How to install a plugin on Minecraft

Installing plugins on your minecraft server is generally a very straight forward process.

As a prerequisite, you will need to be running a version of minecraft that supports plugins. We would typically recommend that most users use Paper as it is incredibly secure, stable and well maintained. Any plugin that's supported by Bukkit, Spigot or any other plugin-supporting jar will work with paper so we generally advise to avoid using bukkit or spigot.

Please note that Forge, Fabric and other mod-supporting server jars typically do Not support plugins and "Hybrid" options that claim to support both are generally unstable.

How to install a Minecraft plugin

There are a variety of sites you can download plugins from. We highly advise sticking to legitimate sites like SpigotMC.org, Bukkit.org, Modrinth.com and any other widely used platforms that maintain a strict anti-piracy standard. Many of the sites that allow "Cracked" content (where a paid product has been duplicated against the wishes of the original owner) are full of malware and can cause more trouble than they're worth.

Once you've found a plugin you like, make sure to check the "Tested Minecraft Versions". That typically only refers to the main version and not subversions of minecraft (eg, if a plugin states it supports 1.20, it will almost always support 1.20.2)

Hit the "Download Now" button. This will install the jar file onto your PC.

Make sure to safely stop your server before proceeding to ensure data integrity. You'll then want to head towards "Files".

Assuming you've correctly installed Paper, or any of the many other plugin-supporting jars correctly, a "plugins" folder should appear. Click on it to enter it.

If you've installed Paper but the plugins folder isn't showing up, make sure you're booted up your server atleast once. This will allow paper to generate its required files.

Now simple drag and drop your server jar from your file explorer (windows) or Finder (Mac) onto the panel. After a few seconds, the plugin should finish uploading and you can start up your server.

Assuming all went well, you should be able to type "pl" (short for plugins) into your console and it'll show up!