10 Best Minecraft Server Jars for Java Edition

Have you ever wanted to make a Minecraft server, but were not sure what jar file to use?

We have listed the best Minecraft jars for Java Edition players. With our top selections, you can easily find a good fit for your next big project.

If you are a beginner and this is your first server, we’ve got you covered. 

What is a Minecraft Server Jar

While there are a ton of options to choose from for running Minecraft servers, each of them has unique features.

There are tons of options for powering a server, however, we have listed the 10 best Minecraft jars that you will ever need.

Best Minecraft Server Jars

While there are a ton of options to choose from for running Minecraft servers, each of them has unique features.

There are tons of options for powering a Minecraft server. And to help you find a suitable solution we have listed the 10 best Minecraft server jars.

Vanilla Minecraft Server Jar

Vanilla Minecraft jar is the first server creation solution that ever came to Minecraft. While it’s not that popular after a decade it still holds great features.

It is the official software backed by Mojang, which receives constant updates even now. However, even with all the updates you may still encounter bugs.

The Minecraft Vanilla jar could still be a great software for running servers, but only for small projects.

Another downside for Vanilla Jar is the lack of plugins. Since Vanilla means classic, no plugins or mods would ever work.

If you wish to find a jar, which runs with plugins and mods, check the below options.

Bukkit Jar

Bukkit is the second Minecraft jar that has been released. It’s a modification project, suitable for plugin development and making powerful servers.

While it’s not very used anymore it still holds a large plugin repository and active members. Bukkit is a preferred server modification file for thousands of members.

The downside of Bukkit is that it is no longer maintained. Back in 2014, the project was disbanded due to Minecraft’s EULA and poor support.

Spigot Jar

Spigot is a fork of Bukkit with lesser bugs and a professional development team behind it.

Just like Bukkit, Spigot also has its plugin repository. Bukkit plugins are also compatible with Spigot. The only difference in both jars is additional configurations.

Spigot is optimized in the manner of caching resources and uses less CPU and RAM. It is twice faster than Bukkit and four times faster than Vanilla jar.

PaperMC Jar

PaperMC is a hardfork from Bukkit. It contains more features the most preferred choice for running servers.

The biggest feature of Paper is the ability to play with entity ticks. You can easily choose the tick rate of each mob and item without modifications.

You can also control item despawn rates, and configure saves. Another great feature of Paper is its compatibility with Bukkit and Spigot plugins or mods.

Since it’s a hard fork from both modded jars it works well with both repositories.

Tuinity Jar

Tuinity was an improved version of Paper. It used to offer no-tick view distances and more optimizations.

However, Tuinity was discontinued and became a part of the new Paper updates. A reason for the project’s disbanding was its reputation.

Sponge Jar

The Sponge Jar is yet another recreation of the Vanilla jar. It holds a powerful API for creating Minecraft plugins as well.

However, due to the small popularity, there are lesser plugins available. With Sponge’s growing popularity it may become a more preferred option.

Purpur Jar

The Purpur Jar can be the ultimate solution if you want to play with all Minecraft options. It’s an overpowered alternative to Paper in terms of optimizations.

With Purpur you can control every single aspect, especially the HUDs, overlays, and much more.

In terms of compatibility, Purpur works with every Spigot and Bukkit plugin. Since it’s a fork of Paper, you will have no issues with plugin compatibility.

Fabric Jar

If you want to implement mods on your Minecraft server then you need the Fabric Jar. It’s the ultimate solution for modding Minecraft, like Forge.

Fabric can be installed on both the server and client side. With the Fabric Jar, you can easily take control of each aspect.

If we had to compare Fabric and Forge, hands down Fabric is more lightweight and easier to use.

Pufferfish

Pufferfish is a hard fork of Paper, which is designed for better performance for big Minecraft servers. It offers better resource management and more options to play with.

One of their best features is using async for entity tracking. With this feature, players can easily decrease resource usage, and upkeep more players.

Another great feature is their map rendering feature. While most Minecraft server jars don’t have good rendering options and cause bottlenecks, Pufferfish is different.

It can help you render maps faster and even render the distance with multiple cores.

Forge

Forge is the first Minecraft jar for mods. It can be used on both server and client-side on all server versions. With Forge, you can easily download large repositories of mods and install them.

They have the greatest support for their product and offer a good user experience. In terms of speed and resource usage, Forge may not be your greatest option. It’s quite stable but requires large amounts of resources if you have heavy mods.

Which is the best Minecraft server jar

If you are still wondering, which Minecraft server jar to use, here’s our opinion.

For non-modded Minecraft servers, we would go with PaperMC. Even though it has lesser functions than Purpur or Pufferfish, not all plugins work with them.

On top of that Paper has just enough features to create a fast Minecraft server.

For modded Minecraft servers we recommend the Forge jar file. It is compatible with all Minecraft mods and proved to be more stable.

Forge also receives Minecraft version updates faster and runs game-changing mods. Nonetheless, Fabric is a very unique option for heavier mods, which require high resource usage.