The lowest price is not always the best deal. I've now been burned twice by purchasing low cost stepper controls from vendors off of Ebay. The stepmaster board literally burst into flames on my workbench. The other one, a Mechatronics 2 axis board, has one axis that craps out after 10 minutes of running.
I have a small hobby business restoring and retrofitting cnc machines. The Gecko drives have been flawless and I have used Xylotex before. I think on the simpler cheaper projects I will continue to use the Xylotex and I will use the Geckos on the larger steppers. Live and learn, buy junk buy twice!