I own full, licensed, copies of all 3 compilers mentioned, and have
production code in both the Microchip and CCS compilers, with the
caveat that much/most of my 8 bit code is in C18, not XC8.     Please
be aware that I'm purposefully mixing the C compiler experience with
the IDE experience.

My main gripe with CCS is that it really doesn't seem to like multiple
compilation units, and writing a largish program in a modular way when
using #includes to incude various source files (both headers and .c
files) is a bit of a challenge.  Plus, the IDE tends to be a bit of a
pain sometimes, acting in not the most intuitive ways.   Mostly the
problems I encounter are the no 'one click compile, program and run',
and some weirdness with search/find.   I have encountered others as
well, but can't remember what they are off the top of my head right
now.  Keep in mind that this is implementation and/or IDE weirdness -
I can't say I've actually run into any compiler bugs, just things I
have to do in a weird way which gets in the way of the way I'd prefer
to work.

My favorite toolset and compiler is MPLABX with C18 behind it.   I
haven't been able to do a lot of stuff with XC8, because I rely
heavily on the Microchip Application Libraries and, well, they haven't
been ported to XC8 yet.  This alone should tell you something when
Microchip's own libraries haven't been ported yet.   I also note that
the pro version of C18 is still for sale on microchipdirect (and not
the older 16 and 32 bit compilers), which is also telling.   In other
words, XC8 just isn't ready for prime time.    With that in mind, I
doubt you'll find a more polished and professional grade development
environment that the combination of MPLABX and either C18 for 8 bit
pics or one of the XC compilers for 16 and 32 bit pics.   I love a lot
of the tools which come with the Netbeans environment and I just hate
to work in anything else anymore.

That brings me to MikroC.   If I was doing hobbyist work, I would use
this tool exclusively.   There are a lot of things going for it -
honestly, it has a incredible amount of tools to make all the hard
things simple.   Unfortunately for me, I've discovered that some of
those tools are not quite production grade.   I really enjoyed working
in these tools and love the built in helpers such as the GLCD tools,
libraries for everything under the sun, and so on.   It just isn't the
right tool for what I'm doing with a PIC.  But, based on what the
original poster requested, this is *exactly* where I'd start.   Plus,
the full license is only $249 or $199 if you buy one of their
excellent development tools.

-forrest
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