I also recommend the trianglelab BMG extruder from aliexpress. They're the king of clones. Otherwise, just go for anything with a good amount of reviews on amazon. They aren't too expensive. Most of us who've been printing long enough have a drawer full of extruder parts :p

Direct drive not only lets you print with flexible filament and more precision like the others mentioned - but I also prefer it to bowden because over time, the tubing will get melted and you'll need to snip off the end. With direct drive, it's usually only an inch of tube that you can just replace. With bowden, you can end up either decreasing your hotend's reach (tube gets too short) or have to buy and install a whole new length. Plus, direct drive means faster reload time, less things going wrong. You may just need to get a light stepper motor or compensate other ways with direct drive, as the main downside is the potential for ringing due to a heavier hotend. I don't notice it much, but that would be the trade off.