Grace Anticheat vs Shard
Grace Anticheat
github.comShard
shard.acSide by side
| Figure | Grace Anticheat | Shard |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | 1,490 RUB/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 7 |
| Spec score · Minecraft Anti-Cheat Plugins | 7.4 (#19) | 7.7 (#12) |
| Spec score · Minecraft anti-cheat plugins | 7.6 (#19) | 8.1 (#7) |
| Compatibility | The standalone listing specifies Paper support for Minecraft Java Edition versions 1.19.x, 1.20.x, and 1.21.x. | The plugin requires Java 17 or newer and a Paper or Folia based server, and supports SQLite or MySQL storage. |
| Detection | It uses a rules-based detection pipeline and statistical behavioral analysis. | Shard says its behavior analysis is trained on real gameplay and detects cheaters without manual review. |
| Purpose | Grace is an anticheat for Java Minecraft servers that targets closet cheating and ghost cheating, and also handles blatant hacking. | Shard provides cloud protection against combat cheats on Minecraft servers. |
Plans
Shard
- FreeFree
- Plus1,490 RUB a month
- Pro2,490 RUB a month
- Business3,490 RUB a month
- Scale4,990 RUB a month
- Max7,990 RUB a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
Grace Anticheat
Grace Anticheat is a free, self-hosted anticheat for Java Minecraft servers. It targets closet cheating, ghost cheating and blatant hacking through rules-based detection and statistical analysis of player behavior. Servers can run a proxy arrangement with a Velocity plugin and Paper companion plugin, or choose a standalone Paper plugin without Velocity. The proxy setup requires Velocity 3.3.0 or later, Paper 1.19 or later and Java 21 or later; the standalone listing covers Minecraft Java 1.19.x, 1.20.x and 1.21.x. Grace can alert staff in-game and send formatted Discord webhook embeds. Configuration supports teleporting players back on hard alerts, kicking on action alerts and optional automatic bans, disabled by default. Staff commands expose engine status, evidence summaries, alert controls, violation history and configuration reloads. Grace is beta 0.1.0 and actively developed. Its API and related components are open source, while detection logic, model weights and threshold tuning are closed source.
Shard
Shard is a Minecraft server anti-cheat service combining a plugin for self-hosted servers with a cloud dashboard. Its behavior analysis is trained on real gameplay, and Shard says it detects cheaters without manual review. Listed detection coverage includes killaura, aim assist and triggerbot. The dashboard brings statistics for connected servers together. To set it up, users install the plugin, create a server in the dashboard and connect it with the /shard connect command. The plugin requires Java 17 or newer and a Paper or Folia server; supported storage options include SQLite and MySQL, with MariaDB also described in the documentation. Shard describes its software as open source, and the plugin is licensed under GPLv3. Shard 1 Flash is available on any plan; the more accurate Shard 1 Pro is available on paid plans after account verification. A credit covers 400,000 checks with Flash or 100,000 with Pro. The Free plan is free and includes five monthly credits, one server and up to 10 online players.