Best rendering format without using AME

ProRes is a great codec to balance file size and quality. I use the normal ProRes by default, ProRes HQ for high quality outputs (final delivery or archive) and ProRes 4444 when you need an alpha channel. On Mac you always have proRes, on Windows Adobe added it since december 2018 (don't know which AE version that is). ProRes is an industry standard that many creative professionals will know and accept.

Next, make your mp4's with Handbrake: it's free and makes mp4's that are often way smallere than AME. Handbrake has good defaults for small files and "production standard" presets for highest quality. Use mp4 only for client previews or upload to an online platform, never for your own archivals or when further processing of the file will be done. 

The question has no answer - the "best" codec depends entirely on what your output is being used for. What makes sense for Snapbookspace is totally different to what is required for broadcast or hand-off to an editor. Then add in the demands of resolution, color space, bit depth and audio that may or may not be supported by each codec... There's a reason why there are so many different file formats and encoding options!

Rendering times have nothing to do with the chosen output format. that is entirely dependent on what's going on iun your composition and heavy effects, many layers, lots of masking and so on will always take their toll for processing. Five hours of rendering for a five minute video isn't even that unusual for any bog standard AE render. If you expect something else, then you have a wrong impression how AE actualyl works and what it is meant for. Similarly, file size should not be a concern these days with even Terabyte harddrives being cheap. Using AME would not change that. it still produces massive temporary data. In your case it wouldn't really matter even, as you are going to need a separate second pass in an external tool for actually encoding a playable file if your AME is defunct for whatever reason. So whatever settings you use (on which you have not provided any info) currently are probably just fine.

Mylenium