I’ve ran both Apex and Hydros. I never had much problems with either. In the last several years there’s been a lot of complaints about Apex. Hydros has more versatility it seems. I don’t use mine for much, but with all their new upgrades it’s gonna be pretty nice. A friend of mine likes the dynamic dosing.
As far as setup, I found mine was pretty easy to get up and running. I haven’t had any crazy issues yet. A friend of mine gave me an X4 so I set it up. He also wired in a float switch for my skimmer. So I basically only use it for that, temp, pH, a fan, and a few fail safes. If you get one, definitely get the “wired” XP8 over the Wi-Fi Power Strip like I’m currently running with my X4. Anything Wi-FI can go offline, but it comes right back. I still wouldn’t trust it with my CaRx.