If you need the full sampling power, Native Instruments frequently offers "Crossgrade" discounts during their "Summer of Sound" or Black Friday sales, often reducing the price by 50%. Final Verdict
Native Instruments offers for free. It includes Kontakt 6 Player (which can play any library labeled "Powered by Kontakt Player" for free) plus 2,000+ sounds and 16GB of content. You do not need a patcher for this.
If you own Cubase or any Steinberg product, you already have this. It is a powerful sampler competitor to Kontakt and includes a massive factory library for free.
Before you hunt for the patcher, consider that Native Instruments has created legitimate safety valves for budget-conscious producers.
Native Instruments frequently updates Kontakt to fix bugs and add features (the current version is Kontakt 7.10+). A patched 6.7.1 cannot be updated. You will miss out on: