When you create a server you pick a "type", and it’s the one decision that shapes everything after it - because plugins and mods are two different worlds and a server runs one or the other, not both. Here’s what each type is, in plain terms, and a rule of thumb at the end.
Vanilla
The unmodified game exactly as Mojang ships it. Maximum compatibility, zero surprises, and no way to add plugins or mods. Great for a pure survival world with friends where you want the plain experience. If you think you might ever want commands like /home or protection, start with Paper instead - it plays identically but leaves the door open.
Paper (recommended for most)
Paper is a drop-in replacement for the vanilla server that is dramatically more efficient and supports plugins. It reads vanilla worlds without conversion, behaves like vanilla for players, and adds deep performance tuning. Plugins (from the Bukkit/Spigot ecosystem) let you add homes, warps, permissions, live maps, anti-grief and thousands of other features without anyone needing to install anything on their end. For the large majority of servers - survival, minigames, community servers - Paper is the right answer.
Fabric, NeoForge and Forge (the mod loaders)
If you want actual game content - new blocks, mobs, dimensions, machines - you need mods, and mods run on a mod loader. Which loader depends on the mods you want, because a mod is built for one loader only:
- 1Fabric - lightweight and fast; the home of performance/optimisation mods and a lot of modern content. A good default for smaller modded servers.
- 2NeoForge - the modern Forge fork; most big new content modpacks on current versions target it.
- 3Forge - the long-established loader; many older and long-running packs still use it.
- 4The catch: every player must run the same loader and the same mods as the server to join. Mods are not a "server-only" thing like plugins are.
The simple rule
- 1Just want a smooth survival/community server, maybe with quality-of-life features? Paper.
- 2Want the pure, untouched game? Vanilla.
- 3Want to play with a specific modpack or specific mods? Match its loader - Fabric, NeoForge or Forge (the modpack tells you which).
- 4Want both plugins AND mods? You generally can’t on one server - pick the world you care about more. (Advanced hybrid loaders exist but are beyond a first server.)
On Levyathan
All five are options in the create wizard, and you can change a server’s Minecraft version later. You can’t convert a type in place - Paper and Fabric are fundamentally different - but moving is easy: create a new server of the type you want and upload your world folder into it (see the world-migration guide).