The difference is that supposidly ball pythons and other snakes cannot see the red colour of the bulbs (as opposed to the bright day light of white bulbs). This means they can be left on 24/7, as they should, so there is no temperature drop at night, and your snake will not be disturbed.
If you don't mind the red glow, I suggest using them! I had one for my tank (before I upgraded to a PVC tank - and I actually do miss the red bulb, it worked really well for heat). It was a 50W red bulb, in a 15 gal tank (so just over a foot in height) and kept the warm side ambient temperature around 82-84F with the cool side around 78F.
If you have a 25 gal or 40gal - depending on the usual air temperature in your home overall - you may want a 75/100W or even more. I would buy a couple, and try them out, then return whichever one(s) doesn't give you the closest correct temperatures.
You can also buy black bulbs or heat emitting bulbs, which produce no light at all. However, you can veiw your snake at night with the red bulb. Your choice!
Best of luck
P.S.
All heat bulbs kill the humidity. You can try covering the majority of the lid with tin foil to keep moisture in, but definitely have a shed box/hide (ex. a plastic container large enough for you BP with a doorway cut out and rough edges smoothed, and filled with damp sphagnum moss. Cheap stuff)!
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