I get asked quite often what paints would I recommend a beginner to buy. The answer is always avoid student grade paints and go for professional brands instead. People often have concerns regarding buying professional brands, perceiving them to be much more expensive than student brands.
Although professional brand watercolor paints tends to be more expensive, there is a way to make buying them as cheap as student quality paints. The solution is to buy local brands. With transport costs, import taxes, etc. not added on, the paints that are made closest to you is usually going to be much more affordable than brands that have been imported from other countries.
Local brands tend to get a bad rep due to its affordability. Cheap doesn’t mean less quality! For example, in the UK, Holbein is eye-wateringly expensive (£15.10 for a 15ml tube of my favourite Aureolin). However, in Japan, you can get yourself the same tube for ¥555 (about £3.50). So it would make sense to buy Holbein or other Japanese made watercolors if you are in Japan, than say the same color from Daniel Smith, which is triple the price in Japan.
Of course I am not saying you cannot buy student quality paints. If it’s what you are able to afford, then of course buy the student grade paints. However, I do want to give you a tidbit from my experience that people get very frustrated with student quality paints and upgrade to artist’s quality paints before they finish using their student paints. My best advice is to buy fewer colors in a good quality artist’s range than buy many colors from a student’s range.
I have made a list of professional watercolor range by country (countries are listed in alphabetical order) below, and for brands that have both artist’s and student’s range, both are indicated clearly (to make it easier to avoid the student range). If any professional brands are missing, please let me know!