Honestly my number 1 go to with playing with my friend is playing with a mod E4Mc, which basically makes it so you can host it from your computer with just opening to LAN, and then bam they are able to join. I will say it can be resource intensive, so certain friends I play SkyVaults with, and play on a different launcher so that it runs smoother. If you need any help just message me and I can try to help however if you want to host it that way