Paper vs Spigot vs Purpur: which should you use?

Paper: the default for a reason

Paper started as a fork of Spigot and kept the same plugin API, so the thousands of plugins on SpigotMC and Modrinth simply work. What it changed is the engine underneath: chunk loading runs asynchronously, entity ticking is optimised, and dozens of settings let you trim what the server spends time on. In practice that means a 4 GB Paper server stays smooth where a Spigot server of the same size starts to stutter when someone flies off to explore or a mob farm grows.

It also ships extras you would otherwise install as plugins: anti-x-ray, a chunk pre-generation API and detailed timing reports that show which plugin is eating the tick. For a friend group running an SMP, an economy server or a few mini-games, Paper is the safest choice and the one most plugin authors test against first. Paper hosting on Alpenglow →

Spigot: only when a plugin insists

Spigot defined modern plugin servers. It introduced the Bukkit API everyone builds on, and it still runs practically every plugin on SpigotMC. Its weakness is age: the performance work that makes Paper comfortable with more players and bigger worlds never landed in Spigot, and new Minecraft versions usually reach Spigot a little later.

The honest reason to run Spigot in 2026 is a plugin that breaks on Paper, or a network that has tested its whole stack against Spigot behaviour for years and does not want to retest. If neither applies to you, you are giving up performance for nothing. Spigot hosting on Alpenglow →

Purpur: Paper with more knobs

Purpur is built on top of Paper and inherits all of its performance work. What it adds is configuration: hundreds of settings covering things Paper leaves hardcoded. Rideable mobs, per-mob equipment and behaviour, alternative block-breaking rules, detailed PvP tweaks, player interaction rules. For a semi-vanilla server that wants a handful of custom rules, that can replace a stack of small plugins.

Because it is a superset of Paper, switching is a drop-in change and every plugin keeps working. The trade-off is surface area: more options to read, and a slightly smaller community when something behaves oddly. RAM needs are the same as Paper for the same player count. Purpur hosting on Alpenglow →

Switching between them

The three form a ladder: Spigot → Paper → Purpur, each one running everything below it. Moving up the ladder is a drop-in change: back up the server, swap the software, start it with the same world and plugins. Moving down can lose things: a plugin that uses Paper-only API calls will not load on Spigot, and a Purpur-specific setting is simply ignored on Paper.

Take a backup before any switch, then watch the first startup log for a plugin that fails to load. That one plugin is your answer to whether the switch works. On Alpenglow you choose the software when you create the server and can change it later from the panel; the world and plugins stay where they are.

How to decide in one minute

• Starting a new server, any size, any plugins: Paper.
• You keep adding tiny plugins to change how mobs or items behave: Purpur.
• A plugin you cannot live without says "Spigot only" and fails on Paper: Spigot, and ask its author about Paper support.
• Running a modpack rather than plugins: none of these. You want Forge, Fabric or NeoForge, covered in the modded server guide.

Whichever you pick, size it the same way: 2 GB for a small group without heavy plugins, 4 GB once plugins and players add up. The RAM guide has the full table, and the cost guide shows what that size costs per month.