Paper vs Purpur: Is Purpur Better Than Paper in 2026?

Your panel lists Paper and Purpur side by side, both say they run your plugins, and you want to know which one to install. The difference is smaller than the names suggest: Purpur is Paper with an extra configuration file, so the real question is: will you use that file? This guide covers what Purpur adds, what stays the same, how quickly each one shipped Minecraft 26.3, and where Spigot and Fabric fit in 2026.

Quick answer: Purpur vs Paper comes down to one file, purpur.yml. Purpur is built on Paper and runs the same Bukkit, Spigot and Paper plugins, and its own FAQ says that if you leave purpur.yml alone, "running this JAR is no different than running Paper". So Purpur is only better than Paper when you want its extras: rideable mobs, villager lobotomize for trading halls, AFK handling, elytra tuning and commands such as /tpsbar. If you will not use them, pick Paper: it is the base Purpur is built on, and on Minecraft 26.3 it had stable builds two days before Purpur dropped its experimental label. Paper or Purpur, you can swap the jar later on the same Minecraft version and keep your world.

Paper vs Purpur at a Glance

bStats only sees servers whose plugins report to it, and owners can switch it off, so read its counts as a trend rather than a census.

What Purpur Adds on Top of Paper

PurpurMC describes Purpur as server software "based on Paper" that "focuses on providing as much configurability as possible". Its FAQ adds that none of its changes take effect "unless you enable it in purpur.yml". On the first start Purpur writes its options with their default values into purpur.yml, so you change values rather than add them. Some of what it adds, with key names checked against Purpur's 26.3 source:

• Rideable mobs. mobs.<mob>.ridable (off by default) lets players mount that mob with shift and right-click and steer it with WASD. They also need the allow.ride.<mob> permission, for example allow.ride.cow. Purpur gives it to nobody by default, operators included, so grant it with a permissions plugin such as LuckPerms.
• Villager lobotomize. With mobs.villager.lobotomize.enabled: true, a villager that cannot step to any side skips its AI while it stays boxed in. Trading and restocking keep working, so it suits trading halls where villagers stand in one-block cells.
• AFK handling. Set player-idle-timeout in server.properties to a number of minutes; once a player has been idle that long, Purpur marks them AFK. Set gameplay-mechanics.player.idle-timeout.kick-if-idle to false and they stay online instead of being kicked; update-tab-list: true puts [AFK] in front of their name.
• Elytra wear. gameplay-mechanics.elytra.damage-per-second (default 1) sets how much durability an elytra loses per second of flight.
• Extra commands. /tpsbar shows TPS and MSPT in a boss bar, /compass shows the direction you face, and /purpur reload reloads purpur.yml without a restart.

Lobotomize and AFK handling switched on for every world look like this in purpur.yml:

world-settings:
  default:
    gameplay-mechanics:
      player:
        idle-timeout:
          kick-if-idle: false
          update-tab-list: true
    mobs:
      villager:
        lobotomize:
          enabled: true

Save the file and run /purpur reload.

What Purpur Does Not Change: Duplication Glitches

If your farms depend on vanilla glitches, Purpur behaves like Paper. Paper blocks TNT, carpet and rail duplication and a few related exploits by default, and Purpur inherits that. The switches to allow them again sit under unsupported-settings in config/paper-global.yml: allow-piston-duplication (TNT, carpets and rails), allow-unsafe-end-portal-teleportation (which sand duplication needs), allow-headless-pistons and allow-permanent-block-break-exploits. PaperMC says it does not support them and may remove them at any time, so test your farms after each update.

Is Purpur Faster Than Paper?

Not out of the box. An unchanged Purpur server runs Paper's code with Purpur's options off, so it does the same work per tick. Two options can lower that work on specific servers: villager lobotomize, which skips the AI of boxed-in villagers, and gameplay-mechanics.player.idle-timeout.tick-nearby-entities: false, which makes entities near AFK players wait until an active player is around. A server without trading halls or AFK players gains nothing from either.

