Gamepad/Pc controller help please!

Have you tried Xinput?

I used a PS2 controller for many years on PC, and it worked OK.
Unfortunately it wasn't as simple as plug-and-play and needed some configuration per game, plus the last adapter I used had noticeable input lag (this wasn't true of older adapters). Still, the adapters are cheap (under $10), so if you can find one of the good ones and have a spare PS2 controller sitting around it might be worth trying.

Just google search "Xbox controller for PC" and check the store tab. They have some Xbox-360 style controls for $10. https://www.google.com/#q=xbox+controller+for+pc&tbm=shop

I use/have used the afterglow 360 controller on my PC for basically everything from MMOs (elder scrolls online) to emulators and haven't had a problem.

https://www.amazon.com/Afterglow-Wired-Controller-Xbox-360-Blue/dp/B00EZKNT18/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483944178&sr=8-1&keywords=xbox+360+afterglow+controller

Use Better DS3, it's an Xbox 360 gamepad emulator. I have a chinesse gamepad that works like a charm. This is an offline and improved version of MotioninJoy. Any gamepad, being an generic or an PS4 joystick, should work with it. It's the best solution i could find, without buying an original Xbox 360 gamepad.

View attached image.

You can get cheap XBOX controller I think. It's around 15 USD around here, pretty much around your budget.

Xbox 360 controller is not a guarantee for compatibility it turns out. I'm playing Toren (which is a pretty recent game), and it's not detected. My Steam controller is detected but works like crap. The controller I ended up using with this game is a 15 year old Logitech RumblePad (1st gen). Not that I'm recommending to the OP to buy one (I don't).

Max Budget Controller! And with xinput (games sees him as xbox 360). Defender Game Racer X7. In our country it cost ~900 rub ($15). I buy it few years! So, i hope, i helped!

I would suggest investing 30$ and buying xbox360 one. They are really well made and will work without any problems.

http://joytokey.net/en/

You can grab official 360 for Windows controllers second hand off ebay for next to nothing here, might be worth a look.

PS3 controller second hand. Then search for scpserver.

I would try the software solutions first, but if you've exhausted them and still can't get anything to work well with your current controllers, the Logitech F310 for around $20 might be worth considering, as it has native XInput support, so it'll work with any game that supports the Xbox controllers. (Note that the F310 doesn't have a vibration motor in it, so it won't "rumble" in your hands, if that's important to you.)

Depends on what version of Windows you're using. Windows 10 seems to only work with Xbox controllers. I broke down and got the latest Bluetooth Xbox One controller and it's been working like a charm.

The only one I use and the only one I recommend is the Logitech F710. It's wireless and can run everything from new to old.
It uses Direct Input & XInput. You may need Joy2Key or Xpadder for some really old or controller not supported stuff though.

With the latest Steam update it's now possible to enable Xinput emulation directly from Steam for pretty much any controller type and it works quite well, so there's little to no need in 3rd party xinput emulators anymore. It even works with Unity games. It's highly customizable too, so no need for joy2key and the like.
The only place where you may need a real xinput device is Windows Store games (and there are some nice xinput emulators for DS3/4 and Dinput devices that work with those types of games).
So I'd say the choice is yours. Gamepads with native xinput support will simply give you less headache unless you go for some old games that use Dinput. Dinput+Xinput gamepads will solve this problem for you. But even if you have some old Dinput controller like I do right now, you can still make it work with pretty much any game as well.