Best Rust Server Plugins in 2026 (Oxide and Carbon)

The best Rust server plugins for most community servers are Admin Radar and Vanish for moderation, Furnace Splitter, Remover Tool and Backpacks for quality of life, Gather Manager and Stack Size Controller for modded rates, NTeleportation and Rust Kits for convenience, Better Chat and Clans for community, and True PVE or Raidable Bases if you run PvE. Every plugin below is on uMod, is still published, and runs on both Oxide and Carbon.

Install them by dropping the .cs file into oxide/plugins (or carbon/plugins). They compile and load on their own. If you have never done it, our Oxide and Carbon install guide walks through it.

Before you install anything

Three rules that save a lot of grief:

Fewer is better. Every plugin hooks into game events, and twenty plugins that each cost a little add up to a server that stutters at 80 players. Install for a reason, not because a list said so.
Plugins break on force wipe day. Facepunch's monthly update often changes things plugins rely on. Check each plugin's uMod page after the update before you panic.
Installing any plugin moves you to the Modded tab in the server browser. That is normal. A light "vanilla plus" server with only QoL plugins can still describe itself that way in the name.

Admin and moderation plugins

Plugin	Author	What it does
Admin Radar	nivex	ESP style radar for admins: players, sleepers, stashes, loot. The standard tool for checking cheat reports
Vanish	Whispers88	Makes admins invisible to players, NPCs and turrets
Player Administration	ThibmoRozier	In game GUI to kick, ban, mute and inspect players
Admin Hammer	mvrb	Hit an entity with a hammer to see who owns it and who is authed
Copy Paste	misticos	Copy and paste buildings. Also a dependency for Raidable Bases

If you only install one admin plugin, make it Admin Radar. Being able to see what a reported player can see settles most arguments in minutes. Carbon also ships a built in Vanish module, so on Carbon you can skip the plugin.

Quality of life plugins

Plugin	Author	What it does
Furnace Splitter	FastBurst	Splits ore evenly across furnace slots automatically
Remover Tool	Tryhard	Lets players remove their own building parts for a refund
Backpacks	WhiteThunder	A personal backpack with configurable size, kept on death or dropped
Auto Doors	bushhy	Closes doors automatically after a few seconds
Sign Artist	Whispers88	Puts images from URLs onto signs
Building Grades	VisEntities	Upgrade a whole building to a grade in one command
Night Lantern	k1lly0u	Turns lanterns and lights on at night, off in the day
Quick Smelt	misticos	Faster furnaces with configurable speed

These are the plugins players thank you for. Furnace Splitter and Remover Tool are on almost every "vanilla plus" server for a reason: they remove tedium without changing how Rust plays.

Rate and loot plugins (2x, 3x, 5x servers)

Plugin	Author	What it does
Gather Manager	Ryan	Multiplies gather rates from nodes, trees, pickups and quarries
Stack Size Controller	AnExiledDev	Raises item stack sizes by category or item
Chest Stack Multiplier	MONaH	Raises stack sizes inside boxes only
Crafting Controller	Whispers88	Changes craft times and blocks items from crafting
Better Loot	MagicServices	Rebuilds loot tables so you can tune what crates and barrels drop

Gather Manager has not needed many updates in recent years and is still the most downloaded rates plugin on uMod. On Carbon, the built in Gather Manager and Stack Manager modules do the same jobs without a plugin. Keep rates honest in your server name: a "2x" label with 2x gather but vanilla stacks annoys people.

Teleport, kits and home plugins

Plugin	Author	What it does
NTeleportation	nivex	Homes, teleport requests (`/tpr`), town teleport, cooldowns and limits
Rust Kits	k1lly0u	Starter kits, VIP kits, cooldowns and auto kits on respawn
Image Library	k1lly0u	Image cache that many UI plugins need as a dependency

NTeleportation is the one that changes your server's feel the most. Short cooldowns turn Rust into a fast paced modded server. Long cooldowns and no teleport out of combat keep it closer to vanilla. Decide which you want before you install it.

Community and chat plugins

Plugin	Author	What it does
Better Chat	LaserHydra	Chat titles, colors and groups, used by many other plugins
Clans	k1lly0u	Clans with tags, invites, ally support and friendly fire options
Death Notes	MrBlue	Kill feed messages in chat with weapon and distance
Rustcord	OuTSMoKE	Links your server to Discord for chat relay, logs and reports

Economy plugins

Plugin	Author	What it does
Economics	MrBlue	A server currency other plugins can pay and charge
Server Rewards	k1lly0u	Reward points for playtime, spendable in a store
GUI Shop	OfficeEgg	An in game shop to buy and sell items

A shop changes the economy of a wipe a lot. Start with high prices and lower them, never the other way round.

PvE and event plugins

Plugin	Author	What it does
True PVE	nivex	Fine grained damage rules: who can hurt what, where, and when
Zone Manager	k1lly0u	Defines zones with their own rules (no build, no PvP, safe zones)
Raidable Bases	nivex	Spawns NPC bases with loot for players to raid. Needs Copy Paste
Dangerous Treasures	nivex	Event chests guarded by fire and NPCs
Heli Control	Shady	Tunes the patrol helicopter's health, damage and loot
ZLevels Remastered	nivex	Skill levels for woodcutting, mining and skinning

True PVE plus Zone Manager plus Raidable Bases is the classic PvE stack: players cannot hurt each other or each other's bases, and raiding happens against NPC bases instead. Raidable Bases spawns its bases from Copy Paste files, so you need base files saved in oxide/data/copypaste before anything appears.

Suggested plugin packs

Server style	Plugins
Vanilla plus with friends	Furnace Splitter, Remover Tool, Auto Doors, Admin Radar
2x community	The above plus Gather Manager, Stack Size Controller, Better Chat, Death Notes
5x or 10x modded	The above plus NTeleportation, Rust Kits, Backpacks, Clans, Image Library
PvE	True PVE, Zone Manager, Raidable Bases, Copy Paste, NTeleportation, Backpacks

Paid plugins (big UIs, custom events, monument edits) are sold on Codefling. Check that any paid plugin supports your framework and gets updated on force wipe day before you buy.

Running plugins on GamezServers

Pick the Oxide or Carbon server type at checkout, or switch type later in the panel. Upload .cs files to oxide/plugins or carbon/plugins in the Files tab or over SFTP, and edit configs in oxide/config or carbon/configs. After a config edit, press Reload Oxide plugins or Reload Carbon plugins instead of restarting. Rust and your framework update themselves on every restart, which is the part that saves you on force wipe day. Plugin heavy servers use more RAM, so the 12 or 16 GB plans on our Rust hosting page are the comfortable choice for a 5x or PvE build.

FAQ

Do Rust plugins work on both Oxide and Carbon?

Almost all of them. Carbon is built to load Oxide plugins, so everything on uMod should run. A few plugins that patch deep into Oxide internals can misbehave, so test before a wipe.

Do players need to download plugins?

No. Rust plugins run only on the server. Players join normally and see the results, like new chat commands or UI.

Which plugins slow a Rust server down the most?

Plugins that run on every entity or every tick, like heavy UI plugins, big event plugins and anything that scans the whole map. Run oxide.plugins or c.plugins to see each plugin's total hook time and look for the outliers. Our Rust lag fix walks through it.

Are uMod plugins free?

Yes. Everything on uMod is free. Paid plugins are sold on Codefling and other marketplaces, and the authors set their own terms.

Why did my plugins stop working after the monthly update?

Facepunch's update replaced files the framework hooks into. Update Oxide or Carbon (on our servers, restart), then check each plugin's page for an update if it still errors.