Crates on a Minecraft server: crate plugins, keys and Mojang's rules

In short: three well-known crate plugins are alive on Paper in 2026 with builds for 26.x. CrazyCrates is free (MIT), has more than ten crate types, virtual and physical keys and Folia support; its current builds require Paper 26.x and Java 25. ExcellentCrates is free (GPL-3.0), with an in-game editor, built-in holograms through PacketEvents and a mode where players pick their reward; it needs NightCore and doesn't support Folia. Phoenix Crates has a free Lite version with up to 5 crates and a paid full version, its own holograms and virtual keys, and runs on Spigot, Paper and Folia from 1.20.4. Selling random rewards for real money is risky: the Minecraft Usage Guidelines don't allow it, and they list gambling as an example of unsuitable content.

Crate plugins compared#

Each plugin in brief#

CrazyCrates

A free, open-source plugin under MIT. The docs require Paper 26.x (or a fork) and Java 25; for 1.21.11 Modrinth has build 5.0.0. Rewards are picked by weight — the lower the Weight, the rarer the prize — and the docs call the %chance% percentage in the preview approximate. Keys come as virtual or physical, and players can pass virtual keys to each other with /crazycrates transfer if you grant crazycrates.transfer. Holograms above a crate come from your hologram plugin — DecentHolograms, FancyHolograms or CMI — and a reward can be an item from ItemsAdder, Oraxen or Nexo.

ExcellentCrates

A free plugin under GPL-3.0, downloadable from SpigotMC, BuiltByBit, PixelEast, Modrinth and Hangar. It needs the NightCore framework, Java 25 and Paper or Spigot on 1.21.11 or 26.x — its compatibility table marks Folia as unsupported. Crates, keys and rewards are set up in an in-game editor (/crates editor, /cratekey editor). In version 7, holograms work only through PacketEvents — ProtocolLib support was dropped — and batch opening, fast opening with Shift and crates where players pick their reward were added. PlaceholderAPI placeholders are built in and need no eCloud expansion.

Phoenix Crates

There's a free Lite version on Modrinth and a paid full version on the authors' site. The free one is limited to 5 crates, 5 keys and 25 opening animations; the paid one has no limits and 36 animations. It runs on Spigot, Paper, their forks and Folia, on 1.20.4 and newer, 26.x included. Holograms are built in, and a virtual key is stored on the player rather than as an item. The docs also have a section on showing crates to Bedrock players through Geyser — more on Bedrock in Geyser.

Your first crate: commands#

/crates editor
/cratekey give Steve vote 1
/cratekey giveall vote 1
/crates preview vote Steve

/crazycrates give virtual Vote 1 Steve
/crazycrates preview Vote Steve
/crazycrates editor --crate Vote
/crazycrates editor --exit

• Don't install two crate plugins. ExcellentCrates' main command is /crates, and /crates is also CrazyCrates' alias: the commands will clash. To switch, CrazyCrates has /crazycrates migrate and /crazycrates convert, and Phoenix Crates can migrate crates from ExcellentCrates and CrazyCrates.
• Only operators can open crates? Both docs give the same answer: the crate sits inside spawn protection. Set spawn-protection=0 in server.properties (you can build the file with the server.properties generator) or move the crate, and allow block interaction in the region in WorldGuard.
• Keys for votes and playtime. ExcellentCrates has no built-in "keys for playtime" — its FAQ says to put the key command into your voting plugin or a kit. Setting up voting is covered in Votifier.

Paid crates and Mojang's rules#

We re-read the "Servers and hosting" section of the Minecraft Usage Guidelines on 20 October 2026: the words "crate", "loot box" or "random reward" aren't there. But several rules hit crates directly. The full breakdown of monetization is in monetization and the EULA.

• No advantage for money. You may sell entitlements that affect gameplay only if they "don't ruin other players' experience or give a competitive advantage in the game". A crate that can drop a weapon or armour better than everyone else's can't be sold for money, full stop.
• Gambling is an example of unsuitable content. Everything a server sells must be suitable for audiences of all ages, and the rules list gambling among the things that aren't.
• Prices and content before joining. All paid content and prices must be visible before a person joins or signs up.
• Not covered means not allowed. The rules end by saying that if something isn't covered and Mojang hasn't otherwise said it's okay, that probably means Mojang doesn't want you to do it — don't do it without written permission. Mojang also reserves the right to decide whether your monetization is consistent with its brand.

Keys, dupes and exploits#

On a server with crates the key is the most valuable thing in the economy, so it's the first thing people try to multiply. A physical key is an ordinary item: any item dupe copies it too.

• Valuable crates on virtual keys. The Phoenix Crates docs say it plainly: a virtual key is stored on the player, not as an item, so it can't be duplicated, and once it's on, old physical copies stop working. CrazyCrates and ExcellentCrates have virtual keys too.
• Creative mode. To reports of "a key dupe" the ExcellentCrates FAQ answers briefly: turn off creative mode. Keep players and moderators out of creative on a server with crates.
• Keys are given by the console and admins only. The give permissions — crazycrates.givekey in CrazyCrates (players don't have it by default) and excellentcrates.keys.command.give in ExcellentCrates — belong to admins only. Write the give command in a menu or NPC in full, with nothing a player types — see menus and GUIs.
• The opening log. All three plugins record who opened a crate and what they got. Compare it with CoreProtect logs when a player has more keys than they could have earned.
• Keep the server software updated. Paper fixes known dupes itself and the rest in new builds; what never to enable and how to find a duper is in dupes and exploits.

Which one to pick#

• Free, open source, an in-game editor and holograms without another plugin — ExcellentCrates (Paper or Spigot, not Folia).
• Many crate types, Folia, holograms through the DecentHolograms or FancyHolograms you already run — CrazyCrates; hologram plugins are compared in holograms.
• Spigot or Folia from 1.20.4, built-in holograms, up to 5 crates for free — Phoenix Crates Lite; if that's not enough, the paid version.

Keys for play and cheaters#

Keys are usually earned by playing: for time online, votes, PvP event wins and mining. A cheater earns them fastest: AntiAFK keeps a character online around the clock, KillAura wins the events, Nuker clears a mine in minutes — and the crates honest players work a week for go to them. DGuard — the best anticheat for a modern Minecraft server — checks combat, movement, packets, inventory, building and the world and covers all 47 kinds of cheats in our comparison. It gathers evidence and doesn't rush to a verdict, and you set how strict the punishments are.

If ExcellentCrates' holograms already run through PacketEvents on your server, you won't need a second copy: DGuard runs on top of the same PacketEvents and requires its latest release, and the DGuard panel shows its status and tells you when it's time to update.

FAQ#