Measure instead of guessing. Copy the server, run each jar on the same world at a busy time and read /spark tps: it shows TPS and MSPT (milliseconds per tick), including the median and the 95th percentile. At 20 TPS each tick has 50 ms. For detail, /spark profiler start --timeout 600 returns a report link after ten minutes. Paper has bundled spark since 1.21, and Purpur inherits it.

The CPU underneath matters more than the jar. Paper and Purpur run the tick loop on one main thread, so single-core CPU speed matters more than which of the two you pick. Folia, PaperMC's fork with "regionised multithreading", is the exception (see Folia vs Paper). On our Minecraft plans, Premium in the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Canada runs on AMD Ryzen 9 9950X nodes with DDR5. Memory is the same story: the same world, players and plugins need the same RAM on both, so size it by player count with our server requirements guide.

Do Paper Plugins Work on Purpur?

Purpur's FAQ is direct about it: CraftBukkit, Spigot and Paper plugins work, and the only incompatibility comes from "authors hard-coding support for CraftBukkit/Spigot, ignoring the existence of Paper and its forks". Modrinth lists Bukkit, Spigot, Paper and Purpur as separate plugin platforms. A plugin listed for Bukkit, Spigot or Paper runs on Purpur too; one listed only for Purpur may rely on Purpur's API.

Paper vs Spigot vs Purpur: Where Spigot Stands in 2026

Paper started as a Spigot fork. In December 2024 PaperMC announced a hard fork from Minecraft 1.21.4 on: Paper no longer follows Spigot's changes, and plugins built against Paper's API "may no longer run on Spigot". Spigot is still maintained and has a 26.3 build, but bStats counted 10,569 Spigot servers on 1 November 2026, against 135,687 on Paper and 16,245 on Purpur, out of 181,793 in total.

Spigot makes sense only when a plugin you cannot replace refuses to run on Paper. Leaving it also takes more work than it used to. Since 26.1, Paper stores worlds in a layout closer to vanilla's, and PaperMC's migration guide calls a direct move from Spigot or CraftBukkit "fundamentally impossible": you convert the world to vanilla first (PaperMC points to Spigot's documentation for that step), then follow Paper's steps for a vanilla server. Paper to Purpur has none of this, because Purpur runs on Paper's code, world format included.

Settings Files, and the Paper 26.4 Merge

On 26.3 a Paper server reads server.properties, bukkit.yml, spigot.yml, commands.yml, config/paper-global.yml and config/paper-world-defaults.yml, plus a paper-world.yml per dimension under world/dimensions/. Purpur adds purpur.yml. PaperMC plans to cut that down: per its 26.3 release post, almost all bukkit.yml and spigot.yml options move into Paper's own files in Paper 26.4, and the moved and renamed keys are listed in issue 14304, still open on 1 November 2026. Spigot's per-world merge-radius.item, for example, becomes entities.behavior.merge-radius.item in paper-world-defaults.yml, and /spigot reload gives way to /paper reload. Minecraft 26.4 is still in snapshots, and since Purpur inherits Paper's changes by design, expect the same move on Purpur; purpur.yml is not on that list.

Paper or Purpur: Which One to Pick

1. You run plugins and want stock gameplay, or you are not sure: Paper.
2. You want rideable mobs, AFK handling, lobotomized villagers or other purpur.yml options: Purpur, on the Minecraft version you already run.
3. A new Minecraft version just came out: wait for Paper's stable build. On 26.3, Purpur dropped its experimental mark two days after Paper's first stable build.
4. A plugin you need refuses to run on Paper: look for an updated version first, and treat Spigot as the last resort.
5. You want mods rather than plugins: a mod loader, see below.

Pufferfish, another Paper fork, has no public source past Minecraft 1.21.10, so it is not an option on 26.x. Our Purpur vs Pufferfish comparison has the details.

Switching Between Paper and Purpur

Purpur's install guide calls it "a drop-in replacement for Paper (with no changes required)", so a switch is a jar swap:

1. Stop the server and make a full backup of the server folder.
2. Download the jar for the Minecraft version you already run: Paper from papermc.io, Purpur from purpurmc.org.
3. Point your start command at the new jar.
4. Start the server. Purpur creates purpur.yml; worlds, plugins and Paper's settings files stay as they are.

