Common server families
Vanilla stays closest to Mojang’s server behavior. Paper focuses on performance and plugin support, while Purpur builds on the Paper ecosystem with additional configuration options. Fabric is a lightweight mod loader; Forge and NeoForge serve broader modded ecosystems.
A plugin designed for Paper/Purpur is not automatically a Fabric or Forge mod, and a modpack built for one loader/version should not be moved to another without checking compatibility.
Private or public player access
New Runic Paper servers start Private. Open Player Access in the game panel, add Minecraft Java usernames, then start the server. Without approved players, a healthy private server will reject joins.
To let anyone with the server address join, stop the server, choose Public in Player Access and start it again. Reinstalling Paper preserves the existing access setting and player list.
Minecraft Java 26.3 changed the default white-list setting to true. Runic uses a stable Paper build for paid hosting until Paper marks a 26.3 build stable and clean-install, reinstall and version-change checks pass.
What Runic supports
Runic offers a server type or loader as a one-click option only after installation, updates, restarts and recovery have been tested on the live platform. If the version or loader you need is not offered in your panel, contact support before installing it by hand.