How to Host a Better Minecraft Server (and Other Forge/NeoForge Modpacks)

What Better Minecraft is

Better Minecraft, usually shortened to BMC or Better MC, is a family of "vanilla+" modpacks by LunaPixelStudios on CurseForge. The idea is Minecraft that still feels like Minecraft, with more biomes, structures, mobs, dungeons and quality-of-life features layered on top rather than a tech-and-magic progression.

The part people miss: there is no single Better Minecraft pack. LunaPixelStudios publish separate editions for Fabric, Forge and NeoForge, each for particular Minecraft versions. The editions share a theme but not a mod list, and they are not interchangeable. A client running Better MC [Forge] cannot join a Better MC [NeoForge] server, and neither can join a Fabric one. Before you create anything, ask your group which edition they have installed, or agree on one now. Check the pack page on CurseForge for the current version of each edition.

If nobody has installed anything yet: NeoForge for a current Minecraft version, Forge if you need an older version for specific mods, Fabric if you want the lightest edition.

How much RAM Better Minecraft needs

BMC packs are heavy. Each edition ships 200+ mods, and a large share of them touch world generation: new biome layouts in the Terralith and Tectonic style, dozens of structure mods that place dungeons, villages and towers, and the mob and dimension additions that come with them. Every new chunk a player walks into runs all of that at once.

For a small group of two to five friends, 6 GB is the realistic minimum. It runs the pack, but the first exploration sessions will be tight and long garbage-collection pauses show up when several people generate terrain at the same time. 8 GB is the comfortable size for the same group and is where most BMC servers should sit.

Because RAM on Alpenglow can be changed any time between 2 and 12 GB, the sensible workflow is to start at 6 GB, play a real session, and raise it to 8 GB if the console reports memory pressure. The general sizing table lives in the Minecraft server RAM guide.

Getting your friends in

The server side is the easy half. Every player needs the Java edition of Minecraft and the same Better MC edition at the same pack version. The simplest route is the CurseForge app: search for the pack, install the version that matches the server, and launch. The Prism launcher and the Modrinth launcher can import CurseForge packs as well, and both make it easy to pin a specific version so nobody updates by accident.

Then share the address from the panel. The server sleeps when nobody is online and wakes in 30 to 60 seconds when someone joins, so the first person to connect waits briefly on the connection screen and then gets in.

A "missing mods" or "incompatible" message on join is nearly always a version difference: the client has a newer or older pack version, or an extra mod the server does not know about. Line up the version numbers before you look at anything else.

First start, pre-generation and first-join lag

The first start of a BMC server takes minutes, not seconds. The panel downloads the pack, installs the loader, and then the server generates the spawn area with every worldgen and structure mod active. The console shows the progress; do not press Start again while it is working.

The first join has its own lag. Players walking outward generate fresh chunks in every direction, and with this many worldgen mods the server spends most of its tick budget on terrain. It settles as the area around spawn fills in. To skip that phase, pre-generate the spawn region before the group arrives with a chunk pre-generation mod such as Chunky: add it to the server, tell it to generate a radius around spawn while nobody is playing, and let it finish. Pre-generating costs credits while it runs, so keep the radius modest; a few thousand blocks covers where a friend group actually plays.

Keeping the pack updated

Better Minecraft updates often. Treat a pack update as a group event: update the server and every client together, to the same version. A server that moves ahead of its players locks them out with the "missing mods" message, and a client that updates early cannot join until the server catches up.

Read the pack’s changelog first. A minor update that only bumps mod versions is normally safe on an existing world, though worldgen changes can leave visible seams where old and new terrain meet. A pack update that changes the Minecraft version needs a new world: chunks generated under one version with one set of worldgen mods do not convert cleanly. Plan those as a fresh season.

On Alpenglow, backups are automatic, and changing the pack through the panel removes the old pack’s mods and configs while keeping worlds and player data. For a version jump, keep the old world in the backups and start a new one.

Forge vs NeoForge in 2026

NeoForge is a fork of Forge that started in 2023 and has become the active loader for Minecraft 1.20.2 and later, including 1.21. Forge continues on older versions, with 1.20.1 in particular still carrying a large mod library and many packs.

For a server this means one thing: a NeoForge pack will not run on Forge, and a Forge pack will not run on NeoForge, even for the same Minecraft version. The mods are built against different APIs. Better MC [Forge] and Better MC [NeoForge] are separate editions for exactly this reason. Choose the edition, and the loader follows.

Alpenglow runs both, along with Fabric, Quilt, Paper, Purpur, Spigot and vanilla, and the panel picks Java 8, 17 or 21 automatically for the version you install. If you are building your own pack rather than using BMC, the modded server guide covers how to pick a loader from the mods you want.

Performance tips for a friends server

With the RAM right, the remaining lag on a BMC server is CPU time in the main tick. Set view distance to 8 to 10 in server.properties; the pack’s terrain is dense enough that 10 already looks far. Set simulation distance to 6, which limits how many chunks around each player actually tick without changing what they see.

Keep entity-heavy builds modest. Mob farms, large animal pens and item-transport lines are the usual culprits when a server that ran fine for weeks starts dropping ticks, and the pack’s extra mobs make the same farm more expensive than in vanilla.

Skip the nightly restart advice from older forums. That habit comes from monthly servers that run around the clock and leak memory over days. A pay-per-hour server sleeps when nobody is online and starts fresh on the next join, so it gets the same effect without a schedule.

Cost follows from the same fact. An 8 GB Better Minecraft server costs 8 credits, or €0.08, for each hour it runs and €0 while it sleeps. The Minecraft server cost guide has the comparison per size.