Essentials Plugins

EssentialsX or CMI

Both cover what a survival server needs on day one: homes, warps, spawn, kits, teleport requests, private messages and AFK. EssentialsX is free and split into modules, so you install only the parts you use. CMI is a paid plugin by Zrips with close to 300 commands, and it needs the free CMILib plugin next to it. CMI makes sense if you want holograms, the tab list and portals from one config. EssentialsX suits a server that would rather combine smaller plugins it can swap out later.

The EssentialsX modules

EssentialsX

The core: homes, warps, kits, teleports, messages, nicknames and moderation commands.

Chat

Chat formatting. It needs a permissions plugin for prefixes and groups.

Spawn

Spawn control commands such as /spawn and /setspawn.

Protect and AntiBuild

Protection settings for parts of the world, and build protection by permission.

Discord and DiscordLink

A bridge between the server and a Discord server, plus linking of Minecraft and Discord accounts.

GeoIP

Shows a player's country or city on login and in /whois.

Settings people trip over

Players get one home until they have essentials.sethome.multiple. With that node the limit is 3, and the example ranks in config.yml raise it to 5 or 10 when you also give essentials.sethome.multiple.vip or essentials.sethome.multiple.staff. essentials.sethome.multiple.unlimited removes the cap.

teleport-delay and teleport-cooldown are both 0 out of the box, so /home is instant and works in the middle of a fight. On a PvP server give the delay a few seconds; moving or getting hit during that time cancels the teleport.

/back remembers where a player teleported from, but it only stores the place they died if they have essentials.back.ondeath, which is off by default. Chat formatting sits under chat in config.yml and starts as <{DISPLAYNAME}> {MESSAGE}. The EssentialsX tutorial covers the setup, and prefixes come from a permissions plugin.