What is a BungeeCord server?

How a BungeeCord network works

Players connect to the proxy, not to a game server directly. The proxy forwards them to a backend server (for example a lobby) and can send them to another server with a command or a portal. Because the proxy only relays connections, it needs very little memory: 512 MB is enough for most small and medium networks.

When do you need one?

• You want a lobby with portals to separate game modes.
• You run minigames that each need their own server.
• You want to restart or update one server without kicking everyone off the network.
• You want one IP address for players while running several servers.

Basic setup steps

1. Order a BungeeCord proxy and at least one Minecraft backend server.
2. On each backend server set online-mode=false in server.properties and enable BungeeCord mode in spigot.yml (Paper users can also use Velocity modern forwarding).
3. Add every backend server to the servers list in the proxy config.yml with its address and port.
4. Protect the backend servers so players can only join through the proxy, for example with a firewall rule or a plugin that checks the forwarding secret.
5. Restart the proxy and connect with the proxy address.

BungeeCord or Velocity?

Both are Minecraft proxies. BungeeCord (and its fork Waterfall) has the largest plugin library. Velocity is newer, faster and has more secure player forwarding. Most new networks choose Velocity; existing networks with many BungeeCord plugins often stay on BungeeCord.