: Any thoughts on which tool is the better buy?
: thanks

The better one, or the best you can afford. If you hardly ever use the tool perhaps you can permit yourself the luxury of buying the cheaper tool, but if you use it regularly only the tradesman's tool will do. Among tradesman tools there is a difference, but they will all produce good results consistently. Routers come in two levels of power and two collet sizes. The half inch collet size is best as you can reduce to quarter inch and has power to spare. The quarter inch is usually down on power and can't be upgraded to half inch except by a collet extension, which is not always advisable as potentially dangerous.
JohnK