NeoForge is the 2023 fork of Forge that many content mods and modpacks for recent Minecraft versions are built for. You need it when a file says NeoForge. Its version numbers start with the Minecraft version, and apart from one shared version, Forge and NeoForge mods are not interchangeable.
NeoForge is the NeoForged project's mod loader for Minecraft: Java Edition, together with the API its mods are written against. It began in July 2023 as a fork of Forge, made by nearly all of Forge's developers, and it has since become a separate loader with mods of its own. Many of the large content mods and modpacks for recent Minecraft versions publish for it, and All the Mods 10 is one NeoForge pack.
Because it only dates from 2023, NeoForge exists for recent Minecraft versions alone, starting with the one Forge was on when the fork happened. You need it when a mod or modpack file says NeoForge. Unlike Forge, its version numbers tell you which Minecraft version a build targets, and its installers come straight from the project's own servers. Most mistakes come from somewhere else: Forge and NeoForge files look almost identical.
The NeoForged team's announcement blamed long-running conflict over how Forge was run, and at first the fork stayed compatible with Forge on purpose. Once independent, the team started reworking parts of Forge that had gone largely untouched for years.
Two of those changes are visible to players. The code moved to new package names, so a Forge mod for any Minecraft version released after the fork can't find what it's looking for on NeoForge. And mods now describe themselves in a file called neoforge.mods.toml rather than Forge's mods.toml. The upshot is that NeoForge and Forge need separate builds of every mod.
NeoForge's first release targeted the Minecraft version Forge was on when the fork happened, and it was built from an earlier Forge build for that version. Most Forge mods for that version load on it, and many files for it are tagged for both loaders. There are two limits. Forge kept releasing newer builds for that version afterwards, so a mod that asks for one of them can refuse to start on NeoForge. And the NeoForged team has said openly that work on that version is better spent on Forge, so if a modpack for it lists Forge, use Forge.
A NeoForge version starts with the Minecraft version it's for, which makes a wrong download far easier to catch than on Forge. For Minecraft's older numbering, 1.A.B, NeoForge drops the leading "1." and adds its own build count: A.B.build. For Minecraft's year-based numbering, NeoForge keeps the full Minecraft version, including a hotfix number of 0 when there isn't one, and puts the build count after it as a fourth part. Either way, everything before the build count should match your game. The installation guide on this page shows real examples of both.
A -beta suffix means breaking changes are still allowed for that Minecraft version. NeoForge drops it once the version settles, so a brand-new Minecraft release normally starts on beta builds. A few short-lived versions were replaced by the next patch before they ever left beta, and for those a beta is the newest NeoForge there is.
On Modrinth and CurseForge every file carries loader tags, and those are what count, not the project name or description. Choose the file tagged NeoForge for your exact Minecraft version, even when a Forge file for the same version has a newer date. For a jar already on your disk, open it as an archive: a NeoForge mod has neoforge.mods.toml inside META-INF, and a Forge mod has mods.toml. That same file states which NeoForge builds the mod accepts, so a mod that stops the game asking for a newer NeoForge needs a NeoForge update, not a replacement.
NeoForge can generate an in-game settings screen for a mod straight from its config files, opened from that mod's entry in the Mods menu, when the mod opts in. Where it's available, changing an option no longer means hunting for a file and editing it by hand.
The project also encourages mods that run purely on the server, and a server built only from that kind of mod can take players who never installed NeoForge.
Server owners have one more reason to keep NeoForge current within their Minecraft version. NeoForge keeps shipping builds for a version long after its release, and some fix real problems: in 2026 it patched a flaw that let a client crash a server with a crafted network packet, and pointed owners of versions without the fix to a third-party mitigation mod. Treat the newest build for your version as the baseline.
NeoForge doesn't load Fabric mods. Several well-known Fabric-first projects now publish official NeoForge builds instead, including Sodium, Lithium and Iris, each as a separate file from its Fabric version. OptiFine has no NeoForge version, so shader players on NeoForge use Iris.
For a Fabric mod with no NeoForge build, there's Sinytra Connector, a third-party mod that runs Fabric mods inside NeoForge. It isn't part of NeoForge, it covers only a handful of Minecraft versions, and it can't guarantee any particular mod will work. Treat it as a workaround for one mod you can't do without, not as a way to merge two mod lists. Where a real NeoForge build exists, use it.
