Short answer: run Paper. It's faster than Vanilla, supports the entire plugin ecosystem and behaves almost identically to the original game. Pick Purpur if you want Paper plus more configuration switches, and pick Vanilla only if you need guaranteed 1:1 game mechanics — for example on technical redstone servers.
Here's the reasoning, so you can check whether your situation is the exception.
The comparison at a glance
| Vanilla | Paper | Purpur | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Performance | Baseline | Significantly better | Same as Paper |
| Plugin support | None | Full (Bukkit/Spigot/Paper API) | Full (fork of Paper) |
| Game mechanics | 100% original | ~99% original, patches exploits | Configurable, can deviate |
| Configuration options | Minimal | Extensive | Most extensive |
| Update speed after a release | Day one | Days | Days, follows Paper |
| Best for | Technical purists | Most servers | Tinkerers |
Why Paper is the default
Paper is a high-performance fork of the official server with years of optimisation work in chunk loading, entity handling and tick scheduling. In practice that means: more players on the same hardware, less TPS drop when someone builds a mob farm, and a plugin API that virtually every plugin supports.
The trade-off is small but real: Paper patches a handful of Vanilla exploits and quirks (some TNT duping, certain forms of chunk loading). For 99% of servers that's an upgrade. For technical Minecraft communities that build farms around those quirks, it's a reason to stay on Vanilla — although most exploit patches can be toggled back in Paper's config.
When Purpur makes sense
Purpur is a fork of Paper, so you keep all performance work and plugin compatibility. On top of that you get hundreds of extra toggles: ridable mobs, configurable enchantment caps, per-world game rules that Vanilla doesn't expose.
Rule of thumb: if you've never opened paper-world-defaults.yml, you don't need Purpur yet. If you regularly think "I wish I could just change this one behaviour", Purpur is exactly that.
When Vanilla is the right call
- Technical redstone and farm servers where 1:1 mechanics are the whole point
- Small friend groups who want zero maintenance and don't use plugins
- Testing whether behaviour comes from the game or from your plugins
Note that "Vanilla" doesn't scale well: past roughly ten concurrent players you'll feel the difference with Paper.
What about modded servers?
Paper and Purpur run plugins, not mods. If you want Create, Applied Energistics or a full modpack, you need a mod loader (NeoForge/Fabric) instead — that's a different comparison. On our panel you can install popular modpacks in a few clicks, or upload your own server jar.
Switching is easy
All three use the same world format, so moving from Vanilla to Paper is: stop server, swap the jar, start server. Moving back from Purpur/Paper to Vanilla is equally safe. Take a backup first — always — and you're done in five minutes.
Every Minecraft server at PlanetNode ships with Paper or Purpur out of the box, runs on AMD Ryzen hardware with NVMe storage, and is delivered instantly. From €3.59 per month, cancel any time.