I am currently looking at Fusion 360 (Free and Not Free) and Aspire as well as a few others.
There is no one best for all applications. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses.
V Carve Pro is less than half the cost of Aspire, and has 90% of the capabilities, if you don't need 3D relief modeling. It's a good place to start. Fusion 360 can do a lot of stuff Aspire/V-Carve can't, and it can't do a lot of things Aspire V-Carve can.

Personally, I use AutoCAD, Aspire, Fusion360, and several others, depending on what type of project I'm doing. If I lost access to everything I use now, I'd buy V Carve Pro.