Hey Kathi,
I own three jumpropes:
a regular gymnastics rope - a thick woven cord without handles (15$)
a cheap plastic rope (like the ones pictured here http://www.skip-hop.co.uk/skipping-rope-c27.html) (7$)
a cable speedrope with weighted handles (30$)
It depends on what you want to do with your rope.
The gymnastics rope is very slow. Its great for learning to skip. It doesn't hurt if you step into the rope by accident. Becasue it has no handles, it tends to tangle after a while.
The plastic rope is quick but light. It doesn't hurt very much if you miss a step. If used on concrete it will wear after a while. It's not a high quality rope but it's cheap and does the trick if you just want to skip for fitness.
The speed rope is the fastest rope, because the cable is quite heavy. Because of that it really hurts if you miss a step - you can even break your toe so skipping without shoes is not recommended. The weighted handles add a bit of workout for your arms.
Some tricks are hard to do with this rope because of the way the cable is attached to the handles - bringing the handles together will cause the rope to tangle.
Personally I like the cheap plastic rope the best because it's quite easy to do tricks with it and I can use it for a quick warmup without shoes.
Ropes that are attached to the handles with a bearing in a 90° angle rotate quicker and easier but are more diffcult to handle if you want to do tricks.
One last thing: the rope has to be long enough - mine reach my armpits on both sides if I stand on them with one foot. Better too long than too short, you can always shorten it.