Comparison of Minecraft Launchers
Minecraft, Mass Survey, Comparison ·Being a popular name, Minecraft have billions of players around the world. However, the official launcher really sucks, so there exists a plethora of unofficial, third-party launchers that blews the official one miles away in terms of design and functionality. In this post, I try to compare the functionality of the most popular Minecraft launchers/clients. Due to my inability to use all of the launchers in depth and the inherent subjectivity of the topic, I will not compare the design (aesthetics) and performance of different launchers, only their offered functionality.
Launcher Selection
As of Nov 2024, I think there are ten most popular launchers out there: (italics is the one-line summary that exists on each launcher’s official website; these are not my words but theirs.)
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Minecraft Official Launcher. Well, the one and only, officially supported, launcher. Even though its bad performance, poor functionality, and lack of customization is the root cause of these different third-party launchers’ existence, we still have to admit that this is the most used launcher, and the one that will be used by the beginners after buying the game.
Mod/Modpack Distribution Website Officials:
- Modrinth App. The Modrinth App is a unique, open source launcher that allows you to play your favorite mods, and keep them up to date, all in one neat little package. Being the official launcher for the newly popularized mod distribution website Modrinth, this launcher have the best builtin integration with Modrinth mods and modpacks, and is often recommended for modders.
- CurseForge App. Despite recent controversy, CurseForge is still the oldest, most comprehensive mod distribution website, and its launcher has the best integration with CurseForge mod and modpacks, so this is still the go-to choice for many.
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FTB App. Being the world’s largest modpack distributor, Feed The Best’s official launcher was, for a quite long time, the only launcher that can download FTB modpacks directly, and it remained a generally okay launcher even to this day with tight integration.
Internationally Popular:
- Prism Launcher. An Open Source Minecraft launcher with the ability to manage multiple instances, accounts and mods. Focused on user freedom and free redistributability. This is a fork of PolyMC after one of its main author committed several controversy actions, and PolyMC is a fork of ManyMC, who is a fork of MultiMC. MultiMC used to be the absolute best multi-instance launcher out there, but its development was abandoned in 2023, so multiple forks had emerged. In this post, for the entire MultiMC-series of launcher, I will just use Prism Launcher as a representative of all the MultiMC forks, since it is the most popular one.
- ATLauncher. ATLauncher is a simple and easy to use Minecraft Launcher which contains 155 modpacks for you to choose from, as well as the ability to browse and install packs from other platforms including CurseForge, Modrinth and Technic. With built-in integration of many modpacks and download channels, this has become a recent favorite for many Minecraft modders.
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GDLauncher. GDLauncher is a simple, yet powerful Minecraft custom launcher with a strong focus on the user experience. With automatic downloads of mods and modpacks from different channels and a builtin Java version manager, this is also a favorite for many people.
Chinese Creation: (Due to Netease’s controversy takeover of Minecraft’s distribution in China, many talented developer in China had developed fantastic third-party launchers for the international version of Minecraft, many exceeding the design and functionality provided by these mentioned above. However, a weakness is that these often have not-perfect English support.)
- HMCL (Hello Minecraft! Launcher). A Minecraft Launcher which is multi-functional, cross-platform and popular. Being one of the oldest launcher developed, it enjoyed unparalleled popularity in China, with many beginner’s tutorial directly recommending this launcher. During its early days, pirated play was a focus, but currently it supports official login pretty well.
- PCL2 (Plain Craft Launcher 2). A recently-emerged launcher with convenient, sleek UI, and gained popularity very quickly.
- BakaXL. BakaXL is distinctive in born. Breaking out the layer concept used by classical launchers, BakaXL is more than satisfying to use. You can use the powerful custom theme feature without any additional purchase, with parallax effect and live wallpaper working together, which is amazing! Originally designed as a client for a specific server, it has since emerged to one of the best-looking launchers out there, with blazing fast speed and modern design (written with Rust + Tauri).
What, Your Favorite Launcher Is Not Here?
This guide does not include launchers that
- Only support pirated play of Minecraft. Please buy an official version, it is not expensive.
- Have stopped maintaining.
- Is a fork of one of the above.
- That does not let you create custom instances (such as Technic’s official launcher).
- Have a limited user base.
