Waterfall is Officially Retiring — What You Need to Know

Waterfall's Journey Comes to an End

PaperMC has officially announced that Waterfall, their community-maintained fork of BungeeCord, will no longer receive updates or support. After years of being a solid alternative for network proxies, the project has reached the end of its lifecycle. If you've been running Waterfall to connect multiple servers, it's time to start thinking about your next move.

Why Now?

The decision to retire Waterfall comes down to resource allocation and the evolving landscape of proxy software. Maintaining a stable fork requires consistent effort, and the team wanted to be honest about what they could realistically support going forward. Rather than let the project stagnate with infrequent updates, PaperMC decided a clean end-of-life announcement was the fairest approach.

What This Means for Server Owners

If you're currently running Waterfall, you've got some decisions to make:

• Security concerns: Without active maintenance, you won't receive patches for vulnerabilities discovered down the road.
• Compatibility: As Minecraft and plugins evolve, Waterfall will eventually fall behind.
• Migration planning: Now's the time to evaluate alternatives like Velocity (the modern, actively-developed proxy built with performance in mind) or sticking with the original BungeeCord if it suits your needs.

Pro tip: Don't panic and migrate immediately if your setup is working fine, but do start testing alternatives in a dev environment. This gives you time to plan a smooth transition before you absolutely need to.

What's Next?

The Minecraft proxy ecosystem is healthier than it's been in years. Velocity has matured significantly and offers better performance and features than older solutions. Whether you go that route or choose another option, just make sure you're on something actively maintained. Your network's stability depends on it.