The following are the cheapest tools that work well.
At Midway This RCBS tool the most expensive of the three and is designed to be used with their Trim Mate, but also fits their green handle. I like it best because it seats on the case head instead of the pocket bottom, which makes it insensitive to pocket depth. After trying swagers and reamers, I like this best for prepping brass for my progressive press, because its reliably prevents interruptions..
At Midway Lyman's Tool. This and the Hornady tool below are designed to seat on the pocket bottom, and both work. There have been several complaints that this Lyman tool is not sharp enough (read the review on Midway), but Lyman is a good company....I expect they have remedied that.....I think they both have the same threads as the RCBS tool so they should work with a Trim Mate as well as with their handles.
(or you could use a drill for all three)
At Midway Hornady's Tool is the cheapest, and many swear by it. No complaints that I know of.
For an inexperienced hand loader like myself, would the swage tools offer the prospect of more consistency?
Not in my experience. They work well if you have the same brass and the brass is not old and hard. My experience with old LC brass (pretty old...67 or 72) was that the swagers would work on some and others would shear a tiny circle of brass off and deposit it at the bottom of the primer hole. That caused me a lot of heartburn with high primers and hard insertions on my progressive until I figured it out. Also swagers are sensitive to head thickness and so have to be adjusted for every brand and sometimes even runs of same brass. the other fly in the ointment is brass spring-back. You swage it out and then the hole is sometimes still too small. I wasted $200 trying to find a reliable method for the thousands of .308 LC brass I have. Reamers are flat more reliable for such brass. Using a progressive like I do, stoppages caused by primer holes not cooperating defeats the promise of faster progressive reloading.
Since you're just starting out and need to go inexpensive, my advice is to get the Hornady tool. Someday if/when you get a Trim Mate you can use it on that tool as well, or upgrade to the RCBS tool.