The last one is subjective, but I really think these ten is a good representation of the most popular launchers in 2024. If you have any suggestions, feel free to open an issue to add more launchers.
Comparison Table
This table only resembles the then-current functionality as of Nov 2024.
| Official | Distribution Official | International | Chinese | ||||||||||
| Minecraft Launcher | Modrinth App | CurseForge App | FTB App | Prism Launcher | ATLauncher | GDLauncherThis table focuses on the Carbon version | HMCL | PCL2 | BakaXL | ||||
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| Development & Background | |||||||||||||
| Developer | Microsoft | Modrinth | Curse LLC | Feed The Beast | CommunityA group of 11 maintainers | Community | GorillaDevs | IndividualMade by huangyuhui | IndividualMade by LTCat (龙腾猫跃) | IndividualMade by TT702 | |||
| Initial release | 2013The new launcher (v2.x, v3.x) was released in Jul 2019 | 2023 | 2022 | 2022 | 2022 (2014 for MultiMC)Prism Launcher's first forked version (v5.0) released in Oct 2022, before that it is under the name of PolyMC since Mar 2022, when it is itself forked from MultiMC | 2016 | 2018 | 2015 | 2018 | 2015 | |||
| Open Source | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Stable versions onlySource code repo is only updated after each stable release | No | |||
| License | N/A | GPL-3.0 | N/A | LGPL-2.1 | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 | CustomThe legacy version was GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 | Custom | N/A | |||
| Development BuildsIncluding nightly, beta, ... | Yes | No | No | Yes | YesPer-commit build. Also available as -git packages | Yes | Yes | Yes | Paywalled |
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| Core Language | C++ | Rust | Unknown | TypeScript | C++ | Java | RustThe old version was written in JavaScript | Java | VB.NET |
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| UI FrameworkMany also used Vue, which will not be listed | Chromium Embedded Framework | Tauri | Electron | Qt | Java Swing | SolidJSThe old version was written in Electron | JavaFX | WPF |
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| Platform Support | |||||||||||||
| Windows | 64-bit | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| 32-bitLatest Minecraft version that supports 32-bit OS is 1.20.4 | No | No | No | No | NoMultiMC has 32-bit support | Should workJAR file provided | No | Yes | Yes32-bit support works, but no maintenance work is planned. Bugfix reports will be ignored | Yes | |||
| ARM 64-bitOfficially supported only after 1.19 | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Should workJAR file provided | No | YesHMCL extended Minecraft ARM support to 1.8 | No |
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| macOS | 64-bit | Yes | Yes | Universal | Yes | Universal | Universal JAR | Universal | Universal JARHMCL extended Minecraft ARM support to 1.8 using Rosetta 2 | No |
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| ARM 64-bitOfficially supported only after 1.19 | Rosetta 2 | Yes | Yes |
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| Linux | 64-bit | DEB+TAR | DEB+RPM | DEB only | DEB+RPM | TAR only | DEB+RPM | AppImage only | JAR |
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| ARM 64-bitOfficially supported only after 1.19 | No | No | No | DEB+RPM | Flatpak only | JAR | No | JAR |
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| OtherNo official support | No | No | No | No | No | JAR may work | No | JARHMCL supports ARM32, MIPS64el, RISC-V 64, LoongArch64, and FreeBSD | No | ||||
| Distribution ChannelOnly Intel/AMD 64-bit distributions are considered | |||||||||||||
| Portablei.e. no setup and no dependency executable | No | No | No | No | Yes | YesWindows only; other platform can use JAR | No | YesWindows only; other platform can use JAR | No | No | |||
| Windows | Microsoft Store | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ||
| WinGet | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | |||
| Chocolatey | Unofficial | No | No | Unofficial | Unofficial | No | Unofficial | No | No | No | |||
| Scoop | Yesgames/minecraft | Unofficial | Unofficial | No | Yesgames/prismlauncher[-git] | Unofficial | Unofficial | Unofficial | Unofficial | No | |||
| macOS | Homebrew | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | NoThe legacy version is available | No | N/A | N/A | ||
| Linux Universal | Flathub | Unofficial | YesAlthough unverified, recommended by the official website | No | No | Yes | Yes | Unofficial | No | N/A | N/A | ||
| AppImage | AppMan | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | AppMan | |||||
| Snap | Unofficial | No | No | No | No | Abandoned | No | No | |||||
| Linux Distros | Alpine | No | No | No | No | Community | No | No | No | N/A | N/A | ||
| Archincl. Manjaro | AUROfficially recommended | AUR | AUR | AUR | Yes | AUR | AUR | AUR | |||||
| Fedoraincl. CentOS Stream/RHEL | Terra | No | No | No | COPR | No | No | No | |||||
| Debianincl. Ubuntu | MPR | No | No | No | MPR | No | No | No | |||||
| Pi OS | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | |||||
| Gentoo | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | |||||
