Even though my main interest here is dashboards, I would start be echoing @brad5 's comment that the more you get involved in the Community, the more you will find out what people use and what works best for your situation and setup. As much as we would all like a single spot to go a find the most appropriate tool for the job, their is so much variation in each of our homes that it is hard to offer a single solution that suits everyone. Not ideal, I know, but the process can be an enjoyable one, if you approach it with the right attitude... (Not saying you won't....)
With dashboards... If we look at what is offered out-of-the-box.... There is actually quite fine-grained control made available through the Custom CSS section of the dashboard settings. You can access this by clicking the Settings cog (typically in the top-right of the screen), click the Advanced tab and select CSS.
There is a great overview and long list of examples of the power you can achieve with this in the Noob's CSS topic, often linked throughout the Community. Feel welcome to post any questions you have there, or in your own topic, whatever suits.
That said, for the new user, particularly those without any prior experience with CSS, a blank text editor definitely poses a kind of a barrier. I have tried to reduce this somewhat through the Simple CSS Editor I have developed (and continue to), trying to put some of the CSS adjustments into more easily digestible terminology and quicker and easier to implement, blatantly stealing much from those posted on the noob's thread and elsewhere 
. You are welcome to give it a go and offer any feedback is welcome.
There are other Community efforts that have been made in the past to make the built-in dashboard experience smarter, which I would encourage you to seek out.
There are also the dashboard options outside of Hubitat, which I would equally encourage you to try out, such as HubiVue and the Android Hubitat Dashboard App. SharpTools also has a strong level of support and use from what I have observed.
