I would highly suggest coinbase over localbitcoins. It all depends on your country.
But overtime a site like coinbase is much better on price per BTC then one such as localbitcoins. But skipping all the paperwork and people wanting to be anomalous is a lot of the reason of higher price.
at the same time, id recommend circle over coinbase; coinbase is limited to the USA and ive heard a lot of bad things about coinbase tracking users' spending. also, circle is international.