| NixOS | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |||||
| openSUSEincl. SLE | Games | No | No | No | OBS | No | No | OBS | |||||
| Slackware | No | No | No | No | SlackBuilds | No | No | No | |||||
| Void | No | No | No | No | YesPrismLauncher | No | No | No | |||||
| Basics | |||||||||||||
| Minecraft Versions |
Releases | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Snapshots | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| BetasDec 2010 (b1.0) - Sep 2011 (b1.8.1) | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| AlphasMay 2009 (rd-132211) - Dec 2010 (a1.2.6) | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| Experimentse.g. 1.14-16 combat experiment, 1.18-19 experiment snapshot | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | |||
| Demo | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | |||
| Version Release Notes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | |||
| Java | Bundled | YesBundled with Microsoft-built OpenJDK | No | DelegatedUsed the official launcher's Java | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ||
| Auto Detect | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| Auto Download | No | Yes | No | YesAutomatically downloads Adoptium JDK at startup, regardless of whether you have Java installed | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| Auto MatchIn general, it is recommended to use Java 8 for 1.16-, Java 17 for 1.17-1.20.4, and Java 21 for 1.20.5+ | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| Accounts | |||||||||||||
| Singleplayer | Microsoft | Yes | Yes | Yes | YesRequires connection code | Yes | Yes | YesRequires connection code | YesRequires connection code | YesRequires connection code | YesRequires connection code | ||
| Offline | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| Piratedi.e. offline without valid account | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | In ChinaOutside mainland China, the launcher will require a valid account before allowing offline play | In ChinaOutside mainland China, the launcher will require a valid account before allowing offline play | |||
| Quick PlayOnly available for 1.20+ | Yes | No | SomewhatSupport a beta "quick launch" mode that skips the official launcher, but cannot directly join worlds | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | |||
| Skin Management | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| Modding | |||||||||||||
| Mod Loader Auto Install |
Forge | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| NeoForgeFork of Forge, only available for 1.20.1+ | No | YesCrash/hang when unsupported version selected | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| FabricOnly available for 1.14+ | No | YesCrash/hang when unsupported version selected | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| Legacy FabricFork of Fabric that supports version prior to 1.14 | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | |||
| QuiltOnly available for 1.14+ | No | YesCrash/hang when unsupported version selected | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |||
| LiteLoaderDiscontinued. Only available for 1.6.2-1.12.2 | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | NoListed as "unsupported yet" | |||
| OptiFineNot a mod loader, but essential for some shaders | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| Mod Download |
Modrinth | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| CurseForge | No | No | Yes | Yes | YesUse website opening to bypass blocked mods | YesUse website opening to bypass blocked mods | YesBypass granted by CurseForge | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| Resource Pack Download |
Modrinth | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | ||
| CurseForge | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | |||
| Shader Pack Download |
Modrinth | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | ||
| CurseForge | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | |||
| Mod Version Auto-Match | N/A | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | |||
| Mod Dependency | Install onlyDisable mods will not warn about dependency | Yes | No | Install onlyDisable mods will not warn about dependency | Install onlyDisable mods will not warn about dependency | Install onlyDisable mods will not warn about dependency | Install onlyDisable mods will not warn about dependency | Install onlyDisable mods will not warn about dependency | Install onlyDisable mods will not warn about dependency | ||||
| Datapack Download | Modrinth | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ||
| CurseForge | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | |||
| CurseForge World Download | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | |||
| Modpack Download |
Modrinth | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| CurseForge | No | No | Yes | Yes | YesURL / Select | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| FTB | No | No | No | Yes | NoSlowpoke had requested removal of FTB modpack downloading feature. Only imports from FTB App is available | YesFTB modpack downloading was restored in Nov 2024 | No | No | No | No | |||
| Technic | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | |||
