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I want to eventually get some coil overs, and I want them stiffer and a little lower than stock, but I don't want it too low to where I would get pulled over or have to drive sideways at every bump. What would you recommend getting? My price ranges around $200 to $700

 
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I'm personally a fan of Tein suspension stuff. The Street Basis has adjustable height but not dampening, 1.5" to 4.7" drop, $536 at evasive motorsports, looks like free ground shipping when I estimated it in my cart. If you want adjustable dampening (how hard or soft the suspension feels), the Street Advance is what you wanna look at, can be had for $616 at evasive. Same drop, just has a little knurled **** at the top you can use to adjust the damper rate. Full open to full close is a HUGE difference. Just saying.

If you don't wanna drop that low (depending on where you're at, 1.5 might teeter on the edge of being too low), you can just go with a good strut/spring combo. I rocked a 2.5-3" drop in my 2002 with Tein super street coilovers (since been replaced in their lineup with Street Advance coilovers), wasn't too bad when I lived in upstate NY, WA state, or even down here in Vegas. Only a few moments where I had to be mindful of clearance. If you have no intention of adjusting the height or dampening rate of your suspension setup and kinda want a one and done deal, I'd opt for the spring/strut setup. $100-200 for a set of springs, $400 or so for struts (Tokico HP "blues" are a good choice, a hair stiffer than stock, can handle mild drops of 1.5"). You just have to find a height that you'd be content with. 1.5 is good IMO. In my 2018 hatch, I don't plan on dropping more than an inch, if that.

Keep in mind that lowering is going to change camber, as well. Namely, it'll give you negative camber. Unless you don't mind spending money on tires every 10k miles or so, I'd grab a camber correction kit. Pillowball upper mounts for the fronts and adjustable rear upper arms is what I rocked in my 2002. Pillowball upper mounts (Tein brand, bc that's what I had before and thus looked up) will run you about $200. Otherwise, adjustable control arms for the front (SPC brand, -.5 to +3.5 degree adjustment) MSRPs for just under $200, and rear adjustable upper arms (also SPC brand, -2 to +5 degree adjustment) MSRP's for about $100

 
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Tein is very good for daily duties.

 
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How simple/easy would it be to self install these? Do coilovers and strut/spring setups have the same installation difficulty?

 
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adjusting height is the difficult part of coilovers
other than that should be same as regular ones
reminder to align after install