Java or Bedrock: which Minecraft server do you need?

Most people on Windows own both editions today: buying Minecraft for PC gives you Java and Bedrock together. Ask your friends which one they actually open.

Players often do not know which edition they open. The main menu tells you in a second:

On Windows the Minecraft Launcher can start both. It lists Java as Minecraft: Java Edition and Bedrock as Minecraft for Windows, so check which of the two your friends click.

Java Edition is where the server world grew up, and it shows.

• Plugins on Paper, Purpur or Spigot: land claims, economies, minigames, permissions, anti cheat. Thousands of them.
• Mods and modpacks on Fabric, Forge or NeoForge, from small performance mods to packs with hundreds of mods.
• Older versions: you can run 1.8.9 for classic PvP or 1.12.2 for an old modpack, next to the newest release.
• Networks of several servers behind one address, such as a lobby with a survival world behind it.

The catch: only computers can join. Phones and consoles are left out unless you add crossplay.

A Bedrock server on this hosting runs Paper with Geyser and Floodgate, the same software as a crossplay server. Bedrock players join with their gamertag and the Bedrock port, and the server lets in the devices Java cannot.

• Phones, tablets, Windows Bedrock and consoles can all play together.
• Java plugins from the catalog run on it, for homes, ranks and claims. Bedrock add-ons and behaviour packs do not, and there is no Forge or Fabric.
• The server always follows the current Bedrock version, because the game on phones and consoles updates on its own.

Xbox, PlayStation and Switch have no button to add your own server. Console players need a workaround, such as changing the DNS on the console so the featured server list opens a menu where any address can be typed. Phones, tablets and Windows can add a server directly.

Beyond who can join, the two editions play a little differently. For a group that switches from one to the other, these are the points that come up.

Farm tutorials are a common source of confusion: a design made for one edition rarely works on the other, so check the edition named in the video before you build.

If your group is mixed, a crossplay server is the answer. It is a Java server with two plugins, Geyser and Floodgate. Geyser translates between the editions, and Floodgate lets Bedrock players in without a Java account.

What you keep: Java plugins work, the world is a normal Java world. What you give up: mods, because Fabric and Forge cannot be translated for Bedrock players, and a few Java only features such as some redstone quirks.

Java and Bedrock crossplay goes through the setup and the mistakes that break it.

The edition also changes the size of the server. For a group of ten players at the default view distance:

For any other number of players, how much RAM a Minecraft server needs does the sum.

You can change your mind later, within limits. A Java world can move between Paper and Purpur freely. Going from Java to Bedrock means a new world, because the two save their worlds differently.

Some changes keep the world exactly as it is, others need a new world or a converted copy.

Converter tools such as Chunker translate a world between the editions. Check builds, redstone and chests afterwards, because not everything has a match on the other side. To upload the converted world, follow move your world to our server.