I see a lot, and I mean A LOT of people tuning with HPTuners. Is the only way to tune with them to buy the $500+ stuff from them, or do they send you tunes or something like that?

 

the money you spend on hptuners buys you the box to plug into your car, that can then be read by the software that they send you.

HPT is only the capability to tune.

learning to tune and do it safely and properly is up to you to learn.