I’ve used heat lamps & ceramic heat emiters (che) with glass tanks, uth for belly heat with certain Vision & PM Herps cages (most still had heat lamps or che), and now only radiant heat panels (rhp) with my Monster cages. I’ve had my normal ball for 26 years, and only a very few years did he have belly heat (4-5 years tops). I think that a lot depends on your house temps - if the room is consistently warm year round, the hot spot can be provided with uth. If you keep a cooler house, intentionally or not, you’ll need something for ambient heat in the cage and possibly a boost from uth for the hot side. As a side not, if you have thick substrate, uth aren’t the solution - heat can build up at glass level before ever reaching the surface potentially causing burns for burrowing snakes, and can also increase the risk of damage to the device such as shorts, melting, etc. Whatever you use, a thermostat is a must to make sure the temps are where the should be. You can double check the accuracy of the probe with heat guns (pretty inexpensive through Home Depot, Lowes, etc).
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