I mainly bought this for bread and pizza dough and didn't want to blow $300 on a kitchen aid because I just started baking and didn't know how frequently I would be baking. I also kept reading KA classic reviews that they aren't the best with bread and aren't made as well the last couple of years. The KA pro with 500 W vs. 300 W probably blows both away and the reviews recommend that for bread if going with KA (there seem to be a couple other brands that are better if doing strictly bread), but I am not going to spend $300-$500 on a new hobby that I may stop within a month or two. This is great for someone that is starting out, doesn't bake enough to justify the extra expense, or is buying this for a teenager that bakes, or someone that does not have the money for a KA but wants a reliable mixer.Since buying this in May I have made 1-2 1lbs loafs of bread weekly, a number of pizza dough batches, homemade pitas every couple weeks, muffins weekly, chocolate chip cookies, and even mixed ground beef with seasoning for beef jerky sticks. The bread will also come out much better than kneading by hand and it will save a lot of time mixing which I think is arguably true for most stand mixers because it will mix more in 5 minutes than you by hand in 10-20 minutes.More specifically, for bread, it starts to strain a bit on 1, so I start with that so flour doesn't fly all over and then kick it up to 2 once the flour is mixed in with generally has no problem although it will sound like it bogs down here and there if it hits a dense patch. It will still power through 6 cup double batches and I have even done 8 cup pizza dough batches to make 4 large pizzas which starts to hit its limits. The KA classic reviews seem to say it is similar for bread or the plastic gear breaks so I figure I'd rather burn out an $80 mixer than a $300 classic if it burnt out quickly.... Again, the KA pro reviews seem to say that can power through dough much better, so if I continue to bake this much that may be my likely replacement down the line.Outside of bread/pizza dough it has had no issues with muffin and mixing ground beef (the batter attachment), and my sister has liked it for cakes and icing. Yes, you may have to scrape up some flour on the very bottom with batters once to ensure everything is mixed, but it is not worth $200-300 to me to avoid 15 seconds of manual mixing especially if I were only baking once a week or less. You just swirl a spoon around the bottom a couple times, turn the mixer on for 10-20 seconds and it is fully mixed. Last, I have personally not used the whisking attachment.In summary, is this the best mixer on the market? No, but for $80 it is a great option for an infrequent baker, someone just dabbling their feet into baking, or buying a mixer for a responsible teenager that bakes, or for someone that doesn't have $300-500 to throw down on a mixer. Using cars as an analogy, this is not the BMW/Mercedes of mixers. This is the Honda Civic/Accord, Toyota Corolla, Ford Focus,... of mixers. It is not the flashiest, not the prettiest, not a status symbol, and not the most powerful on the market, but it will reliably take you where you need to go for a reasonable price.