For making cider you obviously need a carboy (or fermenter - but I prefer glass)
If you go glass, assume it'll break, and it never will. So only carry the thing in a milk crate and you'll be fine.
Also, you can bulk age in a glass carboy and no questionable plastics (maybe) in your drink.
If you plan on doing a secondary, then two carboys. You should move cider off the yeast cake after 3 months.
Also, get a bottling bucket (a plastic bucket with a spigot), a fill stick, so you can attach it to the spigot and fill your bottles easily. You may need to buy an inch of PVC pipe to wrap around your fill stick and then have it fit into the spigot. Works well for me.
Plus you'll need an auto siphon to transfer the cider from your carboy to the bottling bucket. or primary to secondary.
I consider a wine thief and a hydrometer optional. In glass, fermentation is obvious and quite fun to watch. I bought both but used each only twice (12 batches so far). If you keep in the primary for 3 months, there's really not much risk of incomplete fermentation.
Obviously bungs and airlocks, and use vodka in the air lock if bulk aging. Always have a spare airlock in case you crack it or something.
I never really looked at the kits, but if a kit covers what I described, got for it. But I don't even use my plastic fermenter anymore, only glass (for beer and cider). If you use a plastic bucket for cider or wine, you can't switch to beer as it will leave a flavour in the plastic which is transferred to your current batch. With glass, you can bleach the hell out of it and use for whatever purpose as long as it's clean. With proper care, they live longer than you. And if you slip up or carry when wet, you get stitches.
If you decide to brew beer, cover the carboy with a TV shirt to prevent skunking. And be sure to get a carboy with a gallon more space than you need. I used 6.5 gallon carboys for 5 gallon batches. Though It's about half a gallon too big - I could to bigger batches.
Also, I just buy used carboys as they're much cheaper, and the made in Italy ones seem to last better than the made in china ones (I heard). Be warned I did buy one with a small crack in it, and used it three times before discovering the crack. Nothing bad happened, but I got rid of it since a crack could slit for no reason when full of beer and I didn't want to take the risk.
Sorry if this sounds opinionated but I figured you asked for opinions so here you go. This is what I do and would recommend to any buddy looking to start.