| ATLauncher | No | No | No | No | Experimental | YesURL / ID / Select | No | No | No | No | |||
| Auto Update | Mod(pack) | N/A | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Mod only | No | ||
| Resource/Shader | NoUpdater ignores non-mods | Yes | N/A | YesComing in v10.0 | No | N/A | No | N/A | N/A | ||||
| Functionality | |||||||||||||
| Ads | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | |||
| Multi-Language Support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | WIPAvailable in development builds | Yes | |||
| In-Game Overlay | No | No | Yesvia Overwolf | Yesvia Overwolf | No | No | No | No | No | No | |||
| Instance Separation | ManualPossible by manually selecting different directories | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |||
| Instance Grouping | No | YesVia setting categories | No | YesVia setting categories | Yes | No | No | No | YesVia bookmark | No | |||
| Instance Backup | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | |||
| One-Click Instance Launch | No | No | No | No | YesCan create shortcut for instances on desktop | Yes | No | No | No | No | |||
| Directory OpenerEasy/one-click access to mods, shareds, ... folders | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| World Managemente.g. Rename without launch the game, MCEdit, ... | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | |||
| Screenshot Management | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |||
| Proxy | No | No | No | Beta | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | |||
| Customized Font | Size only | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | |||
| Themes | No | PresetHave preset light / dark / OLED themes, no custom theme support | PaywalledClassic / Light is free, other themes need premium | No | Yes | Yes | PresetHave 4 presets, no custom theme support | Yes | Paywalled | Yes | |||
| Background | No | No | No | No | Have Cat | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| UtilitiesNetwork Checker, ... | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | |||
| Advanced | |||||||||||||
| Instance Import / Export |
Modrinthmrpack | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Import only | Import only | Import only | ||
| CurseForgeZIP | No | Import onlyCan only import from CurseForge App | Yes | Import only | YesZIP / URL | YesZIP / URL | YesZIP / URL | Import only | Import only | Import only | |||
| FTBshare code | No | No | No | Yes | Import onlyCan only import from FTB App | No | No | No | No | No | |||
| TechnicZIP | No | No | No | No | Import only | No | No | No | No | No | |||
| MultiMCZIP | No | Import onlyCan import instance from MultiMC / GDLauncher / ATLauncher | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Export only | No | Import only | |||
| ATLauncherZIP | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | |||
| MCBBSv2, ZIP | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| Command Line Interface | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |||
| JVM Param / Memory Limit | YesNo memory limit support, possible by passing -Xmx/-Xms | Yes | YesBuilt-in memory limit support but no parameter support, possible through official launcher | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| Environmental Variables | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | |||
| APIPastebin, Modrinth/CurseForge API key, ... | No | No | No | YesMineTogether | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | |||
| Log Console | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | StaticLogs shown only on error | |||
| Log Analyze | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| Window Settingsprocess priority, window title, ... | No | PartialSupports fullscreen and width / height spec | PartialSupports fullscreen and width / height spec | No | PartialSupports fullscreen and width / height spec | No | No | Yes | Yes | PartialSupports fullscreen and width/height spec | |||
| NBT Analyze | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | |||
| Summary | |||||||||||||
| Total ScoreYes = 1, Almost = 0.8, Mixed = 0.5, Not really = 0.2, No = 0; Maximum Score: 100 | 32.7 | 42.2 | 30.7 | 39.2 | 73.2 | 60.9 | 35.9 | 55.1 | 37.9 |
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Notes:
- This table does not consider multiplayer/server-related functionalities (server opening/management, hosting, …) due to me being unfamiliar with servers. An equally comprehensive comparison table here can be used for that.
- The BakaXL column contains only the information for v3 for now (except the announced mutli-platform support). After v4 released I will update this column.
Screenshots
Several screenshots, mostly from official websites, to give a sense on what the UI for each launcher looks like.
Star History Charts
Here is the GitHub star history graph for some of the launchers above:
Notes:
- PCL2 and BakaXL are not fully open-sourced, so their star counts are not representative.
- GDLauncher’s star count is for the legacy version, the Carbon version is too new to get a representative count.
- MultiMC has stopped development after 2023, hence the difference in trend.
- Modrinth’s repo contains both the code for the app and the entire website.