You really can't go wrong with Ballistol, and by "go wrong" I mean to say that it may not be the best tool for every job, but you aren't going to screw anything up with it. You aren't going to poison or blind yourself, discolor your polymer frame or melt your rubber grips, or anything like that. It's a really good all-purpose cleaner and lubricant, not too harsh or toxic, but not as strong or fast-acting as some other things. Using stuff like acetone, brake cleaner, etc. has its time and place, but you need to be careful with that stuff. I personally only use that stuff on metal parts like the barrel, or the internals of the frame after I have detail stripped it. Also not a bad idea to clean your firing pin and related parts from the firing pin channel, and the channel itself, with one of these industrial-strength de-greasers, at least every one or two thousand rounds. You really don't want any oil or grease in your firing pin channel, gooping things up and causing light strikes. You want it either un-lubricated, or lubricated with a dry film type of lubricant.
I've been using the cleaning rod and patch cloth approach towards cleaning guns for the few decades I've owned them, but recently started looking more at bore snakes and pull-through cable cleaners like the Otis kits. I'm planning to start running a bore snake through my pistols, while they're still hot at the range, to see how much easier that makes cleaning them after I get home. I'll probably report back on that.
