Choosing an Implementation

Something that runs Sponge plugins is called an implementation. As long as a plugin is correctly made using the “Sponge API,” it should run correctly on any sufficiently-complete implementation.

Minecraft can’t run Sponge plugins out of the box, but you can modify it to do so.

The Sponge API itself is an open standard.

Available Implementations

There are currently two implementations:

Name Based on
SpongeForge Mojang’s Minecraft and Minecraft Forge
SpongeVanilla Mojang’s Minecraft

Which do I choose?

These two items listed in the table change Minecraft’s existing code to run Sponge plugins and are ideal if you want something that plays exactly the same as unmodified Minecraft (same world generation, same Redstone mechanics). The first option also integrates Minecraft Forge, which lets you run Minecraft Forge mods alongside Sponge plugins.

While the Coremod option may appear to be the best, depending on your desired setup you may want to consider other options as well, maybe because of performance concerns, as other options may use less memory and CPU to do the same task.

The goal is for all listed implementations to run all Sponge plugins correctly and in the same way, so you should be able to switch between different implementations at a later time (as far as plugins are concerned).