How many lines can a Minecraft MOTD have?

Two. Anything past the second line is cut off in the multiplayer server list, and very long lines are truncated too.

What is the difference between § and & colour codes?

They are the same codes with a different prefix. The game itself uses the section sign (§); most plugin configs accept & and convert it. Use whichever your file expects.

MOTD designer

Build the two lines players see in their server list. Click a color or format to insert it at your cursor, then copy the result in whichever format your server wants.

Colors

Custom

Formatting

Your MOTD

2 / 2 lineslongest line 36 chars

In-game preview

Your Server

EXAMPLE NETWORK » Season 4 is live

Survival · Skyblock · Now with pets!

42/100

Copy it out

§ section codes

§6§lEXAMPLE NETWORK §8» §eSeason 4 is live
§7Survival · Skyblock · §aNow with pets!

Paste straight into most plugin configs and web panels.

& ampersand codes

&6&lEXAMPLE NETWORK &8» &eSeason 4 is live
&7Survival · Skyblock · &aNow with pets!

The form Essentials and most plugin configs expect.

MiniMessage

<gold><bold>EXAMPLE NETWORK </bold></gold><dark_gray>» </dark_gray><yellow>Season 4 is live</yellow><newline><gray>Survival · Skyblock · </gray><green>Now with pets!</green>

Paper, Velocity and modern plugins.

server.properties

motd=\u00A76\u00A7lEXAMPLE NETWORK \u00A78» \u00A7eSeason 4 is live\n\u00A77Survival · Skyblock · \u00A7aNow with pets!

Escaped for the vanilla server.properties file.

JSON text component

{
  "text": "",
  "extra": [
    {
      "text": "EXAMPLE NETWORK ",
      "color": "gold",
      "bold": true
    },
    {
      "text": "» ",
      "color": "dark_gray"
    },
    {
      "text": "Season 4 is live",
      "color": "yellow"
    },
    {
      "text": "\n"
    },
    {
      "text": "Survival · Skyblock · ",
      "color": "gray"
    },
    {
      "text": "Now with pets!",
      "color": "green"
    }
  ]
}

For anything that takes a raw chat component.