Modpacks show why the loader belongs to each version of a pack rather than to the pack as a whole: Better MC runs on NeoForge for its newer editions and on Forge for an older one.
Open the NeoForge Downloads section on this page and click Download on the row for your Minecraft version. Each row points at the newest NeoForge installer for that version on the NeoForged project's own Maven server, which is also where neoforged.net sends you. Rows marked Beta are versions that haven't had a stable NeoForge build yet.
The download is a .jar named after its version, and the first part of that version is your Minecraft version: neoforge-21.1.251-installer.jar is for Minecraft 1.21.1, and neoforge-26.2.0.88-installer.jar is for 26.2. Check that part against your game before running it. The 1.20.1 installer is the odd one out: it's named forge-1.20.1-47.1.106-installer.jar, a leftover from before the fork, but it still comes from NeoForge's server.
.minecraft folder. Change it only if you keep Minecraft somewhere else.mods folder: %appdata%\.minecraft\mods on Windows, ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/mods on macOS, ~/.minecraft/mods on Linux.When it's running, the title screen has a Mods button listing everything NeoForge loaded. Prism Launcher, the CurseForge app and the Modrinth App can create NeoForge instances directly, and pick the right build for a modpack automatically. Our guide to installing Minecraft mods covers the rest of the process.
Run the same installer, choose Install server and point it at an empty folder. It writes launch scripts for starting the server. Tick Server starter jar as well if your host expects a single server.jar to run instead. On a machine without a desktop, java -jar with the installer's name and --install-server does the same job.
The server runs on the system's Java, which has to match the Minecraft version: Java 17 for 1.20.1 to 1.20.4, Java 21 for 1.20.5 to 1.21.11, and Java 25 from 26.1. Players then need the same versions of every mod that runs on both sides, while client-only mods such as Sodium stay off the server.
For reading crash reports and tracking down a bad mod, see our guide to fixing mods that won't load.
No builds match these filters.
No. Both projects are maintained and both release builds for new Minecraft versions. Many newer mods and packs target NeoForge, while a large body of work for 1.20.1 and older versions is Forge-only. The mods you want decide which one you need.
On Minecraft 1.20.1, the one version the two loaders share, it runs most of them, because NeoForge for that version is built on Forge 47.1. From 1.20.2 onward it can't, and you need the mod's NeoForge file.
Not by itself. Sinytra Connector, a separate third-party mod, runs some Fabric mods on NeoForge for a limited set of Minecraft versions. Where a mod publishes its own NeoForge build, as Sodium, Lithium and Iris do, that is the better option.
Yes, as separate launcher installations, but only one loader runs at a time. In the official launcher, give each installation its own game directory in its settings. Otherwise they share one mods folder and try to load each other's files.
For playing, whatever the Minecraft Launcher provides, so nothing to set up. Opening the installer needs Java on your computer. A server is different: it runs on the machine's own Java, which must meet the Minecraft version's requirement. The server section of the installation guide lists which Java each version needs.
NeoForge marks builds for a Minecraft version as beta while breaking changes are still allowed, and drops the label once that version settles. A newly released Minecraft version usually starts on beta builds. For a few short-lived versions, a beta is the only NeoForge ever released.
No. OptiFine has no NeoForge version. For shaders on NeoForge, use Iris, which publishes NeoForge builds and is designed to run shader packs written for OptiFine's shader format.
Yes. NeoForge is open source under the LGPL 2.1 licence and developed in public by the NeoForged project. The installers in this page's Download section come straight from NeoForged's own Maven server, the same source neoforged.net uses, so there is no reason to take one from anywhere else.
Quilt Loader is a Fabric-derived mod loader that runs Quilt mods and most Fabric mods. Quilt's own libraries are retired for current Minecraft versions, so a Quilt setup today is usually Fabric mods and Fabric API on Quilt's loader, with extras such as version-specific mod subfolders.
Forge is the long-running Minecraft: Java Edition mod loader behind most classic modpacks, with the longest version history of any loader still maintained. You need it when a mod or pack names Forge, installed for that exact Minecraft version. It doesn't run Fabric or Quilt mods, and shares NeoForge mods on only one Minecraft version.
Fabric is a lightweight modding toolchain for Minecraft. Its main piece, Fabric Loader, is what lets you run Fabric mods, and it usually works on new Minecraft versions within days of release. Most mods also need the separate Fabric API, which you add to your mods folder like any other mod.