What is a Minecraft plugin?

Every professional server nowadays uses plugins, but what are they exactly?

You can actually see a plugin as an addition to Minecraft.
Such an addition can be a command, a scoreboard, chat colors or just a whole minigame.
With plugins you can change the entire playing experience of Minecraft, exactly as you want.

To use plugins you can not use a normal Minecraft server, you have to use a modified version.
The two most well-known modified versions are Spigot and Bukkit.
By using one of these instead of 'Vanilla' Minecraft you make it possible to install plugins.

You can find plugins on Spigot and CurseForge.

Updated on: 27/02/2019