Modded Minecraft Servers for 1.20

You need the same pack the server runs

A modded server runs a mod loader — Forge, NeoForge or Fabric — and you cannot join it with a plain client. You install the same pack the server runs, usually through CurseForge, Modrinth, Prism or the ATLauncher, and the version has to match exactly, down to the pack build number. Servers that publish a pack code in their listing save you an hour of guessing.

Packs come in flavours. Kitchen-sink packs like All the Mods throw everything in at once; expert packs gate progression behind a recipe chain that takes months; magic, adventure and modded skyblock packs are different games again. The pack decides what the server is far more than the server rules do.

Because mods are heavy, ask about memory and chunk loading before you commit. A 300-mod pack wants six gigabytes allocated on the client, and a server that bans chunk loaders makes most automation pointless. A modlist you can read before joining is a good sign; a refusal to share one is not.

Where 1.20 servers sit now

Trails & Tales was the archaeology update: brushes, suspicious sand and gravel, and pottery sherds you assemble into decorated pots. It also added cherry groves, camels, the sniffer, bamboo and cherry wood sets, hanging signs, the chiselled bookshelf and armour trims, which together gave builders more to work with than any release since the Nether Update.

Two of its point releases mattered more to owners than the headline features. 1.20.2 changed how clients negotiate a connection, and 1.20.5 replaced item NBT with data components, which broke a great many plugins and forced a long wave of updates. Servers that parked on 1.20.4 usually did it for exactly that reason.

Plenty of servers still run 1.20 because their plugin stack works and their players do not mind. Expect something stable and well tested, with no trial chambers, no crafter and no mace. Check whether newer clients are allowed in through ViaVersion before you go and add an old profile to your launcher.