// pack hub

Cobblemon server hosting & setup

Every Cobblemon modpack we have a server guide for, side by side: the loader and Cobblemon version each one runs, how many mods it marks for the server, and the plan we'd start on. After that: adding Cobblemon to a server you already run, the config worth knowing, and how it compares with Pixelmon.

Updated October 2026  ·  Cobblemon 1.8.1  ·  Minecraft 1.21.1  ·  Java Edition

The Cobblemon packs compared

16 packs, newest Cobblemon first. Each name links to that pack's server guide, with its setup steps and the crashes people hit most.

• Mods on the server is what the pack file marks for the server, out of the total players install. The rest are marked client-only (maps, shaders, menus), and a server install leaves them out. A count with no total means the pack marks every mod for the server, client-only ones included: Cobbleverse's 136 includes Sodium, for example. * Cobblemon Academy and All the Mons are CurseForge packs, so their figure is every mod CurseForge lists, client-side ones included. The client-or-server-side checker sorts a mod list for you.
• Cobblemon, the mod counts and the last update are from each pack's newest release on Modrinth, read on October 5, 2026. For the two CurseForge packs, the Cobblemon version is the one named in the manifest of their newest release (Cobblemon Academy 2.7.0 and All the Mons 1.3.0), read on October 12, 2026. A few pack descriptions still name an older Cobblemon. Packs update often, and the pack guides refresh once a month, so a guide can be a version behind this table.
• Server pack means the authors publish a separate server download for their newest version (checked October 5, 2026). Cobblemon Expanded has one on Modrinth. The two official packs have one on CurseForge for 1.8.1, the same version as on Modrinth. BigChadGuys Plus has one on CurseForge for version 2.16.3, which is newer than the 2.11.0 on Modrinth, so players need the CurseForge version to match it. All the Mons publishes server files next to most versions on CurseForge. Cobblemon Academy stopped after 2.4.0, so a 2.7.0 server has to be built from the client pack. The others install from the same .mrpack players use: Modrinth's pack format lets authors mark files as client-only, so a server install can skip them. Doing it by hand? Our guide to running a pack that has no server pack works through Cobbleverse.

Which pack fits your server

• The official packs (Fabric, NeoForge) are the Cobblemon team's own: Cobblemon plus recipe viewers, maps, performance mods and a few small extras. They're light on a server (32 and 34 mods) and already on Cobblemon 1.8.1. The NeoForge build also ships Sinytra Connector, which lets Fabric mods run on NeoForge.
• Cobbleverse is pitched by its authors as a full adventure: all 1,025 Pokémon, gyms and trainers from Kanto to Sinnoh, shops and Pokémon Centers. With 136 mods, all marked for the server, it's the largest pack here on Cobblemon 1.7 or newer, so it starts on Premium. It's still on Cobblemon 1.7.3.
• All the Mons is the All the Mods team's Cobblemon pack: a kitchen-sink NeoForge pack in the style of ATM10 with Cobblemon (1.7.3) built in, quests, and gym badges that drop from gym leaders. CurseForge lists 396 mods, so it starts on Heavy, and the team publishes server files for most versions.
• Cobblemon Academy 2.0 is a Fabric pack already on Cobblemon 1.8.1, with new biomes, hundreds of structures and an economy, and its authors pitch it as preparation for their own public Academy server. CurseForge lists 221 mods, client-side ones included, so we start it on Premium. Its authors stopped publishing server files after version 2.4.0.
• Cobblemon x Create puts Cobblemon and Create addons together on NeoForge (110 mods, Cobblemon 1.7.3). Create machines add tick load, so CPU speed matters here as much as RAM.
• Packs made for a public server. Cobblemon Delta, Cobblemon Islands, Pokemania and Jornadas Cobblemon are the client packs for their authors' own servers, and their descriptions mostly list what those servers offer: raids, gyms, trading and so on. Those features belong to the authors' servers, not the pack. Run one of these packs on your own server and you get the mods, not their server's setup.
• Cobblemon Brasil [Mobile] is built for playing on phones through Pojav, with a Portuguese (PT-BR) translation and tuned settings. It's light on a server if your group uses it.
• Cobblemon.gg bills itself as a high-performance pack and moved to Cobblemon 1.8.1 on October 5, with 55 of its 107 mods marked for the server. Its page also advertises tournaments and trading events in the authors' own community; those aren't part of the pack.
• Older packs. Cobblemon Expanded and Ori Starlight are on Cobblemon 1.6.1 and were last updated in June 2025 and March 2025. BigChadGuys Plus (pitched as "Stardew Valley meets Pokémon") and Pokemon Elysium are on Minecraft 1.20.1 with Cobblemon 1.5.2 and 1.4.1. They still run, but they won't get newer Cobblemon content unless their authors update them, and addons written for Cobblemon 1.7 or 1.8 generally won't load in them.

