FAWE or WorldEdit, which one

The real difference between the two, and the build size where it stops being optional.

The short version

For small builds, regular WorldEdit is fine. Past roughly 150×150 blocks, or when pasting something with a lot of entities, FAWE stops being optional.

What each one is

WorldEdit is the original world-editing plugin. Stable, maintained, and the one every tutorial you’ll find assumes you have.

FastAsyncWorldEdit (FAWE) is a compatible drop-in replacement. Same commands, but it processes operations asynchronously, off the server’s main thread. That one detail is the whole difference.

Why the main thread matters

When regular WorldEdit pastes a 200×50×200 build, it’s placing two million blocks on the same thread that’s also handling every connected player. The server stops responding while it works. On an empty test server that’s fine; on one with people online, it shows up as a multi-second freeze.

FAWE does that work in parallel. Players keep moving while the build appears.

When to use each

The important warning

Don’t install both at once. FAWE replaces WorldEdit; running them together causes conflicts that are hard to diagnose. Remove one before installing the other.

The commands are the same

This is what makes switching easy: //schem load, //paste, //undo and the rest work identically on both. You can move from one to the other without relearning anything.