Purpur's download API also works from a shell, here for the latest 26.3 build:

curl -o purpur.jar https://api.purpurmc.org/v2/purpur/26.3/latest/download

PaperMC's short start command works for both jars (set -Xms and -Xmx to your memory; Minecraft 26.1 and newer need Java 25):

java -Xms4G -Xmx4G -jar purpur.jar --nogui

Going back is the same in reverse. Paper does not read purpur.yml, so Purpur's options simply stop applying. Stay on the same Minecraft version either way: PaperMC warns that a world upgraded to 26.3 cannot be downgraded. On our PaperMC hosting plans, Paper, Purpur and Spigot are one-click installs in the panel, next to Fabric, Forge and NeoForge.

Where Fabric Fits

Fabric is not a third option in this comparison. It is a mod loader: it runs Fabric mods, not plugins, and PaperMC's migration guide states that Paper "does not support Fabric or Forge mods". Performance mods such as Lithium (published for Fabric, NeoForge and Quilt) and C2ME (separate Fabric and NeoForge builds) need a mod loader server. PaperMC also calls hybrids that try to load both mods and plugins "fundamentally flawed and not recommended for use". If your real question is plugins or mods, read our Paper vs Fabric comparison.

FAQ

Is Purpur better than Paper? Only if you will use what it adds. With purpur.yml untouched, Purpur behaves like Paper, so it comes down to wanting options such as rideable mobs, AFK handling or villager lobotomize. If not, Paper is the simpler choice and gets stable builds of a new Minecraft version first.

Is Purpur faster than Paper? Not out of the box, because it runs Paper's code with its own options switched off. Villager lobotomize and the AFK entity option can save tick time on servers with trading halls or AFK players. Compare both on a copy of your server with /spark tps before you decide.

Do Paper plugins work on Purpur? Yes. Purpur inherits everything from Paper, so Bukkit, Spigot and Paper plugins run on it, including plugins that use Paper's own API. The exception Purpur names is a plugin hard-coded for CraftBukkit or Spigot that ignores Paper and its forks.

Can Purpur or Paper run mods like Lithium or C2ME? No. Both run plugins only. Lithium and C2ME are mods, so they need a mod loader server: both are published for Fabric and NeoForge, and Lithium also for Quilt. The Fabric section above links our comparison of the two routes.

Should I use Spigot instead of Paper? Almost never in 2026. Paper runs Spigot plugins, bStats counts nearly 13 times as many Paper servers as Spigot servers, and plugins built for Paper's API may not run on Spigot. Keep Spigot only for a plugin that refuses to run on Paper.

Can I switch from Purpur back to Paper? Yes, on the same Minecraft version: stop the server, make a backup, swap the jar and start it. Paper ignores purpur.yml, so Purpur-only behaviour such as rideable mobs stops.

Sources

All opened on 1 November 2026:

• PaperMC news: 26.3 update (config merge planned for 26.4, no downgrade after upgrading), 26.1 update (new world storage), The future of Paper: hard fork
• PaperMC on GitHub: issue 14304, Merge configuration files and clean up option paths
• Paper builds: Fill API, Paper 26.3 builds, downloads
• Paper docs: getting started, migration, configuration, global configuration, profiling, Paper plugins
• PurpurMC: home, FAQ, installation, configuration, commands, permissions, downloads, 26.3 builds API
• Purpur 26.3 source: PurpurWorldConfig.java, PurpurPermissions.java, Villager patch, idle timeout patch
• Spigot: 26.3 version file
• bStats: global Bukkit stats (Server Software chart), information for server owners
• Folia: README
• Pufferfish: GitHub repository
• spark: command usage, TPS and MSPT
• Modrinth: Lithium, C2ME for Fabric, C2ME for NeoForge, loader tags
• Minecraft: version manifest, Minecraft Wiki server.properties

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