Choosing Minecraft Server Software: Paper, Purpur, or Folia
The server software choice made before launch quietly limits which plugins are even an option later.
Choosing Minecraft Server Software: Paper, Purpur, or Folia
The server jar picked before launch quietly decides which plugins are even on the table later.
Paper Is the Safe Default
Paper is the most widely supported server software in the Minecraft plugin ecosystem — most plugins are built and tested against it first, which means the widest compatibility and the fastest bug fixes when something breaks.
Unless there's a specific reason to deviate, Paper is the software most servers should start on.
Purpur Adds Features, at a Compatibility Cost
Purpur forks Paper and adds extra configuration options and gameplay tweaks — ridable mobs, extra settings for existing mechanics. Most plugins built for Paper still work fine on Purpur, but the extra layer occasionally causes plugin conflicts Paper wouldn't have.
Purpur makes sense for servers that specifically want its extra toggles. It's not a strict upgrade over Paper for servers that don't.
Folia Solves a Problem Most Servers Don't Have Yet
Folia is built for horizontal scaling — splitting world simulation across threads region by region instead of a single main thread. That matters enormously for a handful of massive servers and does nothing for a server with a normal player count, because the bottleneck it solves isn't the one they have.
Folia support has to be built into a plugin specifically — plugins written for single-threaded Paper don't just work on Folia, and plugin compatibility is still catching up.
Choosing Folia today means choosing a smaller compatible-plugin pool in exchange for scaling headroom most servers won't need for a long time, if ever.
Switching Later Is Usually Fine
Unlike an auth model or branding decision, server software is one of the easier things to change after launch — most configuration and plugin data transfers cleanly between Paper and Purpur specifically. That makes it a lower-stakes decision than owners sometimes treat it as.
What Actually Matters More Than the Choice
Whichever software gets picked, the plugins and configs running on top of it matter more day-to-day than the jar underneath. Well-built, Paper-compatible configs will keep working through most software changes without modification.
What's Next for ZCraft Studios
Everything we build targets Paper compatibility first, specifically because it's what the widest range of servers are actually running — a config that only works on one niche fork helps almost nobody.
Explore ZCraft Studios and see what's available.