Best plugins for a Minecraft survival server

A good survival server needs a handful of well-chosen plugins rather than dozens. These categories cover what most Paper servers want, and each links to a widely used example.

Core plugins

• LuckPerms for ranks and permissions.
• EssentialsX for homes, warps, spawn and basic commands.
• Vault to connect economy and permissions between plugins.

Protection

• CoreProtect to log and roll back grief.
• WorldGuard and WorldEdit for regions and building tools.
• A claims plugin if players should protect their own builds.

Quality of life

• A chat or tab plugin to show prefixes.
• A backup plan, either plugin or host backups.
• An anti-cheat plugin if you run a public server.

Performance and diagnostics

• spark to profile lag.
• Use Paper's own settings rather than stacking tuning plugins.

How to add them

1. Check version support on the plugin page.
2. Download from the official page.
3. Upload to the plugins folder with the Files tab.
4. Restart.
5. Edit configs.

Common mistakes

• Downloading from unofficial sites.
• Installing too many at once.
• Forgetting dependencies.
• Not testing after each addition.

See our plugin install guide for more on this.