Are Minecraft Mods Safe? We’ve Tested It Out!

Modding has been around since the dawn of Minecraft, and it has had nothing but ups since then. As Minecraft developed into the perfect game, we know and love, so did modding. So why shouldn’t you trust a mod? There are tons of Minecraft YouTubers using them, your friends are using them, and it seems that everyone is using them. If you still have reservations about Minecraft mods, let’s answer, in great detail, if Minecraft mods are safe.

Mods in Minecraft: A brief history

Minecraft wasn’t always what it is today. You couldn’t do a lot in its first year of existence. You could build a house out of cobblestone and dirt and mine wood. What started as a game with no future turned into the game giant we know today, thanks to the community that took an interest in the game and saw its potential even back then.

Before 2010, there weren’t any traces of modding in Minecraft, but in 2010, everything changed. Minecraft Alpha was released, and along came modding because Alpha introduced multiplayer to the game. The mods back then were simple, varying from bug fixes to High-Res textures. What used to be simple mods grew into more complicated ones, resembling the ones we have today with the introduction of MCP or Mod Coder Pack.

Back then, modding was complicated since you had to insert the code into the Minecraft jar manually. If you wanted to use two mods, you had to mash the two codes, combine them, and enter them. It wasn’t until Forge, the API that made modding more accessible and easier, that Minecraft modding grew to its full-on glory.

Can Minecraft mods be trusted?

I mentioned the history of modding in Minecraft to make you see that modding isn’t anything to be afraid of; it’s part of Minecraft’s history, after all. The internet is ever-growing, and more people use it daily. You can’t prevent a person with malicious intent from going online and uploading a virus just for the fun of it, just as much as you can’t prevent a person with good intentions from going online and writing a blog post that’ll lighten up your day.

The internet passes no judgment, and there are no real-life conversations to be had with a person you’re about to do something bad to by the internet’s standards, so anything on the internet is to be trusted with a grain of salt. Even the biggest websites don’t take responsibility for viruses you might get browsing their web pages. The same applies to mods; you can trust them with a grain of salt.

Can they contain malware?

Mods can contain data-stealing viruses and malware. They make game franchises more successful, but unfortunately, it’s the risk you have to take when downloading them. Luckily, you can help yourself to a ton of mods that have been tried and tested by unsuspecting players who had no problems whatsoever with most of them.

Are mods in Minecraft officially endorsed?

A statement by Mojang studios says that Mojang or Microsoft does not officially endorse modifications to Minecraft, or mods for short. Because of this, they can’t provide support for any mods, which means that if you get in trouble because you modded your Minecraft experience, they can’t be responsible for any viruses that you pick up along the way and the issues with the game that you run into as a result of downloading said mods.

With that said, this shouldn’t scare you away from modding because it’s what’s the most fun about Minecraft. So, which websites can you trust when it comes to modding? Let’s take a look at the list.

Biggest mod websites

1. Planet Minecraft – Planet Minecraft is a community site that contains everything you could want to download for Minecraft. It has more than 25 moderators that ensure the community-provided mods are safe. You can also rely on the large community to point you in the right direction when downloading mods.
2. CurseForge – CurseForge is likely the most trusted site of all the listed. It’s a favorite among the Minecraft community. I use the site along with Planet Minecraft.
3. MCPEDL – The site offers a variety of add-ons, texture packs, and shaders for Minecraft Pocket Edition, so if you ever wondered how to mod your Minecraft mobile experience, this site is the answer
4. Twitch App – In the community, the Twitch app is a prominent place where you can download modpacks directly through the app. It’s weird, but it works, and it’s a lot safer than trying to figure out which mods are sketchy and which ones you can trust.

How to recognize a safe-to-use mod

There are three tips to follow when it comes to mods: check the views, downloads, and comments. If a mod has low views, avoid it; if it has a low number of downloads, avoid it; if there aren’t any comments, also avoid it. Comments and downloads are your best friends, though. Surely, someone will warn you about the dangers of using a mod if they have already downloaded it and had a bad experience. On the other hand, if they’re telling you that it’s safe to download, it likely is. The ideal scenario would be if the mod had a ton of downloads and comments.

In the end, the best thing to do is to have paid antivirus software like ESET or Norton Security to download mods. In the long run, it’s a worthwhile investment that will protect you from fishy mods and other sketchy websites and links. Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!

Liked this article? Join us on Reddit for the latest Marvel & DC news!