How to Make a Minecraft SMP Server for Friends

An SMP — Survival Multiplayer — is the oldest and simplest way to play Minecraft with other people: one shared world, survival mode, and whoever you invited. There is no plugin that makes a server "an SMP". What makes it one is that the world persists, the group is small and known, and the game is the game.

That makes this the odd one out in a set of guides about gametypes. SkyBlock, Prison, Factions and BedWars each need a specific plugin to exist at all. An SMP needs nothing. So this page is mostly about what not to install, which settings actually change how the server feels, and the handful of additions that are genuinely worth their weight for a group of friends.

Every version number here was read from the plugin's own distribution metadata on 19 August 2026

From Modrinth's API, PaperMC's Hangar API and api.spiget.org. Where two channels disagree about the same build — and they do — this page names the one it is quoting. Re-check before you install; these move weekly.

What an SMP Actually Is

A survival multiplayer server is a shared persistent survival world. Everyone plays the same game they would play alone, in the same world, at the same time. Progress accumulates. Builds stay where you left them. There is no round, no reset and no scoreboard.

Where it sits against the others:

The last column is the useful one. An SMP is the only gametype on this list that works properly with four people, which is exactly why it is what most people actually want when they say "I want to make a server for my friends".

The corollary: an SMP's quality comes from the group, not the software. Every hour you spend installing plugins is an hour not spent playing. Start with almost nothing.

Server Software: Vanilla Is a Real Answer Here

This is the one gametype where Vanilla is defensible.

Mojang's own server.jar runs a perfectly good SMP. It gives you whitelist, operator levels, game rules, difficulty and a world border — everything in the "settings that matter" section below. What it does not give you is plugins, or Paper's performance work.

Paper is still the better default, for three reasons that have nothing to do with plugins: substantially better chunk and entity handling under load, a much larger configuration surface, and the spark profiler bundled in, so when something is slow you can find out what. And critically, moving Vanilla → Paper is free: Paper converts the world layout automatically with no manual work. Going the other way is not free — from 26.1 you have to move five .dat files by hand. Choosing your Minecraft server software has the full migration table.

Checked live against PaperMC's Fill v3 API on 19 August 2026: Paper 26.2 has support status SUPPORTED and a declared Java minimum of 25. That Java requirement is a property of Minecraft itself, not of Paper — every jar for 26.1 and newer inherits it.

If your group wants mods, this is a different conversation

A "modded SMP" is a modpack server, not a plugin server, and the loader choice comes first. See how to install a Minecraft modpack server and how to install mods for Minecraft Java Edition. Everything on this page assumes vanilla clients.

The Settings That Actually Change How an SMP Feels

Before any plugin, spend twenty minutes in server.properties and on game rules. These decisions matter more than anything you can install, and every one of them is free.

Whitelist — turn it on before the first boot

An SMP is defined by who is in it. white-list=true in server.properties and /whitelist add <name> for each person. This is not a security nicety; it is the single setting that makes an SMP an SMP rather than a public server.

Turn it on before the server is publicly reachable, not after the first griefer arrives. Whitelist and ban management covers the commands, the offline-mode caveats and how to manage the list as the group changes.

Difficulty, and whether the game has stakes

difficulty=easy is the default and it is almost never what a group of friends wants. normal is the game as designed. hard adds starvation to death and is a genuine group decision, not a setting to flip quietly.

Related: the keepInventory game rule. Turning it on removes the main consequence of dying. Plenty of friend groups prefer that — it makes the server about building rather than about losing an hour of iron. What matters is that you decide it together and up front, because turning it off later feels like a punishment and turning it on later devalues everyone's earlier caution.

View distance and simulation distance

These two are the largest performance levers on any Minecraft server and they are also the ones most likely to be left at defaults.

• view-distance is how far players can see. Costs chunk loading and network traffic.
• simulation-distance is how far the world actually ticks — mobs, crops, redstone. This is the expensive one.

On a small SMP you can afford to be generous with view distance and modest with simulation distance; players notice a short view distance immediately and a short simulation distance almost never. The server.properties reference documents both, and diagnosing Minecraft server lag explains how to tell whether they are your problem.

A world border, set on day one

/worldborder set <blocks> costs nothing and saves you from a world folder that grows forever because one person walked 40,000 blocks. Pick a size that fits the group — a few thousand blocks is enormous for six people — and pre-generate inside it with Chunky 1.5.3 (paper build, 4 May 2026, declares 26.2 on Modrinth; note that Hangar shows the same version at 26.1.2). Pre-generation moves all the terrain-generation cost to a time when nobody is playing.

