Toejutsu is a vanilla SMP that feels more about the people than flashy stuff. The community is small but pretty active and it has weekly events so there is usually something going on.
It stays mostly vanilla but it has a few twists to make survival feel harder and more interesting. Some players can get curses placed on them. Villagers are disabled so you cannot lean on trading. Diamonds are way more scarce so getting geared up takes longer.
The world border is set to 10k so the map feels tighter. There is also no TPA right now so you have to travel the old school way.
Hard Vanilla SMP With Weekly Events
GG.MINEWIND.NET New Server IPGallant Semi Vanilla Survival With Dynmap
Gallant is a semi vanilla survival server that tries to keep the normal Minecraft feel while adding a few small quality of life tweaks.
There is no whitelist application. You join their Discord. You link your user. Then you can jump in and play.
They focus a lot on keeping your stuff safe with backups. They also have grief protection and inventory snapshots.
You can protect chests with a sign. You can vein mine ores by sneaking. Creepers do not damage blocks and phantoms do not spawn. Minecarts go faster. The server can pick the best tool for the job and it can auto refill your hand while building.
They also have a Dynmap so you can check the world from a map view.GG.MINEWIND.NET New Server IP