8bitdo has a variety of shapes with hall effect (immune to normal causes of stick drift) sensors. I personally use an SN30 Pro+ as my main controller, though I understand that it has been discontinued.

8bitdo pro 3 costed me 52€ and it's the most premium shit I've enjoyed. TMR joysticks, charging base, comfy grip, USB-C+BT+2.4GHz...

Idk if these are going to be to your preference as far as shape and I've never used one, but I always see 8Bit Do controllers recommended as alternatives to Xbox, etc.

It's not ”premium”, but if you ask me the 8bitdo Ultimate 2C controller is the best deal on the market. It's about $20 or something and has Hall effect sticks which all the multibillion dollar corporations can't figure out how to put on their controllers that cost over twice as much.

stadia was shit but their controllers were banging, i got one for free and its still what i use. if you can find one second hand i 1000% recommend

I rock a PS5 controller on PC personally, but if that's not your bag, I'll chime in with the bandwagon and recommend looking into whatever 8bitdo has these days. They're reputable, even among neckbeards and uber-nerds.

what puts you off the big 3? i don't really know of any reputable alternatives honestly. i have always been a fan of the xbox controllers

millionthing 8bitdo. Any form factor and button layout is available, good driver support, most controllers can switch how they present themselves at a driver level.

I adore my gamesir cyclone 2. Only downside is the dpad is kinda mediocre for old school emulation. Everything else works and feels great.

8bitdo kinda ass. I have a gamesir cyclone 2 with dingle dongle (it has bluetooth but trust the dingle makes all the difference) and i love it. Only downside is battery goes flat relatively fast but otherwise its a stellar controller and the hall effect sticks changed everything for me. Potentiometers IN THE BIN. It also looks cool and is cheap.

I have basically every controller at this point and its by far my favourite and I don’t say that lightly.

With the dingle and software you can rebind buttons to keyboard keys which is something i have wanted natively in controller software for literally ever. I have the middle screenshot button bound to… screenshots. Finally console superiority on pc

I'll mention that all the brands people have mentioned: 8bitdo, Gamesir, even ones not mentioned like Guilikit, are all on Aliexpress and much cheaper than local retailers. Look there and get yourself a deal instead of going through JB or somewhere similar

8bitdo Ultimate

gamesir will sell you one that doesn't have the xbox chip in it, if you're really into BDS

Thank you so much everyone!

I bought a machenike controller it's really good, with hall effect joysticks, trigger vibration and lots of things and good compatibility with everything, just works

What do you want to play with it. I think the steam controller is good for different games than most other controllers. For games that aren't made with gamepads in mind there are few if any alternatives, for games with gamepads in mind other controllers might just be better anyway.