PvP and spawn protection

pvp=false is the right default for most friend groups and can be flipped later without controversy. spawn-protection defaults to a radius around spawn where non-operators cannot build — which is either useful or maddening depending on whether your spawn is a communal build area. Set it to 0 deliberately, or keep it deliberately. Do not leave it at the default by accident.

Plugins: The Short List

Here is the honest version. For a six-person SMP, you may need none of these. Add them one at a time, when the group asks for the thing they do.

All versions read 19 August 2026.

Simple Voice Chat is the one genuine exception to "add nothing". Proximity voice changes an SMP more than any other single addition, and it needs no other plugin. Note that players do need the client mod for it — it is the one item here that is not purely server-side.

BlueMap is the second-best value: a browsable web map of the world that everyone will look at more than you expect. Its version metadata declares 26.2 as of 6 August 2026.

Four SMP staples have no 26.2 build as of 19 August 2026

EssentialsX 2.22.0 (31 May 2026) declares up to 26.1.2 — confirmed identically on Modrinth, Hangar and SpigotMC, so this is not one channel's metadata lagging. CoreProtect 24.0 (7 July 2026) also stops at 26.1.2, on both Modrinth and Hangar. GriefPrevention 16.18.7 (5 March 2026) stops at 26.1.2. Dynmap v3.8 (14 January 2026) stops at 1.21.11. Between them that is homes and warps, block logging, land claims and the live map — the four things people install first.

Substitutes that do declare 26.2: Server Essentials 2.6.0 for commands, Homestead 5.2.3.0 for claims, BlueMap 5.23 for the map. There is no substitute for CoreProtect's block logging at 26.2, and EssentialsX setup is worth reading for what those commands actually give you.

For a friends' SMP, running 26.1.2 instead of 26.2 is a completely reasonable choice

Paper's Fill v3 API reports 26.1.2 as SUPPORTED, the same status as 26.2. On 26.1.2 all four of the plugins above work. Nobody on a private SMP needs the newest point release the week it lands, and staying one release behind is a normal, defensible way to run a server whose plugin stack matters more than its version number. Updating your Minecraft server version covers moving between them when you are ready.

One thing that is not optional: backups

An SMP is the gametype where losing the world actually matters, because the world is the accumulated work of everyone in the group. Set up scheduled backups before you invite anybody, and take a manual one before any change you would not want to undo by hand.

Note that rollback is not a backup and a backup is not a rollback. CoreProtect-style block logging undoes a specific griefing incident; a backup restores the whole world to a point in time. Managing your Minecraft server covers the backup and restore workflow, and grief protection and rollback covers the other half.

Permissions: You Probably Do Not Need LuckPerms

This is where most SMP guides go wrong. Java Edition already grades operators on a numeric permission level from 0 to 4, and for a group of friends that is usually enough:

• Level 1 — bypasses spawn protection, and nothing else
• Level 2 — the bulk of the command set, including /gamemode and /give
• Level 3 — player management: kick, ban, whitelist, and /op itself
• Level 4 — the commands that affect the server process, including /stop

Operator permission levels explained covers exactly what each level grants, and — importantly — that op-permission-level in server.properties is only the level stamped onto a player at the moment you run /op, not a server-wide ceiling. Per-player levels live in ops.json. Giving your co-admin level 3 rather than level 4 prevents most accidents, and it takes one edit.

You need LuckPerms when you want something op levels cannot express: a "trusted" tier between default and operator, per-world permissions, or granting one specific plugin command without granting everything. LuckPerms v5.5.71-bukkit (6 August 2026) declares 26.2 and managing permissions with LuckPerms walks through groups, inheritance, weights and tracks. Read it when you need it, not before.

Realistic Resource Expectations

An SMP is the cheapest gametype to run, per player, of anything in this cluster — and also the one where the cost scales with the world, not the player count.

• Chunk load is proportional to how spread out people are. Six friends in one base cost almost nothing. Six friends each 5,000 blocks apart in different directions load six separate areas at once. This is why the world border and pre-generation matter more than they look like they should.
• Entity count grows over time. A two-year-old SMP with mob farms, item frames and villager halls costs far more than a fresh world at the same player count. This is gradual and it is the usual reason a server that was fine last year is not fine now.
• Player count is the weakest driver of all three. A six-player SMP and a twelve-player SMP on the same world are much closer than you would guess.

