TPS stands for Ticks Per Second. A healthy Minecraft server runs at 20 TPS. Below 15 TPS, players notice lag. Below 10 TPS, the game becomes unplayable.
The most common cause of lag is not enough RAM. Each online player uses roughly 50–100 MB of RAM. Add plugins and that climbs fast. Upgrade your plan if you're consistently above 80% RAM usage.
Paper is a Minecraft server software that performs significantly better than vanilla or Spigot. Switch to it in the Version tab of your control panel.
The default view distance (10 chunks) is very expensive. Set it to 6–8 in server.properties. Most players won't notice the difference.
Each plugin adds overhead. Audit your plugin list and remove anything you're not actively using.
Lyrebird's built-in AI optimizer analyzes your server settings and suggests specific changes to improve performance. Find it in the Properties tab.
In paper.yml, reduce max-auto-save-chunks-per-tick and other chunk settings. These default values are too high for small servers.
Paper supports async chunk loading by default, but make sure you're on the latest Paper version to get all performance improvements.
Use /paper entity list to see what entities exist. Excessive mobs, dropped items, or minecarts can tank TPS. Clear them with /kill @e[type=item].
Use the Spark profiler plugin (/spark profiler) to see which plugins are using the most CPU. Target the heaviest ones for optimization or replacement.
If you've done everything above and still have lag with many players, it's time for more RAM. Our plans start at $1.99/mo and you can upgrade anytime from the billing dashboard.