I have been a huge fan of
Plugable's Thunderbolt 3 dock. I recommend it not only because it does pretty much anything you need it to, but we're running about 10 of them in our office and another 3-4 with remote workers in a variety of configurations—including some running multiple 4K monitors. They work really well and give you pretty much all the connectivity you need.
We have one guy that insisted on using the CalDigit instead. A downside is that it seems to cause a load of interference on his RF wireless Logitech mouse (solved with a USB extension to move the receiver away from the dock). The Plugable is cheaper and has had no such issues. (And, I've had to use their support in their past and it is top notch.) The Plugable only provides 60W of charging, but that doesn't seem to have affected anyone I'm working with and a majority of the people using them in my office are running 15" MBPs. With that said, my limited experience with the CalDigit has also been very good. It charges at 85W and has more ports and an SD-Card reader (although you state you don't need one).
I can't speak to the OWC or Elgato specifically, but I owned the Thunderbolt 2 versions of each and they still operate just fine.
A couple cheaper options (both Plugable):
Plugable USB-C 4K Triple Display Docking Station: I haven't used this personally, but there are at least 20 units running in my office. Our non-dev teams use Surface Books and we've had no end of trouble with Microsoft's docks. Between their firmware updates killing them or the fact that they fail enough that everyone notices, we've stopped using them. The newer Surface Books with USB work great with these. Again, only 60W of charging, but that hasn't been an issue as noted above.
Plugable USB C Mini Laptop Docking Station: Before my wife upgraded her 12" MacBook to a new MacBook Air, we used this. It worked fine on my MBP and actually offers 85W of charging. It's probably the most complete "cheap" dock. The downside is the video out is 4K@30Hz, although that's a limitation of pretty much any USB-C dock that offers USB 3 ports and Gigabit Eithernet—there's just not enough bandwidth on a single USB-C connection for 4K@60Hz without necking you down to USB 2 and 10/100 Ethernet. It's also HDMI only.
FYI, I
do not work for Plugable, I just have extensive experience with them because we bought the TB3 dock back when it first came out and we've been getting more of their products since. The Mini happened to be the only thing that checked all the boxes for my wife and the price was right.
I know a lot of people get kinda "yikes" about the cost of Thunderbolt Dock. $250 seems steep, but consider the cost of the components separately and that
includes a charger. I would definitely spring for the Thunderbolt unit over a USB-C unit
unless your budget is super constrained or have to support non-Thunderbolt devices. The Thunderbolt dock will probably outlast your laptop and be good to go for your next machine. (That was my experience with my Thunderbolt 2 docks which actually still work just fine with the TB-TB3 adapters.) Also, the build quality on the TB3 docks is generally
way higher than the USB-C docks.
The bidirectional adapters from Apple are really nice too. I can use my older docks with my newer laptops or my mostly headless 2011 Mac Mini (iTunes server, Time Machine server, spare machine for guests) can connect to the TB3 dock. The bandwidth is reduced, but for USB, ethernet, and driving a single display, it works great. And, I can also report that with the adapter, a Thunderbolt 2 MacBook Pro can drive at least a pair of 1440p displays. No power delivery, but still pretty darn sweet.
And let me say, having been on the "one plug" setup with both docks and my 5K since the start of 2017... it's such a little thing, but it's so nice. In my house, with multiple Macs, I have a few workstations set up that me and my wife can use as can guests. Just plug in and go.
Anyway, that's a lot. But I find I've been working with these docking stations a lot more than most people!
[doublepost=1560966299][/doublepost]
I cannot understand why they removed the silver option.
Demand I guess. Although it's only anecdotal on my part, in an office with twelve 2016+ MacBook Pros, exactly one is silver—and that's mine! Space Gray is in I guess. I had so much aluminum gear already and, frankly, just like the silver.
[doublepost=1560966453][/doublepost]
I have 13 in mbp 2018. I run two monitors off of it with apple's vga adapters. My computer get very hot doing this would the CalDigit alleviate this problem?
Weird. I can't speak to your model specifically, but what are you doing with the two monitors? I run a 5K on my 2016 13" most of the time, but also run a pair of 1440ps on docking stations at work from time to time. No heat issues for me.
(I also have an eGPU at home which works wonderfully.)
