If you are not planning to make thou.. hundreds of units, why bother with a programmer. Just use ISP chips, it works.

If you search here you will see very long threads "my programmer does not work" as it seems that most (except the very experienced with scopes and other expensive equipment) get in trouble building kitchen table programmers.

So, if you plan to make a lot of units, BUY a programmer, if only a few use ISP.

Erik