Endstone on a Bedrock server — what changes, what it costs in RAM, and how to switch a Bedrock server over

If you play on Bedrock and have heard the name Endstone, you have probably heard that it takes plugins. This page covers what Endstone is, what it changes for your server, what our own test measured, and how to switch a standard Bedrock server over to Endstone.

What Endstone is

The standard Bedrock server — Bedrock Dedicated Server, or BDS — is Mojang's own program, and it has no plugin system. Endstone runs that same program and injects a runtime into it. The game stays vanilla; what appears is a plugin API in the style of Paper on Java, written for Python and for C++.

For players nothing changes. They join with the same client, from the same devices. For you, the owner, there is one new thing — plugins — and a few differences in how the server is maintained, listed below.

Endstone compared with the standard Bedrock server

Everything you use on a standard Bedrock server in the dashboard — worlds, add-ons, settings, players, backups, sleep and wake — works on an Endstone server too. Plugins are covered in Installing plugins on an Endstone server.

Speed: what our own test measured

We ran the standard server and Endstone one at a time on two identical servers on the same machine (4 GB RAM and 2 CPU each, Bedrock 1.26.52 underneath both), with the same new world. Each round generated 400 new chunks, then ran a crowd of cows for 90 seconds: 150 in the light test, 600 with faster random ticks in the heavy one. We repeated the rounds several times.

Both took the same time to generate the chunks and used the same CPU under load. We found no speed difference. No players were connected, so sending the world to players, networking and what plugins cost per player were not part of the test.

RAM: about 0.25 GB more

In the heavy test Endstone used about 1.2 GB against about 1.0 GB for the standard server, roughly 0.25 GB more. Endstone servers use the same RAM sizes as any Bedrock server, so pick the size as you would for a standard one. After the switch, watch the memory graph; if the server runs close to its limit, move up a size. For how to size RAM and what running short looks like, see RAM for a game server.

Updates happen by themselves

There is no version field on an Endstone server. The platform checks for new Endstone releases every hour; once it has picked one up, every Endstone server moves to it at its next restart. The dashboard shows which Endstone version, and which Bedrock version under it, your server runs.

The catch-up window. When Mojang releases a new Bedrock version that changes the network protocol, up-to-date players cannot join a server that is still on the old one, and Endstone needs time to support the new version. Counting from Endstone's release history against Mojang's Bedrock releases (measured on 2026-10-14), Endstone took a median of 2.4 days to support a new protocol, and up to 20 days in the worst of seven cases. These figures will shift as new versions ship. During that window your server keeps running on the old version; players whose game has already updated cannot join until Endstone catches up and your server restarts.

Two consequences of automatic updates are worth knowing:

• A world that has been opened on a newer Bedrock version cannot go back to an older one.
• A plugin that its author does not keep up to date can stop working after an update.

Switching a Bedrock server to Endstone

Endstone and the standard server are different server types on the platform. A standard Bedrock server can be switched to Endstone in place, once, from its own page. Nothing is downloaded or uploaded: the world, add-ons, settings and address come with it.

Stop the Bedrock server

The button is locked while the server is running, starting or stopping, and says why. Stop the server first.

Press "Switch to Endstone" in Settings and confirm

Open the server's Settings tab, go to the "Version and software" section in the "Version and performance" group, and press "Switch to Endstone". A dialog asks you to confirm. It says plainly that the server cannot be switched back to the standard Bedrock software — restoring the backup brings the world back, but the server stays on Endstone — and that Endstone uses a little more memory.

If the world was last opened on a newer Bedrock version than Endstone supports today, the dialog tells you which version the world uses and which version Endstone supports, and nothing is changed. Wait for Endstone to update, then try again.

Wait for the backup and the switch

A backup runs first. The card shows "Switching to Endstone…" until the switch is done, and the server cannot be started in the meantime.

Start the server and check that the world opened

Start the server, join it, and look for your builds and for whatever your add-ons add. Then stop the server and take a backup, so you have a copy that is known to open on Endstone — a Bedrock server must be stopped before it can be backed up.

If you would rather start from nothing, choose Endstone as the software when you create a new server instead.

What stays the same, and what to keep in mind

• Backups on Bedrock need the server stopped, on Endstone as on the standard server.
• Add-ons come with the switch and keep working on Endstone; plugins are a separate list in the Plugins section of the Content tab.
• If a plugin makes the server fail to start, you can still remove it from the Plugins section of the Content tab while the server is stopped — see Installing plugins on an Endstone server.

Read next

• Installing plugins on an Endstone server — file types, where to find plugins, and what happens on restart
• Your first Python plugin for Endstone — from Endstone's template to a running plugin
• Minecraft server types — where Bedrock sits next to the Java families
• Server backups — the Backups tab, restore and download
• Proximity voice on your Minecraft server — hear nearby players by distance, built in on Endstone
• /minecraft — create a server on uniz.host