Hi Matt, I have been assessing HDR options for some time. A few thoughts...
EasyHDR
on this site is worth a try. It has nice editing options and only costs 30 Euros ish. (Guessing - I think it's in that region). For my purposes it loses out with poor alignment. If you're using a tripod this will not be an issue however.
FDR Tools
on this site is a nice package, but they do not allow free testing of the Professional version, which is the one that allows much greater scope for manipulation of the images. I couldn't get 'exciting' results from the basic version. They were nicely aligned and very competent however.
Photomatix wins by having good alignment and good manipulation - but it is a little dearer.
r
Autopano - which is built for panorama creation. Does a really fine job of HDR images. If you save the finished product as an HDR 32 bit file, then do your manipulation work on PS. This is an excellent combo as the alignment capabilities of Autopano (assuming Smartblend has been selected) is second to none. And it's reasonably priced.
Hope this helps.
Graham