install this only if you specifically want DiscordSRV's own features.
These plugins are all free and available on Hangar, Modrinth, or SpigotMC. Always download from official sources to avoid modified/malicious versions.