SHSelfHostIndex

Paper Note - PaperMC server alt Spigot vs Waterfall

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted game servers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
PA Paper Note - PaperMC server alt Spigot High-performance Minecraft server software VS WA Waterfall BungeeCord fork for proxying Minecraft Java multiplayer networks
FeaturePaper Note - PaperMC server alt SpigotWaterfall
CategoryGame ServersGame Servers
LicenseGPL-3.0MIT
LanguageJavaShell
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM1,024 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, binarybare-metal, docker
GitHub stars★ 12,564★ 751
First released20142016
ReplacesVanilla Minecraft serverBungeeCord

Why pick each one

Choose Paper Note - PaperMC server alt Spigot if…

  • Excellent performance
  • Massive plugin ecosystem
Paper Note - PaperMC server alt Spigot details

Choose Waterfall if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Written in Shell
  • Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Waterfall details

Frequently asked questions

Is Paper Note - PaperMC server alt Spigot or Waterfall better?

Neither is universally better. Paper Note - PaperMC server alt Spigot has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Paper Note - PaperMC server alt Spigot and Waterfall free and open-source?

Yes. Paper Note - PaperMC server alt Spigot is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Waterfall under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Paper Note - PaperMC server alt Spigot and Waterfall with Docker?

Paper Note - PaperMC server alt Spigot: yes. Waterfall: yes.

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