Minecraft Server Setup Guide

Choosing a Server Type

Vanilla: the official Mojang server. No mods, no plugins. Best for pure survival. Datapacks and resource packs still work.

Paper: high-performance fork of Spigot. Supports Bukkit/Spigot plugins, which load from the plugins/ folder. Best for servers that want plugins without requiring players to install anything.

Fabric: lightweight mod loader, quick to support new Minecraft versions, with a smaller mod ecosystem than the Forge side. Mods load from the mods/ folder. Most Fabric mods also need the Fabric API mod installed alongside them.

Forge: the classic mod loader. Mods load from the mods/ folder. Still offered because older modpacks target it and were never ported forward.

NeoForge: the actively-developed fork of Forge, created when the Forge community split in 2023. Most modern Forge-ecosystem mods target NeoForge now. Mods load from the mods/ folder.

Mods are not portable between loaders. A Fabric mod will not load on Forge or NeoForge, and a Forge or NeoForge mod will not load on Fabric. If you are installing a modpack, use the loader the pack names.

For a longer comparison and help picking, see Choosing a Minecraft Server Type.

You choose the server type when creating your server. To switch types, create a new server - your world save can be moved via the File Manager.

Minecraft Version and Java

All five server types run Minecraft 26.2, which requires Java 25.

GameGrid installs and selects Java for you. There is nothing to install or configure on your side, and nothing for your players to install either - the Minecraft launcher handles Java on the client.

The loader itself also comes with the server type. Selecting Fabric installs the Fabric server launcher, which pulls the loader and the Minecraft files on first start; selecting Forge or NeoForge installs that loader. You never download a loader installer yourself.

What Every Server Type Includes

The server type only decides what add-ons the server can load. The rest of the panel is identical across all five.

File manager plus FTP access to every file on the server.

A live Console tab - this is where mod, plugin and startup errors appear.

Automatic daily backups, restorable from the Backups tab.

DDoS protection and instant deployment.

A Settings tab that edits server.properties through a form instead of a text editor, with Player Management for operators, whitelist and bans.

A built-in economy with a Discord shop, a Discord chat bridge, and a live map of your world - none of which needs a plugin or a mod, on any of the five types.

Connecting to Your Server

In Minecraft, click Multiplayer, then Add Server.

Paste the "Server Address" from the Overview tab - an IP address and a port together, such as 203.0.113.10:28100. Your port is assigned by the platform, so it is not 25565 and it always has to be included.

If you set a whitelist in Settings, only listed players can join.

The "motd" setting is what shows under your server's name in the multiplayer list.

On a Fabric, Forge or NeoForge server, players also need the matching loader and the same mods in their own client, unless every mod you installed is server-side only.

Core server.properties Settings

motd: the message shown in the multiplayer server list.

max-players: maximum simultaneous players. Match this to your slot count.

gamemode: survival, creative, adventure, or spectator.

difficulty: peaceful, easy, normal, or hard.

pvp: true or false. Whether players can damage each other. Paper only - the other server types do not show it in Settings.

white-list: true or false. If true, only whitelisted players can join.

enforce-whitelist: if true, the whitelist is re-checked when players try to reconnect.

online-mode: should always be true. Disabling it allows cracked clients and is a security risk.

view-distance: chunk radius sent to players. Lower this (6-8) to reduce server load.

simulation-distance: chunk radius that entities and redstone tick in. Lower to reduce lag.

spawn-protection: radius around spawn that only ops can build in. Set to 0 to disable.

allow-nether: enable or disable the Nether. Paper only; no server type has an allow-end setting.

level-seed: world generation seed. Only affects new worlds.

level-type: world generation type. Uses namespaced format: minecraft:normal, minecraft:flat, minecraft:large_biomes, minecraft:amplified. Only affects new worlds.

Adding Plugins or Mods

On Paper, plugins go in plugins/. Install them from the Mods tab or upload the .jar via the Files tab. See How to Install Minecraft Plugins.

On Fabric, Forge and NeoForge, mods go in mods/. Install them from the Mods tab or upload the .jar via the Files tab.

The Mods tab searches CurseForge scoped to your server type, so the results it shows are builds for the loader you are running. Manual uploads are not checked - that is where wrong-loader mistakes come from.

Stop the server before uploading files by hand, and restart it afterwards so the new .jar is loaded.

See How to Install Fabric Mods and How to Install Forge and NeoForge Mods.

Operator and Whitelist Management

Add yourself as an op from the GameGrid Settings tab, Player Management section, or run "op <playername>" in the Console tab.

Whitelist players from Settings, Player Management section, or run "whitelist add <playername>" in the Console.

Remove ops with "deop <playername>". Remove whitelist with "whitelist remove <playername>".

Ops have all admin commands. Whitelist is just access control.

Ops are stored in ops.json and the whitelist in whitelist.json, both at the server root. You can edit them from the Files tab with the server stopped, but Player Management writes them for you.

The whitelist also has to be switched on: set white-list in the Settings tab, or run "whitelist on" in the Console tab for it to take effect immediately.