In Databases / Updated October 17, 2026

MySQL is server software that stores data in tables and answers pointed questions about that data on demand. Some plugins want one. This page explains what it is, when plugins actually need it, and where the honest boundary of this category sits.

What MySQL is, plainly

MySQL is database server software: a program that runs on a machine somewhere, holds records in tables, and answers direct questions against those tables. A table is rows and columns with named fields, like a spreadsheet that stays on call: you ask it "what is this player's balance", and it hands back one answer instead of making you read the whole sheet. That kind of targeted lookup, happening over and over, is the entire point of it.

One naming habit worth fixing early, because it causes half the confusion around this topic: MySQL is the software, the provider is whoever runs it for you, and the plugin is the thing asking. Three different things, and this category keeps them apart.

When plugins actually want one

Plugins that track one value per player get along fine in small files. The patterns that push a plugin's author to ask for MySQL are the ones with lots of structured data and lots of pointed questions:

• economies: balances, transactions, and shop stock, growing one record per event
• stats and leaderboards: many records per player, sorted and recounted as they change
• kits, claims, and permissions: structured records matched against constantly
• play that crosses more than one server: several servers can point at the same database, so they all read one shared copy of the data

The trigger in every case is the same: precise questions, asked too often for flat files to be the comfortable shape. When a plugin asks its config file for database details, its author had one of those patterns in mind.

How you find out what your plugins want

The plugin's own page and documentation name it, and that beats every general rule on this page or any other. Two honest outcomes live there:

• The docs never mention a database: the plugin manages its own storage, and you configure nothing extra.
• The docs ask for MySQL: they usually show the config block that takes it, with the fields it names, and that is where the credentials article in this category picks up the story.

We do not sell database hosting: when a plugin needs an external database, you bring your own from a provider you choose.

The middle ground, and where the details go

SQLite is the common middle ground: table storage that lives in a single file inside the plugin's own folder, with no separate server anywhere. Many plugins default to it. Both the SQLite page and the credentials page sit in Related reading, and together they cover the rest of what this topic touches.

Related reading: SQLite: the database your plugins already use , Pointing a plugin at a database: where the credentials go .

Want a second pair of eyes on whether your plugin list even needs one: open a ticket from your account with the plugin names, and a person answers.