How to Optimize Your Minecraft Server for Better Performance

Running a Minecraft server can be resource-intensive, especially as your player count grows. This guide covers the best practices to keep your server running smoothly.

Info

These tips apply to both vanilla and modded Minecraft servers. The more players you have, the more important optimization becomes.

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Choosing the Right Server Software

The default server.jar from Mojang is not optimized for performance. Depending on your server size, we recommend using one of these alternatives:

For Small to Medium Servers

• Paper – A high-performance fork of Spigot with built-in optimizations and async chunk loading. Great for most servers.
• Purpur – A fork of Paper with even more configuration options and performance tweaks.

For Large Servers (50+ Players)

• Folia – Developed by the Paper team, Folia splits your world into independent regions that each run on their own thread. Ideal for servers with high player counts and large worlds, as it takes full advantage of multi-core CPUs.
• Pufferfish – Another Paper fork specifically designed for large-scale servers with additional performance patches.

Warning

Folia is not compatible with all plugins. Make sure your plugins support Folia before switching.

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Pre-Generate Your World with Chunky

One of the biggest causes of lag is chunk generation. When players explore new areas, the server has to generate terrain on the fly, which is extremely CPU-heavy.

Success

We strongly recommend using Chunky to pre-generate your world before opening your server to players. This single step can eliminate most lag spikes.

How to use Chunky:

1. Install the Chunky plugin on your server
2. Set your world border: /worldborder set 10000
3. Set the Chunky radius: /chunky radius 5000
4. Start the generation: /chunky start
5. Wait for generation to finish before letting players join

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Optimize Your Server Configuration

server.properties

• Set view-distance to 6-8 instead of the default 10 to reduce the number of chunks loaded per player
• Set simulation-distance to 4-6 to limit entity processing range
• Set network-compression-threshold to 256 for better network performance

paper-world-defaults.yml (Paper/Purpur/Folia)

• Set max-auto-save-chunks-per-tick to 8 to spread save operations
• Reduce mob-spawn-range to lower entity counts
• Set prevent-moving-into-unloaded-chunks to true

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Essential Performance Plugins

• Chunky – Pre-generate chunks to prevent lag
• Spark – Profile your server to find performance bottlenecks
• FarmControl – Limit mob farms and redstone machines
• ClearLagg – Automatically remove dropped items and control entities
• ViewDistanceTweaks – Dynamically adjusts view distance based on server load
• AntiRedstoneClock – Prevents redstone clocks from causing lag

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Additional Tips

• Keep your server software updated – Paper, Purpur, and Folia release frequent patches with performance improvements
• Limit entity counts – Large mob farms and item sorters are common lag sources. Set entity limits in your config
• Use a world border – Prevent players from exploring endlessly and generating excessive chunks
• Monitor with Spark – Run /spark profiler regularly to identify what's consuming the most resources
• Restart on a schedule – Set up automatic restarts every 6-12 hours to clear memory leaks and keep things fresh
• Remove unused plugins – Every active plugin consumes resources, even when idle

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Performance Impact Overview

• Switch to Paper/Folia – Highest impact
• Pre-generate with Chunky – Highest impact
• Lower view distance – High impact
• Install Spark for profiling – Medium impact
• Limit entities and farms – Medium impact

Success

Following these steps will ensure your Minecraft server runs at peak performance, even with a large player base.

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Need help with your Minecraft server?

• Discord: discord.gg/zsv2wRTZjz
• Tickets: Via client area
• Email: [email protected]