For sizing, use the bands in Minecraft server RAM and JVM flags. A small friends' SMP on Paper sits comfortably at the bottom of them. Do not over-buy: Paper's own documentation is explicit that "more memory does not mean better performance above a certain point", and a heap that is too large makes garbage-collection pauses longer, not shorter.

On a GameServerKings server the heap follows your plan automatically

Our Minecraft servers launch with -Xms128M -XX:MaxRAMPercentage=95.0 and no -Xmx. There is no MEMORY variable on the Startup tab — the heap ceiling is 95% of the RAM your plan allocates and moves with it. The lever is the plan, not a flag. Article 559 explains the mechanics, and what the Extra Flags field can and cannot do.

If your SMP is stuttering, memory is rarely the cause. Diagnosing Minecraft server lag will tell you in about five minutes whether you are looking at a tick-loop problem, an entity problem or a heap problem — and on an established SMP it is almost always entities.

What Was Verified — and What Was Not

Verified, on 19 August 2026: every version number, release date and declared Minecraft version list on this page, read from Modrinth's API, PaperMC's Hangar API and api.spiget.org. Paper 26.2's support status and Java 25 minimum came from PaperMC's Fill v3 API.

Not verified, because it requires actually running a server: that any of these plugins run together. Nothing here was tested end to end. Declared version support is the author's statement about what they targeted, not a test result.

A structural gap: SpigotMC's API publishes no dependency information at all, so for Server Essentials and Homestead, version support could be confirmed but their dependency graphs could not be.

And the honest caveat that applies to every version-support table in this cluster: a plugin declaring 26.1.2 will often run on 26.2 anyway, because Paper's plugin API tends to be stable across point releases. That is a reasonable expectation, not a fact. Where this page says "declares", it means declares.

Common Issues

A friend cannot connect but everyone else can. Almost always a client version mismatch. Everyone needs to be on the same Minecraft version as the server. See players can't connect to your Minecraft server.

The world got much slower after a few months. Entity accumulation, not memory. Check entity counts before you buy a bigger plan.

Somebody built over someone else's base. This is a social problem before it is a technical one. If you want a technical answer, land claims (Homestead 5.2.3.0 at 26.2) or WorldGuard regions are it — see grief protection and rollback.

You want to move your existing single-player world in. That works and is well-trodden. See converting a single-player world to a server world.

Bedrock friends cannot join. Java and Bedrock are separate games. A bridge is needed. See setting up CrossPlay for Minecraft.

The plugin you want does not support 26.2. Consider running 26.1.2. It is SUPPORTED by Paper and it is where most of the ecosystem currently is.

FAQ

Do I need Paper for an SMP?
No. Vanilla works. Paper is better and the migration to it is free, so most people should use it anyway.

How many plugins does an SMP need?
Zero. Add them when the group asks for something specific.

Should I use a whitelist?
Yes, and turn it on before the server is reachable.

What is the single most worthwhile addition?
Proximity voice chat, if your group will use it. Simple Voice Chat's bukkit build (2.6.21, 19 July 2026) declares 26.2. It is the one on this page that also requires a client-side mod.

Do I need LuckPerms?
Not at first. Vanilla's 0-4 operator levels cover a friends' server. Add LuckPerms when you need a tier that op levels cannot express.

How much RAM for six friends?
Less than you think, and the world's age matters more than the head count. See article 559 for the bands.

Can we add mods later?
Not to a Paper server — plugins and mods are different families and hybrids are not supportable. See choosing your Minecraft server software. If mods are the goal, start on a mod loader.

What to Read Next

• Getting started with your Minecraft server for first boot and the Startup tab
• Choosing your Minecraft server software for Vanilla vs Paper, and why hybrids are not an option
• Minecraft server.properties: the complete reference for difficulty, view distance and the rest
• Whitelist and ban management for keeping the server to the people you invited
• Operator permission levels explained before you reach for a permissions plugin
• Managing your Minecraft server for scheduled backups — the one thing that is not optional
• Diagnosing Minecraft server lag when an established world starts to stutter
• Minecraft server RAM and JVM flags for sizing, and why there is no -Xmx field
• Converting a single-player world to a server world if you already have a world you love
• How to start a Minecraft SkyBlock server if the group wants a structured gametype instead
• Minecraft WorldGuard: region protection explained if the group wants protected areas

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