I had a Viking mega quilter and now a brother 1500 on a frame. For me the pros are- no basting, just load on frame, takes me less time to quilt using pantos, it's fun. Cons - 9inch throat is limited quilting space, only about 5 - 6 inches,have to roll quilt more often, can't do a lot of custom quilting (maybe others are able to, not yet in my skill set). I use pantos so this is not a problem for me. I have one of the machines as a table top quilter for when I want to do custom.