Create your first Minecraft: Java Edition server

This page covers hosting Minecraft: Java Edition on your connected rig. Java asks for one decision the other games don’t: whether your server runs plugins or mods. That choice decides what your friends have to install.

Make sure your group plays Java before you start. Java Edition is the PC version bought from minecraft.net and played through the official launcher. Phones, tablets, consoles, and the Microsoft Store version run Bedrock Edition, a separate game whose players can’t join a Java server. For those, see Create your first Minecraft: Bedrock Edition server.

In the dashboard, the server is your Java install, and each world on it is a separate save with its own name, seed, and settings.

Step 1: Choose plugins or mods

When you create the server, you pick what kind it is. There’s no default, so read this first:

• Paper runs plugins. Plugins run only on the server, so your friends join with the Minecraft they already have. Paper suits survival servers with land claims, a live map, and grief protection. It can’t run mods.
• NeoForge runs mods, including Create.
• Forge runs mods that haven’t moved to NeoForge yet. Many popular mods are still Forge only.
• Fabric runs mods from its own catalogue, on a lighter loader.
• A modpack builds the server from someone else’s published pack, which decides everything else for you. See Playing a published modpack.

Mods run on both the server and each player’s game, so with NeoForge, Forge, or Fabric your friends install a matching pack. The dashboard gives you a pack to send them.

If your friends should be able to join with no setup, choose Paper. If you want mods, choose the loader your mods are published for.

Step 2: Create the server

1. Open your rig in the dashboard and click Add server.
2. Choose Minecraft: Java Edition.
3. Pick the kind of server from Step 1.
4. Under Minecraft version, leave Recommended selected unless you need a specific version.
5. Tick the box to accept Minecraft’s End User Licence Agreement, then click Create server.

Every player has to run the same Minecraft version as the server, and mods and plugins are each built for specific versions. Mods take a while to catch up with a new Minecraft release, so the recommended version for a modded server is the one most mods support. Paper servers start on the newest version, because plugins keep up quickly.

The install includes the right version of Java for your Minecraft version. If two servers need different versions of Java, your rig keeps both.

You can change the Minecraft version later from the server’s header. The dashboard lists what happens to each mod or plugin, backs up every running world, and asks you to confirm before it reinstalls the server.

Step 3: Create a world

Java has no setup wizard. Click Create world and give the world a name.

You may also enter a World seed, which decides how the world generates. Leave it empty for a random world. You can change the seed until the world’s first start.

To use a datapack, add it under Datapacks by pasting a Modrinth link or name, such as terralith. Datapacks change how the world generates, and players don’t install anything for them. You can only add them here, while the world is being created.

Step 4: Set up backups and start the world

Because there’s no wizard, a new Java world has no backup or restart schedule. Turn on backups from the world’s Backups panel before your friends start building. Backups run while the world is up, so nobody gets kicked off. You can add a restart schedule from the Schedule panel too.

For your next world, pick this one under Copy settings from when you create it. The new world then starts with the same schedules and settings.

Click Start on the world. A server without mods is up in under a minute, and a large modpack takes longer.

To change how the world plays, click Config. Game mode and difficulty are there, along with World Rules such as Keep items on death, Mobs can change blocks, Fire spreads, and Time passes. View Distance (chunks) is under Performance.

When Update available shows on the server, click Update game, or Update & restart while a world is running.

Step 5: Add mods or plugins

Your world has a Mods button, or a Plugins button on a Paper server. Both work the same way:

1. Type a name to search Modrinth, or paste a link.
2. Click Add, and your rig downloads it.
3. Restart the world to load it.

If a mod or plugin has no build for your server’s Minecraft version, the dashboard names a version it does run on. A Switch this server to Minecraft button opens the version change for that version. Nothing changes until you confirm, because every player has to switch too.

Many mods have their own settings file. Edit those under Mod settings, or Plugin settings, in the world’s settings.

Step 6: Get your friends in

The world’s card shows the address. Your friends add it once:

1. In Minecraft: Java Edition, choose Multiplayer, then Add Server.
2. Paste the address.

Their game has to be on your server’s Minecraft version, which they choose in the launcher. If a friend can’t connect, check their version first. Minecraft’s error for a mismatch doesn’t always say that’s the problem. Friends on your home network should use the address from the card’s Same network tab.

Sending your friends the mods

On a modded server, click Pack for players to give your friends your mods. You can download the pack as a small file, or create a link to share instead. Your friends import it once, in Prism Launcher, the Modrinth App, or ATLauncher.

After that, your server sends them your current mods each time they join, including any you add later. The first time, their game asks them to confirm a security code that matches the one on your world’s card.

Paper servers don’t have a pack, because plugins need nothing on your friends’ side.

Playing a published modpack

You can run a published modpack, such as All the Mods, without assembling it yourself. Choose A modpack when you create the server, then paste the pack’s CurseForge page or pick it from the browser. The server is built from the pack author’s own server files, and the pack sets the loader and Minecraft version.

Only some packs can be hosted. A pack needs server files from its author, and it has to be built on Forge or NeoForge. The browser only lists packs that meet both.

To move an existing server onto a modpack, stop its worlds and choose Rebuild on a modpack from the server’s menu. Your worlds are kept, but the mods and their settings are replaced with the pack’s.

Manage your players

Open Players from the server’s menu. It lists everyone who has joined, with their playtime and when they were last seen.

From there, you can send a message to everyone online, Kick or Ban a player, or Make admin for a trusted friend. To limit the server to people you name, turn on Whitelist in Config.