Custom items, blocks and furniture: ItemsAdder, Oraxen, Nexo

In short: all three plugins are paid. ItemsAdder is the only one of the three that also runs on Spigot; version 4 is for 1.20.6 and newer, needs ProtocolLib, and the easiest way to serve the pack is the built-in simple_self_host, with no port forwarding. Nexo runs on Paper and Folia from 1.21.4 to 26.3, converts from Oraxen and ItemsAdder, and serves the pack from the Nexo team's server, your own port, LobFile or S3. Oraxen runs only on Paper and its forks, 1.20.1–26.3; its free host Oraxen Atlas is, per the docs, blocked in Russia and China, so players from there need another hosting method.

How it works#

The plugin reads your configs with items, blocks and furniture and generates a resource pack from them: models, textures, sounds, fonts. The pack is uploaded to a host, and the plugin sends it to every player on join — no client mods needed. The server hands out ordinary items with special data, and the pack on the player's side decides how they look. How server resource packs, SHA-1 and required packs work is covered in server resource pack.

ItemsAdder, Nexo and Oraxen compared#

How the resource pack is served#

Without pack hosting, players won't see custom content — the ItemsAdder docs call choosing a hosting method a required install step. The options are similar everywhere: serve the pack from the server itself or upload it to an outside service.

hosting:
  simple_self_host:
    enabled: true
    server_address: auto

Pack:
  upload:
    enabled: true
    type: self-host
    self-host:
      host: "0.0.0.0"
      port: 8080
      domain: "play.example.com:8080"

• ItemsAdder. simple_self_host (since 4.0.17) needs no setup and no port forwarding. Regular self-host needs a separate port from your host. LobFile stores packs up to 100 MB for free and, per the docs, doesn't expose the server's IP. The docs don't recommend Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive. Run /iazip after every texture or model change.
• Oraxen. Oraxen Atlas is a free Polymath run by the Oraxen team, but the docs warn that it's blocked in Russia and China, and players from there need another method — your own Polymath, self-host on an open port or Lobfile.
• Nexo. The method is set by Pack.server.type in settings.yml: POLYMATH (the Nexo team's server in Germany), SELFHOST (your own port and public address), LOBFILE (needs an API key), S3 (any S3-compatible storage) or NONE — for backend servers that shouldn't send a pack.
• A proxy network. Switching servers can make the pack load again. The Oraxen docs suggest proxy plugins for this, Nexo has NexoProxy, and ItemsAdder has FAQ entries on BungeeCord and Velocity.

Pitfalls#

• Kicked for flying while the pack loads. The ItemsAdder FAQ: while the resource pack installs, the server or an anticheat may decide the player is flying, depending on the spawn point. The first fix is hide-hud: false in ItemsAdder's config.yml; the second is allow-flight=true in server.properties — and then, as the author himself writes, an anticheat should protect you from flying.
• Furniture and anticheats. The Nexo docs warn that furniture uses client-side hitboxes, so to an anticheat a player standing on it seems to float or fly. Nexo has built-in settings for some anticheats in mechanics.yml, under Furniture.anti_cheat.
• An item browser hands items out. In Oraxen, anyone who can open /oraxen inventory can take items from it — there's no separate permission for that. In Nexo, /nexo inv gives copies of items too. Keep oraxen.command.inventory.view and nexo.command.inventory for admins, or you have a ready-made dupe.
• Buy only from the authors. The ItemsAdder wiki says it plainly: if you bought it outside the official shops, you were scammed. "Leaked" builds of paid plugins are a common way to get malware onto a server — see plugin malware.
• Old clients through ViaVersion. The ItemsAdder author advises against letting old client versions onto a server with custom content: too much changes between versions. Oraxen has a separate page on ViaVersion compatibility. How ViaVersion itself works is in ViaVersion.

Which one to pick#

• A Spigot server — ItemsAdder: Nexo and Oraxen don't run on Spigot.
• Folia — Nexo or Oraxen.
• Players from Russia and a host without spare ports — ItemsAdder with simple_self_host or LobFile; with Oraxen, your own hosting rather than Atlas.
• Moving from an older plugin — Nexo: it has converters from Oraxen and ItemsAdder.
• A server on 1.20.x — Oraxen (from 1.20.1) or ItemsAdder v4 (from 1.20.6); Nexo officially supports versions from 1.21.4.

Custom items can go into crates and shops: CrazyCrates accepts items from ItemsAdder, Oraxen and Nexo, and ShopGUI+ can sell them — see crate plugins and shop plugins. Custom mobs with models are covered in MythicMobs.

Custom content and the anticheat#

Custom blocks, furniture and the workaround for the join kick take away part of vanilla's protection: with allow-flight=true the server no longer kicks for flying, and catching Fly is up to the anticheat. DGuard — the best anticheat for a modern Minecraft server — checks movement, combat, 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: one odd movement next to furniture is no reason for a ban, and you set how strict punishments are. If you notice a false flag on your own content, write to DGuard support directly.

FAQ#