How to open your Minecraft server to the public

The server is running, but nobody is on it

You have set up your server, configured your plugins, built a spawn. Your friends drop by now and then. And now you want players you do not know. This is where most servers stop, not because they are bad, but because nobody knows they exist, and the first curious visitors leave for lack of a welcome.

This guide follows the order that works, first make the server presentable, then make it findable, then keep the first arrivals.

1. Make the server presentable

A stranger decides in thirty seconds. Before any promotion, go through this list.

• A clear MOTD in server.properties, the server name, the game type, the version. No unreadable ASCII art
• An icon, a server-icon.png file of 64 by 64 pixels at the root of the server. Without it, your server is a grey square in the player's list
• A spawn that explains, signs or NPCs telling where to go and what to do in the first minute. Tutorial plugins do not replace three well-placed signs
• Rules in game and on the website, short, numbered, with sanctions
• A clean address. A sub-domain like play.myserver.com is memorable, an IP with a port is not
• A consistent version and max players. A server advertised as "100 players" with 2 online scares people away, show a realistic cap and raise it later
• Moderation basics. A permissions plugin, a punishment plugin, and at least one other trusted person with rights. Our EssentialsX and LuckPerms guide covers the first two

2. Register on server listings

This is the first source of unknown players, and it is free. Players search them by game type and version.

In French, register on ServeurListe, our listing partner, which also lists Bedrock servers, and on Top-Serveurs. In English, Minecraft Servers reaches a much wider audience if your server is translated.

For each listing, take care of three things.

1. The title with the game type first, "Modded survival 1.21 with economy" says it all, "CraftServer" says nothing
2. The description that answers "why here rather than elsewhere", with your three distinctive features, not a list of thirty plugins
3. The banner, often the only thing people look at. A screenshot of your spawn beats a generic montage

3. Set up votes

Listings rank servers by votes. For your players to vote, there must be an in-game reward, and for that the server must receive the vote.

1. Install NuVotifier on the server, the plugin that receives the votes sent by listings
2. Open a port dedicated to votes, the plugin listens on port 8192 by default. On the panel, add a network allocation and put that port in the plugin configuration
3. On each listing, fill in the address, the vote port and the public key generated by the plugin
4. Install a vote reward plugin that gives something for every vote, keys, server currency, cosmetics
5. Announce votes in the MOTD, at spawn and on Discord, with a /vote command that shows the links

4. Structure the Discord

Discord is where a player comes back when the server is empty. Without Discord, a player who liked you has no way to find you again.

Keep it simple, five channels are enough at first, announcements, rules, general, support, and suggestions. Link it to the server with a bridge plugin that shows the game chat in a channel and the online list, which gives a feeling of life even at quiet hours. Put the permanent invite link in the MOTD, on the website, and in every listing entry.

Two traps. Do not create twenty empty channels on day one, a deserted Discord does more harm than no Discord. And do not leave a single administrator, you need to be able to sleep.

5. Keep the first twenty players

The first twenty strangers are the hardest to keep, and they are the ones who bring the next ones.

• Be online at peak hours, 6 pm to 11 pm on weekdays, afternoons at the weekend. A server where staff answers within a minute retains ten times better than an empty one
• Welcome every newcomer by name, in game or through an automatic welcome message pointing to the rules and the Discord
• Give a first-session goal, a modest starter kit, a quest, a place to reach
• Run a weekly event at a fixed time, even a small one. Regularity matters more than scale
• Keep an update log on Discord. A server that moves every week is reassuring
• Listen to suggestions, and say when you apply them. The player whose idea is in the game never leaves

What players do not forgive, repeated crashes, rollbacks without explanation and lag at peak hours. Before opening, read our guide to reduce entity lag, schedule a daily restart during off-peak hours, and check that your plan holds the load with our article on Minecraft server RAM.

6. What about paid promotion?

Listings sell featured spots, and content creators accept partnerships. Before spending a euro, make sure the server already retains its organic players. Paying to bring a hundred people into a server that keeps two is paying for a hundred bad reviews. And if you go through creators, they must disclose the partnership, as Mojang's rules and the law require.

When the store comes, first read our guide on monetising your server without breaking the EULA.

On the hosting side

A public server needs a sub-domain, automatic backups, DDoS protection, and the ability to move up a plan without reinstalling the day it takes off. That is what our Minecraft Java plans cover, with an included .mcjava.net sub-domain and unlimited players.

Make the server presentable, list it, and be there when the first ones arrive 🚪