How to Set Up a Minecraft SMP for Friends

An SMP (Survival Multiplayer) is a persistent shared world where you and your friends build together over weeks or months. Setting one up well — always online, private, and lag-free — is what this guide is about.

Why an SMP needs a real server

The whole point is *persistence*: the world keeps running whether or not you're online. That rules out hosting on your gaming PC, which has to stay on 24/7 and exposes your home IP. A VPS is the natural fit — always on, its own IP, stable bandwidth. We compare the two in port forwarding vs a VPS.

Choose your server software

For an SMP you'll want plugins (homes, land claims, teleports), so run Paper rather than vanilla. It's faster and unlocks the plugin ecosystem — see Paper vs Spigot vs Purpur. Set it up per the plugin install guide:

mkdir -p ~/smp && cd ~/smp
wget -O server.jar "https://api.papermc.io/v2/projects/paper/versions/1.20.4/builds/499/downloads/paper-1.20.4-499.jar"
echo "eula=true" > eula.txt
java -Xmx4G -Xms4G -jar server.jar nogui

Configure for survival

Edit server.properties for a shared survival world:

gamemode=survival
difficulty=normal
pvp=true
max-players=10
view-distance=8
white-list=true

Tune difficulty and rules (like keepInventory) to your group's taste — see difficulty and game rules.

Lock it to your friends

An SMP should be private. Enable the whitelist and add each friend:

/whitelist on
/whitelist add Friend1
/whitelist add Friend2

This is the single most important step to keep strangers and griefers out.

Add the essential plugins

A great SMP runs a small, curated plugin set:

• EssentialsX: homes, warps, teleport requests, kits.
• LuckPerms: ranks and permissions — see managing admins.
• A land-claim plugin (GriefPrevention): stops griefing between members.
• CoreProtect: logs block changes so you can roll back grief.

Our best survival SMP plugins guide covers the full lineup.

Give players a nice address and keep backups

Put a custom domain on it so friends connect to play.yourserver.com, and set up automatic backups — an SMP represents real time invested, so protect it. For sizing, 4 GB comfortably handles a small friend group; the RAM guide has details.

Set rules and onboard new members

An SMP is a community, so a little structure keeps it friendly. Before inviting people, decide the basics: is PvP on? Is griefing allowed? Are there claimed areas? Post the rules somewhere everyone sees them — a Discord channel or an in-game sign wall at spawn. A simple onboarding flow works well: a friend applies, you whitelist them, they read the rules, and a land-claim plugin lets them protect their first build. Clear expectations prevent most conflicts before they start.

Connect it to Discord

Most friend-group SMPs live alongside a Discord server, and DiscordSRV (a plugin) bridges the two — in-game chat appears in a Discord channel and vice versa, plus join/leave and death messages. It's great for staying connected when people aren't online. Install it like any plugin, drop your bot token into its config, and restart. It turns the SMP into a persistent hangout rather than just a server people occasionally log into.

Scaling as the group grows

A cosy 4-person SMP and a 20-person community have different needs. As you grow:

• Bump RAM and view distance thoughtfully — more players means more loaded chunks; the RAM guide has the numbers.
• Add moderation structure — a couple of trusted people with limited LuckPerms permissions rather than full op.
• Pre-generate the world and apply the settings in the lag guide so performance stays smooth.
• Give it a memorable address with a custom domain so it feels like a real place.

And keep automated backups running throughout — the more time your group invests, the more a lost world would hurt.

Keeping an SMP alive long-term

The servers that last aren't always the biggest — they're the ones that stay reliable and give people a reason to log back in. A few habits keep an SMP healthy over months: run a season structure (a fresh world every few months) so the map never feels stale, and archive the old world so memories are preserved. Schedule the occasional event — a build competition, a boss fight, a community project — to bring everyone online at once. And keep the technical side boring: automatic backups, a stable address, and enough performance headroom that nobody rage-quits over lag (the lag guide helps here). An SMP is ultimately a social space that happens to run on a server; the tech just needs to get out of the way so the community can thrive. Get those foundations right and a friend-group world can run happily for years.

FAQ

What's the difference between an SMP and a normal server?

"SMP" just means Survival Multiplayer — a persistent survival world, usually private and community-focused. Technically it's a normal server configured for shared survival.

How much RAM for a small SMP?

4 GB comfortably runs a handful of friends on Paper with a few plugins. Add more for larger groups or heavy view distance.

How do I keep my SMP private?

Enable the whitelist and add only your friends. Ops bypass it, so keep the op list tight too.

What plugins does an SMP need?

EssentialsX, LuckPerms, a land-claim plugin like GriefPrevention, and CoreProtect for grief rollback is a solid core set.

A persistent SMP deserves a persistent host. Nxeon's Minecraft server hosting keeps your world online 24/7 on fast NVMe VPS plans with full root access.