I find that Neo covers most of my needs. Although there is one thing in particular that I miss: swiping actions on seperate icons to launch another app/action. I haven’t used Nova in a while, but it had nicer previews inside the options, and I find that Neo has a few minor bugs that annoy me at times. But Neo has the things that are most important to me: multiple pages, tabs or folders in the app drawer, icon pack support, search and gestures (not on each icon, as noted earlier). I also miss the ability to place icons between the defined grid as in Nova.
It does lack a few features though, as they rely on proprietary software/libraries. Android Auto for instace, as well as ANT+ for connecting sensors. At least for those features you need the Google Play version.