Inside the Rebuilt McHostingPro Panel: Every Page, Explained

For our 11th anniversary, we rebuilt the admin panel from scratch. The goal was simple: keep things approachable for new admins, but don't bury the powerful features behind menus. The result is a single workspace where every page does one job well.

This article walks through the panel, page by page. Today we start with Settings, MCDoctor.ai, and Automatic Updates.

The Settings Page

If you've ever opened server.properties in Notepad, you know the feeling: dozens of cryptic lines with no context. The Settings page replaces that.

Everything that controls your server's behavior lives here: your subdomain, the name shown in the multiplayer list, the MOTD, and every line of server.properties. It's all on one scrollable page, grouped the way admins actually think about a server.

The Live Server Card Preview

At the top, a preview card shows exactly what players see in their multiplayer list: your icon, your domain, and the MOTD with formatting applied. Click the icon to upload a new one. We auto-resize it to 64×64 and convert it to PNG so you don't have to.

The MOTD editor sits next to it. A row of color swatches covers all 16 Minecraft color codes, with hex values on hover. Next to them are buttons for bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, obfuscated, and reset. Click any of them and the matching § code drops in at your cursor. Type your message, click colors as you go, and watch the preview update live.

Smart Controls Instead of Raw Text Fields

A lot of server.properties values only have a handful of valid options. Difficulty has four. Gamemode has four. View distance is capped by your plan. Every setting like this gets a proper dropdown with the valid choices listed.

For boolean settings (PvP, hardcore, online-mode, and so on), there's a clean toggle on the right of each row. ON lights up cyan, OFF stays muted.

World Options as Visual Cards

A few toggles get special treatment. Online mode, PvP, Generate structures, Spawn animals, Spawn monsters, Spawn NPCs, Hardcore, Allow flight, Allow Nether, Command blocks, Whitelist, and Force gamemode are pulled out into a grid of cards with thematic backgrounds. Click a card to toggle it. Active cards light up, inactive ones dim.

Advanced Configuration Lives Here Too

Lower on the page, the Protocol Settings section covers RCON, query port, query enable, and the network-level options. A small Advanced badge marks it so newcomers know to be careful.

At the bottom, a WebFTP shortcut jumps straight to the file browser when you need to edit something the panel doesn't expose, like a plugin's YAML config.

When you hit Save, a banner reminds you that some changes need a server restart to apply.

MCDoctor.ai

Settings handles configuration. MCDoctor.ai handles the part nobody likes: figuring out why your server just died.

You access it from the version card at the top of the Settings page, next to the Update and Change version buttons. Click it and a modal opens with every log file on your server, pulled live over FTP. Crash reports are marked with a 💥, regular logs with a 📋, and each entry shows its file size.

Two Modes, Depending on How Stuck You Are

You pick one of two analysis modes:

• Standard is the quick scan. It catches plugin conflicts, missing dependencies, port already in use, OutOfMemoryError, and version mismatches between mods. Most problems are common problems, and Standard handles most of them in about 15 seconds.
• Advanced is the deep dive. It correlates stack traces across the full log, looks at thread states, and identifies which plugin or mod is actually responsible rather than just the one that crashed last.

Every account gets 3 Standard analyses and 1 Advanced per month included. Beyond that, you can use tokens, which roll over from month to month.

What You Actually Get Back

The output isn't a stack trace with arrows pointing at it. It's a written report in plain English that tells you:

• What went wrong, in one sentence
• Which file, plugin, or config line is responsible
• Why it happened
• A step-by-step list of what to do to fix it

If the fix needs a config edit, MCDoctor tells you which file and what to change. If it needs a plugin removed, it names the plugin. If it's a Java version issue, it tells you which version your server needs.

We built this after watching the same pattern in support tickets: someone pastes 800 lines of log and asks "what's wrong?" The error is almost always in there, just buried under INFO and WARN noise. MCDoctor pulls the signal out.

Automatic Updates

The third major rebuild is the update flow.

Updating a Minecraft server has always been a small ritual: stop the server, back up the world, download the new jar, swap it in, copy your server.properties over, restart, hope nothing broke. Miss a step and you lose your map.

The new Update button, next to MCDoctor in the version card, does the whole sequence for you with safety nets at every step.

What Happens When You Click It

The panel first checks for the latest stable build of whatever you're running. Paper users get the latest Paper. Forge users get the latest Forge for their Minecraft version. Same for Purpur, Spigot, Fabric, NeoForge.

You see a side-by-side comparison: current version, new version, publication date, target Minecraft version. If there's nothing new, the modal tells you so and closes.

