Compared with Adobe Illustrator
Illustrator is a drawing application with a tracing feature. This is a tracing tool with no drawing application attached. They are not really competing, and which one you want depends on what happens after the trace.
If you are going to edit the result
Use Illustrator. Image Trace hands you an object you can immediately reshape, recolour and combine with everything else in the document. Nothing here replaces that.
If you are going to send the result to a machine
Illustrator does not export G-code, does not write stitch files, and its DXF export needs configuring correctly every time. Ours is built around that step.
Cost
Illustrator is a subscription. In-browser conversion here is free and unlimited, because it costs nothing to run.
Skill
Image Trace has real controls and rewards knowing what they do. This has four, and presets them per route.
Moving files between the two
Illustrator opens AI, PDF and EPS. This site reads them too - an AI file through the PDF stored inside it - and writes SVG, EPS, PDF and DXF back, so a trace made here opens in Illustrator, and an Illustrator file can be turned into a cut file here.
On a shared or locked-down computer
Illustrator needs an install and an Adobe account. This runs in any current browser - a shop computer, a school laptop, a Chromebook - with nothing to install and no account.
Try it on your own file
The only comparison that settles it is your artwork through both tools. Ours is free and needs no account.