Flexwatt is safe if properly wired and routinely inspected. It is often used in racks and the wiring is many times too light and the sliding a plastic over it causes it to were out and short.
UTHs are fine too, no wiring and in many ways less hassle. If it is stuck on a tank it can be removed but plan on replacing it in case.
Heat cable is the last one it is also easy to use and although a bit of a pain to apply can be re-used easily as well. For a single enclosure personally I'd lean this way, simplicity and ease of use.
Every heat source needs to be regulated!!! What is best for you is hard to say they all work but under some conditions one maybe better than others.
Rheostats work by altering the power to the heat source they are completely manual and fail very very rarely. They work best in totally stable room temps, ones that do not change.
On/off thermostats (hydrofarm, ranco, johnson) don't fail often and they work on averages, They deliver full power and then no power. The average temp of this cycle should be the set point temp. They work well in semi stable room temps and best used with things than are not super fast to heat up and cool off. loosely things that are heavy like glass this takes the edge off the temp spikes.
Proportional Thermostats (herpstat, VE, helix) they have more parts and have a higher failure rate. (it is still a very small percentage) They are the most flexible and will work well an basically any conditions within reason. They also have much greater accuracy or setting if you set it at 90 you stand a better chance of getting exactly 90. They also are the most costly.
If asked I'd say that a proportional is the best choice as it will be useful for basically anything you need in the future.
Temps are critical snakes kept too warm or too cold cannot digest food and often will not eat at all. This will cause death eventually. That is not accounting burns from really hot heat sources. An appropriate regulator is a responsible for health of the snake. not to say a correct set up a snake will never get sick but a snake in an incorrect set up will almost always get sick.
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