Hibernate is a very simple plugin I use in all my servers. It will reduce CPU usage to about 0-1% when no players are online on the server. This can be used for a lot of purposes.
- Tested Minecraft Versions:
- 1.8
- 1.9
- 1.10
- 1.11
- 1.12
- 1.13
- 1.14
- 1.15
Note that this plugin will only be useful for small servers that tend to be empty at night or during schooldays. If you've got 500 players, the plugin will never "enable" and will not make any difference.
Features
How does this work?
- Save electricity (if you host the server)
- Let other software use the CPU when no one is playing Minecraft.
- Allow more servers to run on your machine
- Works for all versions of Craftbukkit or Spigot
- Very lightweight plugin. Does not cause any lag at all.
- ...
The plugin will intentionally "lag" your server while no players are connected. You can see it as freezing the server. It'll make it dormant until a player connects.
Command (since version 1.02)
You can use /hibernate to toggle the plugin off (and on again) this may be useful in situations where you have to generate a world while no players are online or something similar. Does not save over reload/restart! Enabled by default.
You have to be OP or have this permission to use the command:
hibernate.toggle
Caveats
- The first player to join the server while it is hibernating might have to try to connect twice. In most cases this is not needed, but it is possible
- Since Hibernate "freezes" the server, plugins like Dynmap will stop working when no players are connected
- Hibernate does not help if your server is never empty
- Because of the hibernation, can't keep up messages might show up in your console.
Example
Server with no players online, without Hibernate:
Server with no players online and Hibernate installed:![]()

Hibernate 1.02
Reduce CPU usage when no players are online. (For small, home-hosted servers)