Cheaters kill servers faster than lag does. A player flying through walls, hitting from 50 blocks away or speed-running through your world destroys the experience for everyone. Anti-cheat plugins detect and punish these behaviors automatically.
How anti-cheat works
Anti-cheat plugins monitor player actions (movement, combat, block interactions) and compare them against what is physically possible in vanilla Minecraft. A player moving faster than sprint speed is flagged. A player hitting entities outside reach distance is flagged. After enough violations, the player is kicked or banned.
The top three
1. Grim (free, open source)
Grim uses predictive simulation: it runs its own version of the player's movement and compares it to what the client reports. This makes it extremely accurate with very few false positives.
- Detection: excellent for movement cheats (fly, speed, no-fall). Good for combat cheats (reach, killaura).
- False positives: very low. The simulation accounts for lag, client interpolation and edge cases.
- Price: free on GitHub.
- Drawback: more CPU-intensive than simpler anti-cheats due to the simulation.
2. Vulcan (paid)
A premium anti-cheat with broad detection coverage and active updates.
- Detection: excellent across all cheat categories. Regular updates to catch new cheats.
- False positives: low with proper configuration. Default settings may need tuning.
- Price: paid on SpigotMC (~15 EUR).
- Advantage: the developer actively tests against popular cheat clients and patches bypasses quickly.
3. Matrix (free)
A free anti-cheat that covers the basics well.
- Detection: good for common cheats. Misses some newer or more sophisticated exploits.
- False positives: moderate. Requires configuration to reduce false kicks.
- Price: free.
- Good for: smaller servers that want basic protection without paying.
Configuration tips
- Start with default settings and reduce sensitivity gradually. Too strict = false positive kicks.
- Set punishments to "kick" first, not "ban". Review the logs before enabling auto-bans.
- Whitelist staff members from anti-cheat checks to avoid issues during admin duties (flying, teleporting).
- Test the anti-cheat yourself on a test server with a cheat client to verify detection.
Can anti-cheat plugins detect all cheats?
No. X-ray texture packs and some inventory manipulation cheats are client-side and invisible to the server. Use anti-X-ray (built into Paper) and inventory protection plugins alongside anti-cheat.
Does anti-cheat cause lag?
Minimal. Modern anti-cheats are optimized. Grim uses slightly more CPU than others due to simulation, but the impact on TPS is negligible with fewer than 50 players.
Anti-cheat plugins work on all Minecraft plans at HostValues.
