How to Start a Minecraft SMP Server (2026 Guide)

A Minecraft SMP server is a survival world that a group shares for weeks or months: everyone builds, trades, fights the Ender Dragon and keeps coming back. Starting one takes about an hour if you know which choices matter. This guide covers them in order: server software, RAM, settings, whitelist, rules, plugins, backups and how to let Bedrock friends in.

What is a Minecraft SMP server?

SMP stands for Survival Multiplayer. The game mode is plain survival, but the world is persistent and social: players build bases near each other, set up shops, run farms that everyone uses and keep a shared history. What separates an SMP from a random survival server is mostly organization: a fixed group of players, a few clear rules, protection against griefing and a world that is online when people want to play.

That last point is where most friend SMPs die. If the world lives on one player's PC, nobody can play when that player is asleep, at work or playing something else. An SMP needs a server that runs on its own.

How to make a Minecraft server for you and your friends

Here is the full process at a glance. Each step has its own section below.

1. Choose the server software: Paper for most SMPs, Purpur if you want extra gameplay options.
2. Pick the RAM for your group size and the Minecraft version everyone plays.
3. Start the server once so it creates server.properties, then set difficulty, distances, spawn protection and the player limit.
4. Turn on the whitelist and add every member with /whitelist add <name>.
5. Write a short rules list and post it where everyone sees it.
6. Install the SMP basics: land claims, rollback logging, permissions and a Discord bridge.
7. Make a backup, then share the address and port with your friends.

Paper or Purpur: picking the software for your SMP

For a survival server with plugins, start with Paper. Its official documentation describes it as a drop-in replacement for CraftBukkit and Spigot, so Bukkit and Spigot plugins work, and it adds performance fixes on top of vanilla. Purpur is built on Paper and adds many configurable gameplay options, such as rideable mobs or tweaks to individual mechanics, while running the same plugins.

If your group wants mods instead of plugins (new blocks, mobs or dimensions), you need a mod loader like Fabric, and plugins will not load on it. We compare the three in Paper vs Purpur vs Fabric.

How much RAM does a Minecraft SMP server need?

Memory depends on players online at the same time, view distance and how many plugins you add, not on the size of the friend list. These are reasonable starting points for a plugin SMP:

If the server starts to lag as the world grows, read how much RAM a Minecraft server needs before buying more: often the fix is a lower simulation distance, not more memory.

server.properties settings that shape an SMP

server.properties is created in the server folder the first time the server starts. These are the lines that change how an SMP feels. Defaults come from the Minecraft Wiki for Java Edition.

difficulty=hard
view-distance=10
simulation-distance=8
spawn-protection=0
max-players=25
white-list=true
enforce-whitelist=true
motd=Our SMP - Season 1

Changes to server.properties apply after a restart.

Where did the pvp setting go?

On older versions PvP was a pvp=true line in server.properties. Since Java 1.21.9 it is a game rule instead, so you set it in game or from the console: /gamerule pvp false turns PvP off. Two more rules worth a look on an SMP:

• players_sleeping_percentage (default 100): lower it so one player in bed can skip the night instead of waiting for everyone. On versions before 1.21.11 it is spelled playersSleepingPercentage.
• keep_inventory (default false): most SMPs leave it off, but some casual groups turn it on. Before 1.21.11 the name is keepInventory.

Whitelist and rules: keep the SMP between friends

A private SMP should never be open to anyone who finds the address. Turn on the whitelist from the console and add each player by their exact username:

whitelist on
whitelist add PlayerName
whitelist list

Operators bypass the whitelist, so only give op to people you trust with commands. Our Minecraft server whitelist guide covers whitelist.json, removing players and the common mistakes.

Then write rules. Five or six lines are enough, as long as everyone reads them:

1. No griefing or stealing outside agreed PvP areas.
2. Claim your land before building, and keep a distance from other bases.
3. Farms that lag the server (huge mob farms, many hoppers) need approval.
4. No hacked clients or x-ray.
5. Disputes go to the admins, not to revenge raids.

Post them in your Discord and in a book or sign at spawn.

Plugins for a Minecraft SMP server

Most SMPs install the same few categories of plugin. The names below are long-running, widely used projects available on Modrinth for Paper. Install them one at a time and restart in between, so if something breaks you know what caused it. The step by step is in how to install plugins on a Paper server.

Set a world border

A world border keeps the map a size you can pre-generate and back up. From the console, worldborder set 10000 makes the border 10,000 blocks wide around the center. Pre-generate inside it with Chunky while nobody is online, and the first weeks of exploring stay smooth.

How to make a Minecraft server like the big SMPs

The big SMPs you watch on YouTube or Twitch run on the same building blocks as yours. What sets them apart is organization, not secret software:

• Seasons. A fresh world every few months, with the old one archived. A new season brings players back.
• A Discord server for rules, announcements, trading and reports, linked to game chat.
• Claims plus logging. Players feel safe building because griefing can be rolled back.
• A memorable address. Players type a name, not an IP. See how to use a custom domain for a Minecraft server.
• Events. A dragon fight night, a build contest, a market day.
• Uptime. The world is there whenever a player logs in, at any hour, in any time zone.

You can do all of this with a group of ten friends. The difference is mostly planning and a server that does not go offline.

Back up before every change

Make a backup before every plugin install, version update or settings change, and before a big event. A griefer, a broken plugin update or a corrupted chunk can cost weeks of building, and rollback plugins only cover what they logged. A backup of the full server folder is the only thing that brings back everything.

On our servers you do this from the Backups tab of the panel: create a backup with a name like "Before plugin update", and restore it with one click if something goes wrong. Schedules can run tasks automatically, such as a restart every night.

Let friends on Bedrock join with Geyser

Some friends will play on a phone, Xbox, PlayStation or Switch. Those are Bedrock Edition, and a Java server cannot accept them on its own. The Geyser plugin translates between the two versions, and Floodgate lets Bedrock players join without a Java account. Bedrock players connect to the UDP port Geyser listens on, which you set in Geyser's config.yml. The full setup is in how to let Bedrock players join your Java server with Geyser.

Keep your Minecraft SMP server online 24/7 with TheGameHosting

Hosting the SMP on your own PC works for a weekend. For a season it means the world is offline whenever you shut down, your home network takes the load, and opening ports exposes your connection. A hosted Minecraft SMP server removes all three problems.

With TheGameHosting your SMP runs 24/7 on AMD 9950X and 7950X3D CPUs (up to 5.7 GHz) with DDR5 and NVMe. That fast single core is what Minecraft's main game loop needs. You pick Paper or Purpur in the Version Changer, install LuckPerms or EssentialsX from the Plugin Installer without uploading files, edit server.properties in Files, and make a backup in Backups before every change. DDoS protection is included on every plan, there is no per-slot charge, and you choose Dallas or Amsterdam depending on where most of your friends play from. Plans start at $1.90 USD/month: see the plans and prices and use code FULL2026 for 15% off for life.

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