What Is an SMP?
SMP stands for Survival Multiplayer — the classic Minecraft experience where friends play survival mode together. Popular SMPs like Hermitcraft and Dream SMP have made this format iconic.
Choosing Your Plan
For a private SMP with 5-10 friends, 2-4GB RAM is sufficient for vanilla or lightly modded play. For 10-20 players with plugins, aim for 4-6GB. CraftNodes offers plans from 2GB to 16GB.
Essential SMP Plugins
- EssentialsX — Home, warp, economy commands
- LuckPerms — Permission management
- CoreProtect — Block logging and rollbacks (anti-grief)
- WorldBorder — Limit world size to improve performance
- Dynmap — Live web map of your world
Configuration Tips
Set a world border early to prevent infinite world generation. Enable whitelist to keep your SMP private. Configure daily server restarts via the Pterodactyl Schedules tab to keep memory usage clean.
Keeping Players Engaged
Add seasonal events, build competitions, and a community Discord server. Use Dynmap to let players see the world map and find each other.