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Really, truthfully, just how easy/hard are tomato plants to grow?

I've always wanted to do this. But I'm afraid of failure. Because they have to be in a pot on a balcony and there is no other place for them to be. I don't have a choice of exposures.

Tomatoes are easy if (1) you have enough direct sunlight and (2) you water them regularly.

(This won't guarantee that you'll get the best possible yield, but you will get some fruit.)

You need at least six hours of direct sunlight to make tomatoes produce well -- sunlight early in the morning (say, before 9am) or late afternoon (say, after 4pm), doesn't count. If you've got that kind of exposure on the balcony, try tomatoes in a pot.

@TRUE BLUE:

It all depends. Before I was an apartment dweller, I once planted a tomato plant in my backyard in a spot that got blazing hot sunshine. Then I promptly forgot about it for a few months. One day my housemate knocked on my door and wanted to know when I was going to pick my tomatoes.

The plant was bending over from the weight of ripe fruit.

Now, this was I think a fluke of the sun conditions and a rainy summer, but given the right location a tomato plant can be pretty easy. I've never given them a go on the patio yet though.

In addition to what Moryse said (which was all good advice!) tomatoes have deep roots, so if you are planting them in a container, it needs to be deep. You can't plant a tomato in a window box!

Cool... don't forget that pH regulates the nutrient availability to the plant too. So if your pH isn't within the 6-7 range then it will be harder for your plants to obtain some nutrients (see chart below):

nutrient availability chart

(taken from this page)