I haven't had both - but when I bought my stand-up longarm one of the reasons was that I did not enjoy layering the quilt sandwich. Loading it on the frame is, to me, much preferable. However there are times when I think it would be nice to be able to start quilting in the middle of the quilt, and unless I stabilize the quilt first (so that it can be rolled back and forth) I can't do that on the stand-up longarm.