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I have a Minecraft server running on an Amazon EC2 instance, and the instance is bogged down regularly by the server's high requirements. I recently came across a page listing alternative Minecraft servers, many of them touting the reduced overhead of their server versus the Mojang server.

However, I can't help but think one is not simply a drop-in replacement of the other. Though servers like Lightstone seem to be pretty thorough, are they in fact lacking, or is it worth making the switch?

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This is a pretty interesting question. Obvious disadvantages are lack of support for all Minecraft features (except Lightstone, which claims to support everything), and lack of Bukkit (probably the biggest downside, since plugins are pretty important in a lot of servers). Still, if you're running a vanilla server, I'd be interested to know how much this really helps. – Jake King Feb 25 '12 at 0:43
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@JakeKing: I remember once seeing a stress test of a C++ custom server - I think it was early last year, but I'm not sure. Anyway, that server ran way better than the standard server, and many more people could get on with no noticeable issues. Unless the Mojang server has been improved significantly since then (it was a while back...), then it can indeed make a huge difference. – Michael Madsen Feb 25 '12 at 0:53
depends on what you want to do in the server. – Brandon William Scott Snow Apr 8 '12 at 23:08
I really don't think finding an alternative server will hlep that much, I would rather investigate alternative hosting platforms. EC2 is pretty shit. – JohnD May 21 '12 at 19:27
VTC as "Not a real question": Your question is too broad and vague. I'm uncertain what you mean by "worth it", and you seem to be asking it about every server listed on the site you linked. – Wipqozn May 31 '12 at 15:08
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closed as not a real question by Wipqozn, murgatroid99, bwarner, LessPop_MoreFizz, OrigamiRobot Jun 4 '12 at 15:20

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

5 Answers

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I've played on fCraft's classic servers and I can tell you that even for classic you want custom servers, at the least with a non-classic server the third party ones can be more efficient and more feature rich.

In short I suggest third-party servers over the officials. I'm a mite rusty so I don't know the current leader, but even months ago they were the sure deal.

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CanaryMod (canarymod.net) is actually faster. It supports plugins, and has a great community.

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Currently Glowstone is still in development, I would keep an eye on Spout Server thou as it is based off glowstone and will run fast as well as have many great features,

However those to are not out so I suggest using bukkit with PTweaks http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/ptweaks-remove-all-server-lag/

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Bukkit is the best and biggest alternative Minecraft server software available. Performance is much better than the vanilla offerings, and the devs have recently joined Mojang.

Any other options either don't have the community, or support behind them to compare. If you want something other than Bukkit, then I could recommend Canary, however it isn't nearly as goo IMHO.

Other than those two, there isn't much at all thats worth using.

Edit: I forgot to mention that Bukkit also has many performance improving plugins available such as NoLagg and PTweaks

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The alternative servers aren't worth it because a lot of mods aren't supported. Some of them aren't constantly updated so it isn't worth it.

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Could you please substantiate your arguments more, by elaborating with examples? As it is this answer is not very useful. – Private Pansy May 31 '12 at 15:04

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