Minecraft Mods: What They Are and How They Work

Mods and Multiplayer Servers

Modded servers are the backbone of the online Minecraft landscape. The vast majority of public servers run plugins or mod packs that define their gameplay entirely. Factions, SkyBlock, KitPVP, economy servers, roleplay worlds: all of these depend on mods and plugins to function. Vanilla servers are the exception, not the rule.

For server owners, choosing the right set of plugins determines what kind of community forms. For players, the mods installed on a server are what make it worth joining. A server list like Minecraft Index exists precisely to help players find servers built around the gameplay experience they are looking for.

How to Install Mods and Plugins

For multiplayer servers, the most common type of mod is a plugin. Plugins are installed on the server side by the server owner and require no action from players. The best place to find plugins is SpigotMC.org, which hosts thousands of free and paid plugins covering every gameplay style imaginable.

Mods also include texture packs (also called resource packs), which change the look of the game on the client side, and full mod packs like those built on Forge or Fabric, which add new items, biomes, and mechanics. These require the player to install the mod locally. For most online servers, however, plugins are the dominant form of modification and require no setup from the player.

To get started as a server owner: install a Spigot or Paper server, download the plugins you want from SpigotMC, drop the JAR files into your server's /plugins folder, and restart.