What is the best amp simulator that I can get for between $100-$200?

There is no best, many of the free ones will get you a sound as good as the top-shelf stuff. A good tone depends more on your ear and the context in which it's being used. If you don't trust your own judgement to dial it on your own, consider using that money to either take classes or hire a pro to design one for you based on your clean takes.

Audiority did a fully featured plugin called The Grindstein in collaboration with Kohlekeller Studios, who has a few bigger name productions under their belt. It's like 50 dollars, I think, and it has an emphasis on making "dirtier" sounding guitar sounds. I recommend it.

I'll also echo what the above poster said. There are multiple free options out there. There's a version of the TSE X50 plugin that's free, it's just older and not as fully featured as the paid version, which isn't too expensive. Couple that with a free impulse response loader and some good impulse responses and you're all set.

I can highly recommend the LePou amp simulations, which are free. Even though they are free, they get very close to the original, and they all are quite metal oriented.

I recommend pairing those amps with the speaker simulations/impulse responses by Ugritone. Ugritone create speaker simulations that imitate the sound of old school metal albums, which is what you want.

If you have those, and you want to get even closer to the old school Black Metal or Death Metal sound, I suggest putting a distortion pedal before the amp simulation. Here you find simulations of the Boss Metal-Zone and the Ibanez Tubescreamer. Classic bands who used the Metal Zone are Mayhem on De Mysteriis, also I think Cannibal Corpse on the later albums.

Depends on the amp you want to use. I produce metal bands and I've used amp sims on a few of my final mixes. Each one of these is less than $200, some even les than $100.

5150:

- Kazrog Ampcraft 1992 (Less than $100) VERY GOOD, my personal favorite.
- Neural DSP Nolly (About $150) Versatile, industry-standard
- Neural DSP Gojira (some very cool onboard effects, like octave-shifting)

MARSHALL:

- Mercuriall Spark (Simulates FOUR different Marshall amps. The JCM800 sounds incredible)
- Neural DSP Fortin Nameless (Modded style marshall)

MESA:

- Mercuriall Reaxis (based on the Triaxis)
- Bogren Digital Amp Knob Rev C (Super simple Dual Rec, sounds amazing, less than $100)
- ML Soundlabs AMPED (haven't tried this but my homies dig it)

ENGL:

- Mercuriall U530 (a little older but still worthwhile for the ENGL preamp sound)

POINTS TO CONSIDER:

There are a million different amp sims on the market, these are just some of the ones I've used and enjoyed. Neural DPS is a very popular company and they make great products used by the pros, but in my experience Mercuriall and Kazrog are just as good--their marketing just isn't as savvy. Also, some of these companies have more additional effects (EQ, Distortion, Overdrive, Chorus, Delay, Reverb) built into their sims than others. Neural DSP and Mercuriall have great effects lineups, the Kazrog is more spartan and the Bogren Digital sim has zero.

ALSO, guitar sims live and die by their speaker cabinet simulations. You could honestly grab any one of these amp sims (except for Bogren Ampknob, that cab is baked in), grab a package of impulse responses you love and you'll basically get the job done. If you are serious about squeezing the most out of your amp sims, then I'd recommend grabbing the free NadIR impulse loader and the Bogren Digital IR package, and the free S-PRES IRs by Catharsis. These are staples of my sound.