We are going through the same process, and have narrowed it down to 5x10 water jet cutters from wardjet (model X-1530), omax (model MAXIEM 1530), and Flow (model still unclear).
Any opinions on Flow?
We have a fablab where we would be doing mostly prototypes with the occasional low volume production, we are looking at maximum flexibility in terms of materials, low maintenance overhead, and would have users that aren't experts in water-jet so it should be easy an as fool-proof as possible to do simple things.
After looking at demos from Omax and Wardjet, at a first glance Wardjet software (wardcam) seems much more user friendly than the one from omax (omax layout + omax make) for the simple 2d cutting. More complex jobs would require switching to IGEMS for wardjet, but that doesn't seem a major downside.