LiteBans - bans and moderation for your Minecraft server

What LiteBans is

LiteBans is a plugin for managing player punishments on a Minecraft server, made by a developer who goes by Ruan. Unlike the free alternatives, LiteBans is a paid plugin, available on SpigotMC for about 8 EUR. It's a one-time payment - after buying it you can install the plugin on any number of your own servers.

The plugin covers all the standard punishments: ban (permanent and temporary), mute (chat mute), warnings (warn), kick and IP ban. LiteBans' main advantage over free solutions is native synchronization through MySQL or MariaDB, which gives you network-wide bans - if a player is banned on one server in the network, they automatically lose access to all the other backends.

The plugin runs on Spigot, Paper and Purpur, and on the BungeeCord and Velocity proxies. It also supports players connecting through GeyserMC (Bedrock Edition), which matters for servers with crossplay.

Punishment history is stored in a database, not in YAML files, so the full history is kept.

Moderation commands

LiteBans distinguishes between permanent and temporary punishments. Temporary punishments use a time format: 1d (1 day), 3h (3 hours), 30m (30 minutes), 1mo (1 month). Here are the main moderation commands:

You manage command permissions through LuckPerms. You can give moderators access only to /warn, /mute and /kick, and give the admin full access to bans and history.

The /staffhistory command is especially useful when auditing moderators' work - it shows how many punishments a given moderator has issued and for what reasons, which makes it easier to catch abuse of permissions.

MySQL and network-wide bans

By default LiteBans stores its data in a local H2 database (a file on disk). On a single server that is enough and needs no database setup. The problem shows up on networks with many servers - each backend then has its own database, and bans are not synchronized.

The solution is to connect all backends to a shared MySQL or MariaDB database. After you change the configuration, every server reads punishments from and writes them to the same database, which means network-wide bans: banning a player on Survival automatically blocks their access to Skyblock, Creative, PvP and every other server in the network.

LiteBans creates its tables and schema itself on first start. All you need to do is create an empty litebans database and a user account with the SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, ALTER permissions.

If you use BungeeCord or Velocity, you can install LiteBans both on the proxy and on the backends, or only on the backends with a shared MySQL database. Installing it on the proxy lets you ban players even before they enter a given backend, which prevents ban evasion by quickly switching servers.

Reasons and punishment templates

LiteBans supports predefined punishment templates. Instead of typing out the full reason every time, a moderator can use a short template name that the plugin expands into the full text.

A moderator can then type, for example, /ban Player hacking, and LiteBans fills in the full reason automatically. The player sees the expanded message on screen, not the shortcut.

Templates reduce typos in punishment reasons and keep communication with players consistent. They also make later statistics easier - you can filter all the players banned for a specific reason.

IP bans and evasion detection

LiteBans supports bans by IP address with the /ipban command. Once an IP is banned, no player connecting from that address can join the server, regardless of account name. It's an effective method against players who create new accounts to get around a ban (so-called ban evasion).

The built-in alt detection finds alternate accounts automatically. When a banned player tries to join from a new account but from the same IP address, LiteBans can:

• block the new account automatically (automatic mode),
• notify moderators about a potential alt account (alert mode).

Keep in mind that IP bans have limits - players can change their IP address with a VPN or mobile internet. That is why an IP ban works best combined with an account ban and with monitoring new registrations from suspicious IP ranges.

LiteBans vs AdvancedBan vs EssentialsX bans

Which ban plugin to choose depends mainly on the size of your server and your budget:

EssentialsX offers simple bans and mutes stored in YAML files. That is enough for small servers with a few dozen players, where you don't need an extensive punishment history or network synchronization.

AdvancedBan is a free alternative with a more elaborate punishment system than EssentialsX, supporting MySQL and a so-called punishment ladder (automatically escalating punishments for repeat offenses). Its alt detection is weaker than LiteBans', though.

LiteBans is chosen mainly by server networks and projects with several hundred or more active players, where reliable synchronization and detailed moderator audit tools matter.

Configuration

The main configuration file is plugins/LiteBans/config.yml.

The plugins/LiteBans/messages.yml file contains all the messages shown to players. There you can customize the message shown on a ban, the time format ("banned for 3 days and 2 hours"), moderator notifications and many other situations. The plugin supports Minecraft color codes.

To reload the configuration without restarting the server, use /litebans reload.

Price and purchase

LiteBans is available only on SpigotMC for about 8 EUR. It's a one-time payment - after buying it you can download the plugin and install it on any number of your own servers. There is no subscription and no fee for updates.

To buy it on SpigotMC you need a SpigotMC account and a payment by PayPal or credit card. After the purchase the plugin appears in the "Purchased Resources" tab on your account, and you can download further updates at no extra cost.

It's worth noting that LiteBans is one of the few Minecraft plugins that have stayed under active development for over 10 years as a commercial project. Regular updates for new Minecraft versions and solid technical support make the price reasonable for servers with a serious moderation structure.

If your budget is tight or you run a small server for friends, consider the free alternatives: AdvancedBan or the ban system built into EssentialsX. On servers with fewer than 50 active players the difference in functionality is rarely noticeable.

Compatibility

LiteBans supports a wide range of versions and platforms:

• Minecraft versions: from 1.7.10 up to the newest versions. The plugin is updated within a few days of each new Minecraft release.
• Server software: Spigot, Paper, Purpur and all forks based on the Paper API.
• Proxies: BungeeCord and Velocity. LiteBans can be installed on the proxy as well as on the backends.
• GeyserMC: support for Bedrock Edition players connecting through Geyser.
• Databases: MySQL, MariaDB and H2 (local).
• Java: Java 8+ (Java 17 or 21 recommended).

LiteBans doesn't depend on any other plugin - it works on its own. It does integrate properly with LuckPerms for permissions and with ChatControlPro and other chat moderation plugins.

The plugin is not compatible with running many other ban plugins alongside it (AdvancedBan, MaxBans, BanManager) - using two ban systems at once causes conflicts. If you are migrating from another system, LiteBans has a built-in tool for importing data from popular alternatives.

You will find more useful plugins in the plugin catalog. If you are setting up permissions for moderation commands, read our guide to LuckPerms.