If there is an update, click Start update and the panel walks through five steps with a visual indicator next to each:

• Full server backup, a safety net you can restore from
• Configuration snapshot, your current server.properties read into memory
• Install the new version, the server stops, the old version is purged, the new build installed
• Restore your maps, your worlds come back from the backup just made
• Reapply configuration, your server.properties goes back exactly as it was, plus the new java-version and server-jar values matching the build

Your worlds, plugins folder, player data, ops.json, bans, and whitelist are untouched. Only the server software changes.

Why We Built It This Way

A few rules we set while designing this:

• Never destroy old state until the new state is verified. The backup happens before anything is touched, and stays after the update.
• Configuration is data. Reapplying server.properties is the part people forget when doing it manually. We treat it as required, not optional.
• Tell the user what's happening. Every step shows its state (waiting, running, done, failed), and on failure the modal tells you which step and why.

In practice, an update on a typical server takes two to four minutes from click to fresh server, with everything where you left it.

The Version Page

Right next to Settings is the Version page. This is where you pick what software your server runs, from Vanilla to Paper to Forge to your own custom jar, without ever opening an FTP client.

The page opens with your current install front and center: version name, build number, publication date. Below it, a search bar and a grid of every supported platform.

Everything Worth Running, In One Grid

We currently support fifteen platforms:

• Minecraft Vanilla Java, the official Mojang build
• Paper, the recommended pick for most servers
• Spigot / CraftBukkit, the original plugin platform
• Purpur, a Paper fork with extra tweaks
• Forge and NeoForge, the main modding APIs
• Fabric and Quilt, the lightweight modern alternatives
• Feed The Beast and Curse Modpacks, direct modpack installs
• Modrinth Modpacks, the open-source catalog
• Mohist, the hybrid for Forge mods and Bukkit plugins together
• Sponge, a different plugin API
• Openmod, upload your own custom jar via FTP
• Hytale, ready for when it launches

Each card has the platform's logo and a one-line description. Click any card, confirm the switch, and we handle the rest. Your worlds and configurations come with you.

The Three Action Buttons at the Top

On the current-install card you get three buttons:

• MCDoctor, jumps straight into log analysis
• Update, the one-click updater for your current platform
• Change version, opens the full platform picker

Factory Reset Options

At the bottom, the Factory Reset section. We kept it separate so you can't hit it by accident. Three levels:

• Reset maps, wipes your worlds but keeps plugins, configs, and player data
• Reset plugins, clears the plugins folder but keeps worlds and configs
• Full reinstall, back to the box

Each one asks for confirmation, and we recommend a backup first. The Backup page can roll you back if you regret it.

The Plugins and Mods Page

The Plugins page is probably the most-used page after Settings. We integrated the full SpigotMC catalog plus mods from CurseForge and Modrinth, over 18,000 plugins and mods searchable directly from the panel, no manual jar downloads.

The Layout

The page is split in two. On the left, a search bar and a grid of plugin icons that updates as you type. The icons come directly from the authors' uploads on Spigot. On the right, a list of plugins currently installed.

If your server runs Forge, Fabric, or NeoForge, a toggle at the top right switches the catalog from plugins to mods. Same search, same grid, same install flow, sourced from CurseForge and Modrinth.

Installing a Plugin

Click any icon and a panel slides in with the plugin's description, version history, compatibility, and dependencies. Hit Install and the plugin downloads to your plugins folder, ready for the next restart.

Plugins with dependencies (Vault, ProtocolLib, the usual suspects) get those dependencies installed automatically. We resolve the dependency tree before anything gets installed.

Managing What's Already There

On the right-hand list, every installed plugin has three quick actions:

• Enable / Disable, toggles whether the plugin loads on the next restart
• Update, checks for a newer version and swaps it in
• Delete, removes the jar entirely

At the bottom, two bulk buttons: Disable all and Delete all. We added these after watching admins try to track down which plugin was causing crashes. Disable everything, restart, then re-enable plugins one at a time until the problem comes back. Fastest way to find a bad actor.

The Search Is Actually Good

The search looks at plugin names, descriptions, tags, and author names. Searching "economy" gets you Vault, EssentialsX, and the rest of that ecosystem. Searching "anti cheat" gets you the major anti-cheat plugins regardless of capitalization. Searching by author name pulls up everything they've published.

For mods, the same search works across both CurseForge and Modrinth at once.

The Maps Page

The Maps page handles everything related to the worlds on your server: switching between them, generating new ones, importing builds from singleplayer.

The Installed Maps Section

Every world on your server is displayed as a 3D isometric thumbnail. We generate these by scanning the world data, so they actually look like your world. The active world has a green Active badge.

Switching to a different world is one click. Pick the thumbnail, confirm, and the panel updates level-name, restarts the server, and you're playing on the new world.

