10 Best Minecraft Mods to Add to Your Gameplay (1.21 Updated)

Vanilla Minecraft is great, but modded Minecraft is where the real longevity lies. Whether you want to double your FPS or just stop looking up recipes on a second monitor, the right mods can completely transform your experience without ruining the core feel of the game.

Here is our curated list of the best "Vanilla+" mods compatible with Minecraft 1.21+ that every player should install.

Essential Performance Mods (The "Must-Haves")

Before adding content, you need a stable base. These mods don't change gameplay but will drastically improve your frame rates.

1. Sodium (Fabric) / Embeddium (Forge)

If you install only one mod, make it this one. Sodium rewrites the game's rendering engine, often tripling FPS on modern computers.

• Download:Sodium on Modrinth

2. Iris Shaders

Want your game to look beautiful without the lag of OptiFine? Iris works perfectly with Sodium to load shader packs with minimal performance impact.

• Download:Iris Shaders

Quality of Life Improvements

These mods fix the small annoyances in Minecraft’s UI and controls.

3. Just Enough Items (JEI)

Stop guessing crafting recipes. JEI adds a searchable list of every item in the game to the right of your inventory. Hover over an item and press R to see how to craft it, or U to see what it's used for.

• Alternative: REI (Roughly Enough Items) is a great alternative for Fabric users.

4. Mouse Tweaks

This mod saves your wrists. It allows you to click-drag to move items between chests and your inventory instantly, rather than clicking each stack individually.

5. AppleSkin

A simple HUD improvement that shows exactly how much hunger and saturation food will restore before you eat it. It also visualizes your saturation level as a gold outline over your hunger bar.

6. JourneyMap / Xaero's World Map

Never get lost again. These mods add a minimap to your HUD and allow you to set waypoints for your base, death location, and rare biomes.

• Server Tip: Most servers allow these, but some competitive PvP servers ban minimaps. Check the rules before joining!

7. Nature's Compass

If you are tired of wandering for hours looking for a Cherry Grove or Mushroom Island, this mod allows you to craft a compass that points directly to specific biomes.

Ready to Mod Your Server?

Most of these (like JEI and JourneyMap) are Client-Side mods, meaning you can use them on any server. However, if you want to add content mods like Create or Twilight Forest, you need a server that supports them.

At berrybyte, our Minecraft Server Hosting comes with a one-click modpack installer. Whether you want a lightweight vanilla+ experience or a heavy modpack like All The Mods 9, our Ryzen 9 CPUs can handle it.

Not sure how to get started? Read our next guide on How to Install Mods on a Server.