There are significant differences between good and bad brand names. Cheap hot tubs are in a totally different class category than the more expensive brands, and they simply don’t compare – “apples and oranges”, as they say.  The worst model from a good company will serve you better than the best model from a low-quality company.  

However, amongst brands in the same quality class, the dissimilarities are relatively inconsequential and it’s safe to say that there won’t be a huge difference in engineering, workmanship and performance.  So as long as your choices are in the same quality class, your choice then boils down to personal taste, not true merit.  Don’t let technical details and minor variances between similar-class brands stress you out or distract you from the more important issues mentioned in this website.