OPMine.Ru
This server is a vanilla style survival world that starts you in the middle of an ocean. When you join you have to swim or use a boat to reach land and then you can start your own journey.
The world is really old and was first made in 2011 so you can find super old terrain mixed with newer areas and a lot of ruins if you explore far enough. It feels like digging through Minecraft history while still finding fresh places to build.
The server uses a few simple datapacks that give you commands like trigger home and trigger spawn and you can set up to 10 homes per player. Other than that it plays like normal Minecraft with no changes to gameplay or terrain generation. Player and mob heads can sometimes drop in fights which is cool for trophies.
The server always runs the latest Minecraft snapshot so you can try new features early before they are on most other servers.
There are only two rules. Treat other players with respect and do not try to crash the server on purpose. Almost everything else is allowed. Griefing is allowed and hacked clients are allowed so you need to be smart about where you build and who you trust.
Most people here are in their mid twenties or older and a lot are from the US with some Russian and Polish speakers too. The vibe is relaxed and kind of unstructured and it feels like a small group of old friends who are letting new players join in.
Dots Stuff SMP is a chill vanilla plus Minecraft server that I found and it feels like a small hermitcraft style world. It is Java and the server is hosted in the UK but they say everyone is welcome to join.
The whole thing is about being community driven. People build together and do fun social events and just hang out with great players. It is not some sweaty competitive server. It is more like a cozy multiplayer world where you actually get to know people.
They use a bunch of quality of life plugins so the game feels smoother but it still keeps that vanilla feeling. The server is non political and they make it clear that it is a safe place for LGBTQ plus players.
It is whitelist only so you need to join the server community and fill out a simple application first. That helps keep out trolls and makes the server feel calmer and friendlier. If you want a relaxed hermitcraft style SMP with a nice community this one seems pretty good.
Origin SMP is a survival server that feels like a real world instead of random chaos. It is on version 1.21 and uses lifesteal so every fight feels serious and scary. When you lose hearts it actually matters and it makes you think before you start a fight.
There is proximity voice chat so people can talk when they are close to each other. This makes trading and teaming up feel way more real. You do not claim land so you have to rely on trust and the stories you build with other players.
The server allows anarchy style play but not just mindless griefing. If someone destroys stuff for no reason and there is no story behind it the staff roll it back. So you still get danger and betrayal but it feels like it all has a purpose.
The community is friendly and active and a lot of the fun comes from alliances and betrayals and the stories people make together. Builders warriors and storytellers can all find a place here and some player stories might even end up as content later on.
Davidscloud is a long running Minecraft community that feels very relaxed and safe. It has been around since version 1.7.10 and the people running it clearly want it to last for a long time.
The server is mostly about survival and playing together without any pay to win stuff. There is a strong grief prevention system so your builds stay safe. You start with a bunch of claim blocks and you earn more while you play so random people cannot break or place blocks in your area. You can also trust friends in your claims and your pets are protected too. If something goes wrong the admin team will check it out and help.
There are some cool quality of life features. There is a bank where your money earns interest every hour you are online. You can save up and then spend your cash at the market near the survival spawn. The merchants there sell things like fish potions wood and other useful items.
The world is not just one normal survival map. There is another amplified world you can travel to from spawn. It uses the new caves and cliffs generation so the terrain looks huge and wild. The staff are also working on an event world and a creative plot world so players can have more places to explore and build.
Overall the server feels friendly and focused on keeping players safe so they can just enjoy survival and play together.
This is a new season on a survival server that is only for adults. The community is 18 plus and most players are in their 20s but there are older players too. It feels relaxed and friendly and people seem to actually talk and hang out.
The server is semi vanilla with just a few plugins. You can even turn them off if you prefer to play full vanilla which is really nice. There is always a nether hub so travel is easy. There is also a community building area for people who like to live close together and there is a shopping district.
You can still go off and build alone if you want to. The rules are simple. No griefing no stealing and no pvp that people do not want. The staff keep both the discord and the server well moderated so things stay safe and organized.
You have to join the discord if you want to play on the Minecraft server. The discord is active so it is easy to meet people party up and share builds.