It really depends on the "kind" of look you want to achieve. I've used multiple programs over the last 7-8 years, and I don't use any of them now. Many leave artifacts behind that hinder image quality and also scream "HEY IVE BEEN HDR'ed!!" such as haloing and unrealistic colors.
If you shoot RAW, using Adobe Camera RAW gives you crazy levels of modification and also the glamorous Clarity slider, which IMO will render better results than any HDR program. Yes it can be time consuming to manually try and do what HDR programs do, but the payoff is better. As a professional photographer, I couldn't possible put out work that has Haloing, color issues, JPEG artifacting, noise, etc caused by HDR programs.
The industry secret to HDR = Dodge and Burn