How much RAM a Cobblemon server needs

We haven't load-tested these packs with players, so this is a starting point worked out from mod counts, not a measurement, and there's no player count behind it. The small-group column uses the same rule as every pack guide on this site: up to about 80 mods on the server is Standard, up to 180 is Premium, more than that is Heavy. For a bigger group, or players who spread out, the pack guides say to go one plan up.

Why spread matters more than head count. Cobblemon spawns wild Pokémon in zones around each player, by default between 16 and 64 blocks away (the minimumSpawningZoneDistanceFromPlayer and maximumSpawningZoneDistanceFromPlayer settings), and every wild Pokémon is an entity the server has to keep in memory and tick. Five players standing in one town share the same chunks, and the per-chunk cap (pokemonPerChunk) limits how many Pokémon those chunks hold. Five players spread across the map each load and fill chunks of their own.

How to check. Watch the memory graph in the panel through a normal week. Sitting above about 85% at peak means it's time to move up a plan. If memory is fine but the console keeps printing Can't keep up!, the bottleneck is more likely the CPU, and more RAM won't fix it; fewer wild Pokémon (a lower pokemonPerChunk) or a lower simulation distance can help. Pre-generating the world with Chunky takes world generation out of play time. More in our RAM guide and our guide to fixing "Can't keep up!".

Picks for two players

Two players fit the small-group column, so the plan is just the pack's own pick.

• Cobblemon and not much else: the official pack, Fabric or NeoForge. Standard, $16/month.
• An adventure with gyms to beat: Cobbleverse. Premium, $30/month.
• Pokémon plus machines: Cobblemon x Create. Premium.
• Pokémon inside a big kitchen-sink pack: All the Mons. Heavy, $42/month.
• A cozy, Stardew-style world: BigChadGuys Plus, if Minecraft 1.20.1 and an older Cobblemon don't bother you. Heavy, $42/month, because the pack marks all 294 of its mods for the server.

The public-server packs work for a private world too, but you'd be running their client setup without the server features they advertise.

Adding Cobblemon to a server you already have

Cobblemon is one mod, so you can add it to a Fabric or NeoForge server you already run, as long as that server is on Minecraft 1.21.1. This is what Cobblemon 1.8.1 asks for, read from its own mod files:

Forge isn't in the table: Cobblemon's last Forge build is 1.5.2 for Minecraft 1.20.1, from May 2024. On 1.20.1 your choice is Cobblemon 1.5.2 on Fabric or Forge, and neither has been updated since.

1. Back up first. On DSN, take one of your 5 on-demand backups from the panel.
2. Upload the jars. Put Cobblemon and its library mod (the files for your loader) in the mods folder, with the file manager or over SFTP.
3. Set Java 21. On DSN that's the Docker image in the Startup tab. Java 25 won't do: Cobblemon checks for 21 and refuses to load on anything else. Our Java version chart covers the other Minecraft versions.
4. Start the server and watch the console. Cobblemon writes its settings to config/cobblemon/main.json when it starts.
5. Give players the same mods. Cobblemon has to be on both sides (Modrinth lists it as required on client and server), so every player needs the same Cobblemon version and library mod. If someone still can't get in, see why friends can't join a modded server.