Two Ways to Add a New World

The bottom half of the page splits into two cards.

The left card is the FTP import flow. If you've got a world from singleplayer or a download site, four numbered steps walk you through it:

• Connect via FTP, with a WinSCP download link provided
• Create a directory with a clean name, no spaces or special characters
• Upload your world files
• Come back to this page and activate the map

A WinSCP Quick Connect button at the bottom opens WinSCP with your credentials pre-filled.

The right card is the generator. Type a name, optionally paste a seed, hit Create Map, and the server generates a fresh world. Leave the seed blank for a random one. The new world appears in the installed maps list when it's done.

Why the Name Restrictions Matter

A warning at the bottom reminds you not to use spaces or special characters in directory names. This isn't us being pedantic. Minecraft's world loader chokes on certain characters depending on the platform, and a world named "My Cool World!" might load fine on Paper but fail on Forge.

The Credentials Page

The Credentials page consolidates every way to access your server's files and databases.

FTP Access

The left column shows your FTP credentials: address, port (21), username, and password. The password is masked, with an Edit button to regenerate it. Regenerating creates a new random password immediately, useful if you ever shared the old one.

Below the credentials, an Open WinSCP button generates a session file with your credentials baked in. Mac and Linux users get equivalent helpers for Cyberduck and FileZilla.

WebFTP

The right side is the WebFTP browser, a full file manager in your browser. It shows your server's directory tree with all the folders you'd expect: crash-reports, libraries, logs, versions, world, plus root config files like banned-ips.json, ops.json, eula.txt, manifest.json.

The action bar at the bottom gives you the full set of operations:

• Create new files or directories
• Upload files from your computer
• Download files to your computer
• Compress selections into a zip
• Edit text files in a proper code editor

The editor handles YAML, JSON, properties files, and plain text with syntax highlighting. For most plugin configs, you'll never need to leave WebFTP.

MySQL Database Access

Below the FTP card, the MySQL Database Access card. Every server gets up to 150 MB of MySQL storage included, used by plugins that need real structured data: economy plugins, ranking systems, custom statistics, web-facing leaderboards.

The database is disabled by default. Click Choose a password to activate it. The panel creates your database, provisions a user, and fills in address, port (3306), and username. You can manage the database via phpMyAdmin from the same page.

A usage meter shows how much of your 150 MB is in use.

The Players Page

The Players page is where you manage who's allowed on your server and what they can do. Everything that used to live across ops.json, whitelist.json, and banned-players.json is now in one interface.

The Player List

A list of every player who's ever joined, with username, UUID, and a row of action icons. The list updates in real time as players connect. A green dot means they're online right now.

For each player, the action icons let you:

• Open their inventory, see exactly what they're carrying
• Kick them, disconnect them immediately
• Teleport, move them to specific coordinates
• Make them an operator, grant OP permissions
• Whitelist them, add to the whitelist
• Ban them, remove permanently
• View inventory details, full breakdown of items, durability, enchantments, NBT data

The Tabs

Across the top, tabs for the different management lists:

• Players, everyone who's ever joined
• Operators, players with OP, showing their permission level (1 through 4)
• Whitelist, the allowlist
• Ban Players, banned players with reason and date
• Ban IP, banned IP addresses, separate from player bans because some players share connections

Adding to any list is a single text input. Removing is one click. No more editing JSON files and crossing your fingers.

Inventories and Starter Kits

The Inventory view is one of the features we're most proud of. Click the inventory icon and you see exactly what the player is holding, laid out in the same hotbar and inventory grid you see in-game. Hover any item for name, durability, enchantments, and NBT data.

You can give items directly. Pick from the full Minecraft item list, set a quantity, and it appears in the player's inventory next time they connect.

The same interface doubles as a starter kit editor. Set up the inventory you want every new player to receive, save it as a kit, and the server gives it to anyone joining for the first time. No commands, no plugins.

A Note About Whitelist

A notice at the bottom of the page: online mode must be turned on for the whitelist to work. This is a Minecraft limitation, not ours. Without online mode, the server can't verify a player's UUID against Mojang, and the whitelist becomes trivial to bypass.

The Backup Page

The Backup page is the safety net under every other page. Whatever you do, you can come back here and rewind.

Automatic Backups

Every server gets automatic daily backups included. They run during off-peak hours and capture the full server state: worlds, plugins, configurations, player data, server.properties. We keep multiple snapshots so you've got several points to roll back to.

The backup list shows every snapshot with three columns:

• Date and time taken
• Type, automatic, manual, or pre-update (the ones we create before a one-click update)
• Status, successful, in progress, or failed

Manual Backups

A Create backup now button above the list. Click it before anything you're not 100% sure about: a new plugin, a guest player, a config change. Manual backups don't count against your automatic rotation.

