Garry's Mod began in December 2004 as a Half-Life 2 mod by Garry Newman and became a standalone game in November 2006, built by Facepunch Studios and published by Valve on the Source engine. Out of the box it is a physics sandbox with no objectives at all: you spawn props, NPCs and tools and do whatever you like with them. What kept it alive for twenty years is everything the community built on top.

Facepunch still ships updates. The July 2025 update put most Counter-Strike: Source and Half-Life 2 Episodic content into the game by default, and work has continued into 2026. But the real game lives on community servers, where each one picks a gamemode, a rulebook and a set of addons. Choosing a server is really choosing which of those games you want to play.

A Sandbox Built From Gamemodes

A Garry's Mod server usually runs one gamemode, and the most common ones are games in their own right:

  • Sandbox - the base game with building tools, often with Wiremod for circuits and contraptions.
  • DarkRP - city roleplay with jobs such as citizen, police, gangster or gun dealer, player-run businesses and money to earn and lose.
  • Trouble in Terrorist Town - a social deduction shooter with innocents, traitors and detectives. It won Facepunch's Fretta contest and was added to the game in July 2010.
  • Prop Hunt - one team disguises itself as furniture and objects, the other hunts it down.
  • Serious RP - SCP, Star Wars and military roleplay servers with ranks, regiments and structured events.

Beyond those sit Murder, Jailbreak, Deathrun, zombie survival and countless custom modes. Some servers rotate between short modes, but most commit to one and build their whole community around it.

What to Look For in a Garry's Mod Server

How the Gamemode Is Run

Two DarkRP servers can play nothing alike. One keeps the stock jobs and lets chaos happen; another adds dozens of custom jobs, an economy, a police force with real procedures and a mayor with laws. On TTT the differences are karma settings, map rotation and the traitor shop. Read the server's own description of how it plays, not just the gamemode name.

Addons and Download Size

Joining means downloading the server's addons, and a heavily customized server can ask for gigabytes of models, maps and textures. Look for a Workshop collection you can subscribe to ahead of time, so you are not stuck on a loading screen for half an hour. If you see purple-and-black checkerboards or red error models after joining, the server expects content you have not got.

Rules, Staff and Sits

Most problems in Garry's Mod are other players, so staff matter more than features. Good servers publish clear rules on RDM, prop abuse and the new life rule, and they answer reports quickly through an in-game ticket or a staff sit. A large server with too few staff online at your hours will feel lawless whatever its rules say.

Donor Ranks and Fairness

VIP ranks are how most servers pay their bills. On DarkRP and serious RP, check whether donor ranks unlock better weapons, exclusive jobs or extra printers, because those buy a real advantage over everyone else. Cosmetic models, chat tags and extra prop limits are a much fairer deal.

Performance and Lag

Hundreds of addons, big prop builds and busy maps strain any server. Watch for rubber-banding, delayed physics and long freezes when a big contraption spawns. Servers that run prop limits and anti-lag tools stay playable when the player count climbs.

Getting Started

Decide which gamemode you actually want first, because that narrows the list fast. Subscribe to the server's Workshop collection before joining, read the rules properly (on roleplay servers they are long for a reason), and join the Discord so you know who the staff are. Spend a few rounds as a quiet citizen or innocent before you try anything ambitious. The ranking below lists the Garry's Mod servers players vote for here. Vote for the server you keep coming back to - rankings start over each month, so the list follows the regulars, not old reputations.