I will give my point of view being a newbie.... By the time you get a good temp controller, ATO, Power timers, etc. An apex is a no brainier. After I did some research I chose the Apex Lite. I have it monitor my PH, take care of heating, cooling fans, ATO, Fuge Light and pumps. The ease of pressing a button for shutting down all pumps for maintenance and then again starting with delay timers for skimmer and GFO pumps. I can take a vacation and still monitor my tank from remote sites with its built in network capability. I can link it to sites like aquaticlog and record a history of my tank. I am about 1 day away (Jebao connectors arrived in NY from China should be here tomorrow) from cabling my WP25's into it for time of day changes in flow.
The apex was one of the best investments I made.....and I only wish I would have purchased it earlier. If you don't have a controller its because you just don't know what you are missing IMO.