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You will probably be pleased with any U.S. made drill bit although there are differences. Brands such as Triumph and Hansen make drills from M50 HSS, a steel that is the most difficult to break of the common drill materials. This toughness is preferred and possible even necessary for hand held drilling. Most other U.S. drill brands are made from M7 or M2 HSS. While it is slightly more brittle, these steels will hold an edge longer. They are designed for production drilling but can be used, carefully, for hand held work. These might cost 10% more than M50 drills. The next step up in drill hardness is Cobalt HSS. A drill press of some type and a good setup is required as cobalt is more brittle than other HSS. It will, however, drill stainless steels and other difficult to drill materials.
In round figures, it might be 25% to 50% more expensive than M7. Drills made from carbide may be suitable if you have very high speed equipment. You can possibly double feeds and speeds when compared to HSS drills, obviously of value to some in a production situation. You might pay double the price of cobalt drills. One of the few exceptions that I can think of to the above categories are drills under the Viking and Norseman brands out of St. Paul. This manufacturer claims to use a different HSS that is tougher than M2 but possibly not as brittle as M42. Some of the European imported drills sold through industrial distributors may be acceptable quality for maintenance and home shops but for a couple of bucks more, you might be better off with a U.S. brand.
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