I can't really speak regarding the Smugglers issue, but I've had personal experience with Jaws, Window-Eyes, and NVDA. Saying that Jaws is "the best screen reader out there" speaks of your lack of experience using adaptive tech. The truth is that none are necessarily the best. Each have advantages and disadvantages that are better at some things than others.
However, personally I can say NVDA is currently my favorite. I've been using it since late 2010, and I've watched it grow into a powerful screen reader comparable to the commercial screen readers like Jaws and Window-Eyes which I had to pay hundreds for.
NVDA is free, is open source, uses a simple scripting language for writing custom modules and scripts, and supports a number of software TTS voices. Unlike Jaws and Window-Eyes it uses standard Windows events and Windows API functions to gather onscreen information rather than using a special intercept driver. As a result you can set your color depth and screen resolution up very high without it breaking the screen reader, and you don't have to worry about certain video cards breaking your screen reader compatibility in the process.
One of the things I like about NVDA is that it tends to keep up with changes of new software releases more than Jaws and Window-Eyes do.
For instance, there is a thread where someone is having issues with Firefox 9 and Jaws 11. NVDA 2011 has no problems with Firefox 9, and has superior support for the browser over Jaws and Window-Eyes. That's only one example where NVDA out shines the competition.
Another case I can think of is Visual Studio 2010. I downloaded the express version of VS 2010 as soon as it came out and neither Jaws 11 or Window-Eyes 7.2 could use it. The moment I stuck NVDA 2010 on my system it already had better support for the development environment over the commercial screen readers. NVDA 2011 actually seems to work even better with Visual Studio than NVDA 2010, and as far as I know the developers didn't even write any scripts, modules, etc for the IDE. It just worked out of the box.
It is cases like this that made me a die hard believer in the project. Its free, its open source, but the fact its doing things that even the commercial screen readers can't do without an expensive update got my attention in a hurry. I recommend before you put another penny towards Jaws, Window-Eyes, Hal, etc give NVDA a try. Some of the review commands are hard to get use to at first, but its worth learning the screen reader in my opinion. If nothing else you can use it as a back up screen reader in case something goes wrong with your primary commercial screen reader.
Sincerely,
Thomas Ward
USA Games Interactive
http://www.usagamesinteractive.com