Is anova the basic go to for sous vide?

I have an older Anova and I like it. Chefsteps recently released a model called "Joule" looks appealing to me. There's currently a waiting list for the Joule but it looks interesting enough that I'd suggest waiting until there are more reviews on the Joule and then make a decision from there.

I have a Gourmia that I got on Amazon and it seems just like the Anova quality/performance wise, but it's cheaper.

I do standard pork, beef and chicken. Anova works like a champ

Can't speak for the other units, but my Anova works great. I have never used the bluetooth, but it's got an easy dial to lock in the temp and works pretty well. It does take awhile to get the water up to temperature sometimes, but that's for when I'm using a pretty big bucket/container and am putting a lot of water in it. Not sure if other brands would heat the water more quickly. Have checked calibration with a thermapen and it's been dead on.

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t does take awhile to get the water up to temperature sometimes, but that's for when I'm using a pretty big bucket/container and am putting a lot of water in it.

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I always use hot water from the tap which gets it to 125F or so. It's a snap to get it to whatever temp I'm cooking at after that. Try that.

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do ya'll just use your regular pots/pans or did you buy a plastic container? ... and do I need one with a lid (most forums i've visited seem to suggest it's not necessary) ..

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It's not necessary but it does depend on what you are using it for. If you're just cooking some chicken breasts you'll probably be fine with a pot, but if you are cooking something large like ribs, a bunch of steaks or something like that you may want something bigger. This is what I use; I don't need the lid unless I'm doing a cook of more than about 6 hours, and if you don't have a lid you can still get by with saran wrap, although you'd need a lot of that if you were using a big container like this:

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The lid (or saran wrap) helps keep the condensation water in the container. You won't have enough evaporation in a small cook to make a difference but if you're cooking overnight you don't want the alarm to go off because your water level got too low.

Assuming performance on all of the brands are ~equal, chose the unit that is the smallest size. I have the older Anova without the bluetooth and I absolutely love it, but it does take up a bit of room. Which matters to me mainly because of the size of my kitchen & storage. I couldn't care less that it doesn't have bluetooth as I think setting the temp on the device itself is a breeze and setting a timer on my phone to remind me when the food is done is all I need.