About
Cuberite is a from-scratch, Minecraft-compatible multiplayer server written in C++, designed to be efficient with memory and CPU and extensible via a Lua plugin API. It is compatible with the official Java Edition Minecraft client and currently supports Minecraft protocol versions 1.8 through 1.12.2. It runs on Windows, Unix-like systems, and Android (including Raspberry Pi, with support for other small embedded devices considered experimental).
How it differs from the original
As a third-party server reimplementation, it only supports a fixed range of protocol versions (1.8–1.12.2) and offers a Lua-based plugin API rather than the official Java plugin ecosystem. The project also reports that compiling it from source runs 1.5–3x faster than using the prebuilt binaries.
Getting started
Install via prebuilt Windows or Linux binaries from the project website, or use the provided EasyInstall shell script on Linux/macOS to download the correct binary automatically. It can also be compiled from source with the provided compile.sh script (Linux/macOS/FreeBSD) or a manual CMake build; hosted Cuberite instances are also available through a third-party host.