If you need the vanilla software's features, trying to decide between a server software for a vanilla server is hard, there are many forks claiming to be the best. If you don't need any plugins on your server you can use a Fabric server with server-side optimization mods. The most commonly used vanilla software with plugin support is SpigotMC and its forks, PaperMC, Purpur etc. Another popular vanilla software... Source: over 2 years ago

Use Paper for your server jar, not craftbukkit or spigot. Or if you need even more performance, use Purpur, as it has even more powerful customization options and performance patches; the company I work for as a plugin dev and server admin uses Purpur on our servers. Both of these server jars are fully compatible with Spigot plugins except in extremely rare cases where plugin developers are doing bad things, so... Source: over 2 years ago

Excellent! Glad we could get you sorted! Hosting can be scary and it's okay to be afraid to touch things or not understand certain settings or terms. Especially if you're new. The key is to read the documentation. For your forum needs, this can be found at https://mybb.com and https://phpbb.com. Source: 7 months ago

You may find a current, object-oriented version of phpBB to be just the ticket. It will teach you how to structure the database, authenticate users, manage sessions and selectively display content according to user level, group membership, and other policies. Source: about 3 years ago