If you build a NeoForge Cobblemon server from scratch, Cobblemon itself only needs Kotlin for Forge. The official NeoForge pack also ships Sinytra Connector and Forgified Fabric API for some of its other mods. More on Connector in our NeoForge server guide.

Spawn, battle and storage config

Cobblemon keeps its server settings in config/cobblemon/main.json. Stop the server, edit the file, start it again. These keys and defaults come from Cobblemon's source code for 1.8.1, and 1.7.3 has the same ones apart from the last.

A few switches are game rules instead, set from the console with /gamerule: doPokemonSpawning (on), doPokemonLoot (on), mobTargetInBattle (on: whether mobs target players during battles), doShinyStarters (off) and, since 1.7, healersHealPC (off; turn it on and a healing machine also heals the Pokémon in that player's PC).

Looking for a turn timer or turn speed setting? There isn't one in main.json; we checked the 1.8.1 source.

Three things that catch people out

• A typo wipes your edits. If Cobblemon can't parse main.json (a missing comma or bracket, say), it logs Failed to load the config! Using default config, runs on defaults and then saves those defaults over your file. Keep a copy before you edit.
• Updates can reset settings. When Cobblemon updates, settings the Cobblemon team marked as having a new default in that version go back to the new default, even if you'd changed them. In 1.7.0 that included defaultBoxCount, which went from 30 to 40 boxes. Check the file after an update.
• Packs on Cobblemon 1.6 (Ori Starlight, Cobblemon Expanded) have an older main.json. Some keys above don't exist there, and some have older names, such as maximumSliceDistanceFromPlayer. Edit the file you have, not a list from the internet.

Cobblemon 1.7 and 1.8 on a server

• 1.7.0, "Set Course!" (November 2025): riding Pokémon, cooking in the campfire pot, held items you can see, and cosmetic items. PCs went from 30 to 40 boxes by default, and many NPC presets were removed in favor of behaviors, which breaks NPCs built on those presets until they list the equivalent entries under "behaviours". 1.7.3 (January 2026) is where Cobbleverse, Pokemania, Cobblemon Brasil and Cobblemon x Create still sit.
• 1.8.0, "Make Your Move" (September 2026): Alpha Pokémon, TMs crafted with type gems, size variation between Pokémon, and 49 habitat structures. New server settings let you turn spawning off per world and give experience to fainted Pokémon or after a lost battle. Advancements were reworked, and existing ones reset apart from the root. 1.8.1, a bug-fix release, followed six days later, and 1.8.2 came out on October 11, 2026. The requirements and config on this page were read from 1.8.1, and we checked that 1.8.2 asks for the same loader, library mod and Java and keeps the same main.json keys and defaults.

Moving a 1.7 server to 1.8: update the whole pack to a version built for 1.8 rather than swapping in a new Cobblemon jar, because each addon in a pack is built against a particular Cobblemon version. Back up first, so you have a way back if the update goes wrong; our guide to updating a modpack server walks through it. There's no Cobblemon build for Minecraft 26.1 yet, so Cobblemon servers stay on 1.21.1 and Java 21 for now.

Cobblemon vs Pixelmon for a server

For a new server, the loader often decides it. If your group wants Fabric mods alongside, it's Cobblemon, because Pixelmon has no Fabric build. If you're building on a NeoForge pack, either works. Addons are made for one mod or the other, so pick before you start collecting them.

When the server won't start

Paste the log into our free crash log analyzer, or go straight to the guide:

• Wrong Java version: a 1.21.1 Cobblemon server on Java 17 or 25.
• Missing dependency: Cobblemon without Fabric API or Kotlin for Forge, or an addon without its library.
• Client-only mod on the server: a minimap or shader mod copied from a player's mods folder.
• Wrong mod loader: a Fabric Cobblemon jar on a NeoForge server, or the other way round.
• Out of memory: for example while a new world generates, or with players spread out.