What Is a Minecraft SMP Server? (And What Makes MiningMaven SMP Different)

SMP means Survival Multiplayer. What an SMP server is, what to look for in one, and how MiningMaven SMP does survival multiplayer.

By the MiningMaven SMP team · Updated October 3, 2026

SMP stands for Survival Multiplayer. An SMP server is one shared survival world where many players build, gather, trade and compete together. Your builds stay, other players are part of the game, and most servers add land protection, an economy and events on top of vanilla survival.

SMP vs. single-player survival

• Single-player survival is you alone in your own world. Nothing happens unless you do it.
• An SMP is a world that keeps going without you. Prices change, events happen and other players' towns grow.
• You can trade for what you need instead of grinding everything yourself, and you can sell what you are good at producing.
• Rules and land claims keep your builds safe from other players.

What to look for in an SMP

• Land protection, so nobody can grief or steal from your base.
• A fair economy where paying players cannot simply buy power.
• Things to do beyond mining: events, quests and goals.
• An active community and staff you can reach.
• Regular updates, so the server keeps up with new Minecraft versions.

How MiningMaven SMP does it

MiningMaven SMP is a cross-play survival server. Java and Bedrock players share the same world. Everything below runs on the server's own custom plugin, built for MiningMaven rather than assembled from off-the-shelf plugins.

• Land: /claim protects the chunk you stand in, and your claim allowance grows the longer you play. No claiming within 200 blocks of spawn, so the area around spawn stays open.
• No pay-to-win: the store sells only Tokens, and everything Tokens buy (ranks, crate keys, spawners) can also be earned by playing.
• Two currencies: dollars for everyday trading, and Tokens for ranks and keys.
• A player economy: an auction house, player chest shops, direct trades and a jobs board where players pay each other to deliver items.
• Events: Arena KOTH four times a day, a Black Market with five rotating deals every 12 hours, and a weekly Head Merchant.
• Goals: three daily quests, 69 milestones with nine levels each, and weekly leaderboards that pay the top three in money, keys and Tokens.
• Season 1 cosmetics, Tides of Olympus: wraps with abilities and relic gear from the Cosmetics Crate.
• Six ranks from the free Sprout (link your Discord) to Legend, each with a daily netherite kit.
• A live web map, and a website marketplace for trading wraps.

How to start

• Add the server: Java play.miningmavensmp.com:25566, or Bedrock play.miningmavensmp.com port 19132.
• Type /kit for the free Starter kit, then /discord link for free Sprout rank and its daily netherite kit.
• Read the new-player guide for everything else, from claims to commands.

Join MiningMaven SMP

MiningMaven is a cross-play survival server — Java Edition and Bedrock Edition (phone, console, Windows) play in the same world — with custom cosmetics, KOTH events, quests, and a player-driven economy. Open Minecraft, add the server below, and talk to the NPCs at spawn to get started.