Paper vs Spigot vs Purpur

Wispdock’s control panel isn’t built yet. Where a step says “in your control panel”, use whatever your host gives you for files, the console and start/stop. The Minecraft side works the same everywhere.

Bring your required plugin list when comparing plugin server options; a fork choice does not guarantee every plugin will work.

The short answer

For a survival server with friends, use Paper. It runs the same plugins as Spigot, has far more performance work in it and usually gets builds for new Minecraft versions sooner. Purpur is Paper with extra options. Pick it once you’ve read its config and found something you want.

Folia is a different tool for very large servers. It isn’t on the shortlist for a friend group. If you haven’t decided between plugins and mods yet, start with Choose your Minecraft server software.

How they’re related

Bukkit was the original plugin API, and CraftBukkit was the server that ran it. In 2014 a DMCA takedown stopped CraftBukkit downloads, and most of the community moved to Spigot, a fork of CraftBukkit that carried on.

That history is why Spigot still doesn’t publish a ready-made jar. You build it with its BuildTools program, which needs Java and Git and takes a few minutes:

java -jar BuildTools.jar --rev latest

Replace latest with a version such as 1.21.4 to build a specific one.

Paper started as a fork of Spigot with performance and bug fixes, then grew its own API on top. Since late 2024 it’s a hard fork: Paper no longer pulls in Spigot’s changes, though it still aims to run Spigot plugins. Purpur is a fork of Paper that adds configurable gameplay options. Each one keeps the plugin API of the one it came from and adds to it.

Side by side

Plugin compatibility goes one way

• A plugin written for Bukkit or Spigot runs on Spigot, Paper and Purpur.
• A plugin that uses Paper’s API runs on Paper and Purpur, not on Spigot. Plugins that ship a paper-plugin.yml are Paper-only.
• A plugin that uses Purpur’s own API runs only on Purpur. These are rare.

Plugin pages usually say which platforms they support, and Hangar and Modrinth let you filter by platform. More plugins are Paper-first than a few years ago, so on Spigot you’ll see “requires Paper” more often than the reverse.

The exception is plugins that reach into the server’s internal code instead of the API (often called NMS). They’re tied to an exact Minecraft version, and since Paper moved to Mojang’s own mappings at runtime in 1.20.5, some of them ship separate Spigot and Paper builds. Check the plugin page and grab the right file. Install plugins on a Paper server covers the rest.

The config files each one adds

Each layer keeps the files of the one below and adds its own. A Purpur server has all of these:

server.properties                  vanilla
bukkit.yml                         CraftBukkit: spawn limits, update folder
spigot.yml                         Spigot: activation and tracking ranges, merge radius
config/paper-global.yml            Paper: server-wide settings
config/paper-world-defaults.yml    Paper: defaults for every world
world/paper-world.yml              Paper: overrides for one world
purpur.yml                         Purpur: gameplay options

CraftBukkit also adds commands.yml, permissions.yml and help.yml, which you’ll rarely touch. Paper and Purpur still read bukkit.yml and spigot.yml, so a setting there keeps working after you switch. Restart after changing any of these files.

spigot.yml

Per-world settings live under world-settings.default. The ones people change most are entity-activation-range (how close to a player an entity has to be to tick at full rate), entity-tracking-range (how far away players can see entities) and merge-radius for dropped items and experience orbs. settings.bungeecord is for servers behind a BungeeCord proxy.

config/paper-global.yml and paper-world-defaults.yml

Older Paper versions used a single paper.yml. Since 1.19 it’s split in two. paper-global.yml holds server-wide settings, including proxies.velocity for Velocity forwarding and the unsupported-settings section. paper-world-defaults.yml applies to every world: anti-xray under anticheat.anti-xray, despawn ranges, environment.optimize-explosions and per-chunk entity save limits. To change one world only, put the setting in that world’s paper-world.yml.

purpur.yml

Sits in the server folder next to server.properties. Server-wide options go under settings, gameplay options under world-settings.default, including a long per-mob section. The Purpur documentation lists every key.

Performance

Spigot’s main gain over vanilla comes from activation ranges: entities far from players tick less often. Paper keeps that and adds far more: a rewritten chunk loading and generation system, a faster lighting engine, and a long list of entity, hopper and redstone optimisations. It also bundles the spark profiler in recent builds.

The practical result is that Paper usually holds 20 TPS under loads where Spigot struggles. How much headroom you gain depends on the world, the farms and the plugins, so measure instead of guessing. Purpur performs the same as Paper with default settings. If you’re chasing lag, Reduce server lag shows how to find the cause first.

What changes for players

On a normal survival world most players won’t notice a difference from vanilla. Technical players will, in three places.

• Paper fixes several long-standing exploits by default: duplicating TNT, carpets and rails with pistons, breaking bedrock, and headless pistons. They can be turned back on in config/paper-global.yml (see below).
• Activation ranges, inherited from Spigot, slow down mobs that are far from players. Farms that rely on mobs out of that range run slower. Raising the ranges in spigot.yml fixes most of these, at some CPU cost.
• Dropped items and experience orbs merge within merge-radius, which changes how drops pile up and can confuse item-counting contraptions.

unsupported-settings:
  allow-headless-pistons: true
  allow-permanent-block-break-exploits: true
  allow-piston-duplication: true

They’re called unsupported for a reason: Paper won’t help with bugs reported while they’re on. If your group plays heavily technical, ask them before you switch from vanilla.

What Purpur adds

purpur.yml has hundreds of options. Examples: making mobs rideable and controllable, changing individual mobs’ health and behaviour, and many small toggles to vanilla mechanics. Most of them do nothing until you change them, so a fresh Purpur server plays like Paper.

Purpur is built on Paper, so new Minecraft versions reach it after Paper does. If you update as soon as a version comes out, check that a Purpur build exists first.

Folia, briefly

Folia is a fork of Paper by the PaperMC team. It splits the world into regions and ticks them in parallel on separate CPU threads. That only helps when many players are spread far apart, and it needs a lot of cores to pay off.

It also changes how the server works enough that most plugins don’t run on it. A plugin has to declare folia-supported: true in its plugin.yml, and some vanilla behaviour differs. For a group that mostly plays around one base, Folia is harder to run and no faster. Stay on Paper.

Switching between them

• Back up first, and keep the same Minecraft version. Change one thing at a time.
• Spigot to Paper: replace the jar. Paper keeps bukkit.yml and spigot.yml and creates the config folder. Worlds and plugin data stay.
• Paper to Purpur: replace the jar. Purpur creates purpur.yml on first start.
• Purpur to Paper: works the same way. purpur.yml is ignored and Purpur-only gameplay stops.
• Paper to Spigot: plugins that need Paper stop loading. Check your plugin list before you try it.
• All three use the same world folders (world, world_nether, world_the_end), so nothing needs moving.

In your control panel, change the server type or upload the new jar, start the server once and check the log for plugins that failed to enable.

The draft 4 GB plan on our pricing page is sized for Paper or Purpur with a handful of plugins. Prices aren’t final and ordering isn’t open yet.

Still stuck? Send us the details and your latest.log.