I love this machine. I started out with the joy and bought this quickly after. pros are all the tools I bought for the joy work with the joy extra minus the mats. I am a part time crafter at a very beginner level. I honestly still use both machines. I think if you’re going to invest in one I say the joy extra is where to put your money. But like I said before both are awesome the only tue difference is the print and cut feature and being able to do slightly bigger projects.