FancyMenu | Build Your Own Minecraft Menus

You launch the game and the title screen greets you with the same panorama, the same buttons, and the same splash text for years. FancyMenu exists to end that loop. The mod wraps every menu in a visual editor, so you can rearrange buttons, drop in animated GIF backgrounds, and build screens that react to variables and conditions. Keksuccino has maintained it since 2020, it sits at roughly 71 million downloads, and updates keep coming. It also runs as a pure client-side mod, so it works on servers you do not control.

Customize Any Menu With the Layout Editor

Once the mod is loaded, a menu bar appears at the top of every menu in the game. Customization starts disabled on each screen, so nothing changes until you ask. Open the menu you want to rebuild, flip Current Screen Customization from Disabled to Enabled, then head to Layouts, pick New, and choose For Current Screen to enter the layout editor. Right-clicking the editor background brings up options like the menu background and adding new elements, while right-clicking any element opens its own customization options. Vanilla elements are customizable too, though some offer fewer options.

Positioning is where FancyMenu quietly gets smart. Every element is tied to an anchor point, set to Center of Screen by default, and anchors keep elements from overlapping or drifting when the window gets resized. Any element can even serve as another element's anchor. For stacking order, open Window, then Editor Widgets, then Layers, and drag elements around the hierarchy or nudge them a layer up or down. If you want a custom background image to sit behind the default buttons instead of covering them, right-click the editor background and enable Render Custom Elements Behind Vanilla. If an option stumps you, the official documentation walks through everything from the basics to advanced customization.

Animated GIF and APNG Backgrounds

Static backgrounds get old fast, so FancyMenu supports animated image formats like GIF and APNG. There is a practical split between the two animation systems, though. Classic FMA animations with many high-res frames eat a lot of RAM, so keep those short. AFMA is the better choice for large or complex animated textures. And for actual video playback inside a menu, use the Video element instead of stacking animation frames.

One setting deserves a warning. Enabling pre-loading front-loads large resources like high-res animations and sounds, which intentionally increases game startup time. If your game suddenly takes ages to open after you tweak a menu, that toggle is the usual suspect.

Action Scripts, Custom GUIs, and Addons

Looks are only half of it, because FancyMenu handles behavior too. Advanced users can build dynamic menu designs with conditional statements, known as loading requirements, plus variables and placeholders. Button behavior lives in Action Scripts: right-click a button, choose Edit Action Script, and add actions like Open Screen or Custom GUI, Join Server, or Set Variable Value. You can also build entirely new screens as Custom GUIs under Customization, then Custom GUIs, then Manage Custom GUIs, and open them with the Open Screen or Custom GUI action.

The addon ecosystem fills the remaining gaps. Drippy Loading Screen customizes the Mojang game loading screen, and SpiffyHUD does the same job for the in-game HUD, hotbar included. Fancy Entity Renderer is an optional dependency you will want if you plan to show player entities in your menus. Server admins get a Spigot plugin as well, which provides FancyMenu commands without the mod installed server-side. If you would rather start from a finished design, the layout templates channel on the official Discord server has full community setups with download links.

How to Install FancyMenu

1. Set up a mod loader first. FancyMenu runs on Fabric, Forge, and NeoForge. If you have never installed a mod before, our guide to installing Minecraft mods covers the basics.
2. Follow the walk-through for your loader: Fabric, Forge, or NeoForge.
3. Download FancyMenu from the official project page, along with its two required dependencies, Konkrete and Melody.
4. Drop all three jar files into the mods folder inside your game directory.
5. Launch the game with your loader profile. FancyMenu only needs to be on the client, so nothing changes on your server.
6. Server owners can optionally install it server-side to remotely open GUIs for players running the mod client-side.

FancyMenu FAQ

Does FancyMenu need to be on the server? No. It works as a pure client-side mod, so it runs on any server and other players do not need it. Installing it server-side is optional and only adds admin features, like remotely opening GUIs for players who have it client-side. The Spigot plugin provides those commands for servers that do not run the mod.

Can I use FancyMenu with other mods? Yes, it is built to run alongside other mods, but conflicts happen. If crashes show up, check the incompatibility list before troubleshooting blind. If a customized menu misbehaves after you remove a mod, its tracking entries live in config/fancymenu/customizablemenus.txt in your game directory, and deleting that mod's stale entries is the docs' recommended fix.

Does FancyMenu affect FPS or performance? Mostly only in the menus, and only if you push it. Classic FMA animations with many high-res frames eat RAM, so keep them short or use AFMA for large textures. Pre-loading large resources like high-res animations and sounds intentionally increases startup time, so leave it off unless your menus need it.

Is FancyMenu still updated? Yes. Keksuccino actively maintains the mod, the latest release landed in September 2026, and regular updates keep it available for the newest Minecraft versions.

That covers FancyMenu from first toggle to a title screen you actually built yourself. If you want the same hands-on control over the in-game HUD, our Auto HUD mod post is a natural next read.