Each backup takes a few minutes depending on world size, with progress visible in real time.

Restoring From a Backup

Every entry has a Restore button. Click it, confirm, and the server stops, restores, and starts back up.

The confirmation dialog is deliberately a little annoying. We make you confirm twice because a restore is destructive. Any changes since that backup are gone. We've seen admins accidentally restore a week-old backup and lose a weekend of progress, so the friction is intentional.

What Gets Backed Up

A common question is whether backups include plugins and configs or just the world. The answer is everything:

• All worlds, including custom or imported ones
• The full plugins folder, including each plugin's config and data
• Your server.properties and other root-level configs
• Player data (achievements, statistics, the playerdata folder)
• Operator, whitelist, and ban lists

The only thing we don't back up is the server jar, which can always be reinstalled from the Version page.

The Tasks Page

The Tasks page is the scheduler. Anything you'd want to remember to do every day, like restart at 4 AM or back up at midnight, lives here as a recurring task.

What You Can Schedule

A task is made of three parts: an action, an optional argument, and a time. The actions cover most of what an admin needs to automate:

• Restart the server, clears memory leaks and applies pending changes
• Run a backup, manual snapshots on your own schedule
• Send a broadcast message to online players
• Change the time of day (day, night, noon, midnight)
• Change the weather (clear, rain, thunder)
• Toggle the whitelist on or off
• Run a server command, anything you'd type in the console

Each task can be enabled or disabled independently with a toggle.

Preset Tasks

A row of one-click presets covers the tasks every admin ends up setting up anyway:

• Night restart, 3 AM
• Midnight backup
• Noon backup, for active servers wanting a second daily snapshot
• Daytime weather, clear weather during peak hours
• Clear weather, one-shot reset
• Evening message, broadcast a friendly note to players
• Night whitelist, on at night to block new joiners while you're asleep
• Morning whitelist off, back off in the morning

Click any preset and it's added with sensible defaults. Edit afterward if you want.

Building a Custom Task

For anything not covered by a preset, the Add task form lets you build your own. Pick an action, fill in the argument if needed, choose a time. Quick-select chips cover the most common hours: 03:00, 04:00, 06:00, 08:00, 12:00, 18:00, 20:00, 23:00.

Tasks run on the server's local timezone, shown at the top of the page.

The Upgrade Page

The Upgrade page is for when your server has outgrown its plan. Maybe you started small and now have 20 regulars asking for Create mod. Maybe your modpack wants more RAM. This page handles it without you canceling and re-ordering.

What You Can Upgrade

Three resources scale up:

• RAM, up to the maximum your hosting region supports
• CPU cores, more cores for plugin-heavy or mod-heavy servers
• Disk space, for large worlds, modpacks, or extensive backup history

Current allocation is shown at the top, with a selector for the new tier below.

How the Math Works

When you upgrade, you don't lose the money already paid. The system calculates the remaining value of your current subscription (days left times your current daily rate) and applies it as credit toward the new plan.

In practice: 100 days left on a €10/month plan upgrading to €15/month means the €33 remaining becomes credit, and you only pay the difference.

How Fast It Happens

The upgrade itself is immediate. We migrate your server to the new allocation in the background, usually within a few minutes. Your IP, subdomain, worlds, plugins, and player connections all stay the same. No data transfer, no manual file copying, no downtime beyond the brief restart to apply new resources.

Downgrades work the same way, with prorated credit. We'll warn you if the new plan can't fit your current world or RAM usage.

The Renewal Page

The Renewal page is exactly what it sounds like. Your hosting is sold by the month, and this is where you extend it.

What's Shown

At the top: your expiration date and how many days you have left. We surface this everywhere we can, because nothing kills a Minecraft community faster than the server quietly expiring while the owner is on vacation.

Duration Options With Bulk Discounts

Four duration options with progressive discounts:

• 1 month, base price
• 3 months, 10% off
• 6 months, 15% off
• 12 months, 20% off

The total is shown including tax before you confirm.

Payment Methods

We accept a wider range of payment methods than most hosts, because plenty of our customers are younger players paying for their own server:

• Credit / debit card
• PayPal
• Paysafecard, prepaid cards from convenience stores
• Allopass, SMS and phone-based payment

You can also pay with tokens, which accumulate from promotions, loyalty rewards, and referrals. Tokens appear as an applicable balance during checkout and can combine with regular payment.

That's the full panel. Settings, MCDoctor.ai, Updates, Version, Plugins, Maps, Credentials, Players, Backup, Tasks, Upgrade, Renewal, Donations.

Thanks for sticking with us through 11 years. We hope the new panel feels like it was built by people who actually run Minecraft servers, because it was.