It's near impossible to state which is "the best", since there are too many variables and personal needs and tastes. You should probably shoot, or at least handle a few to see what best suits your needs. Today's high quality production guns come off the shelf with some of the extras that older guns needed a gunsmith to provide. Feeding hollowoints, triggers, combat sights, light rails, durability and light weight and smaller sizes. For what it's worth, these are in my battery:
Glock 17
Glock 26
Browning Hi Power
Sig 226
Some others that I have shot that have been excellent are:
Kahr
Berretta 92
S&W M&P
Lots of choices, and I'm not sure that you could go wrong with any of them. You just need to pick one that works for you.