First off you mainly control whats in it and the taste of your soda also the soda has less sugar,sodium,and no artificial sweeteners or HFCS in the soda unless you add them. I do recommend using sugar as you wont need as much and it is healthier than FAKE sugars. It cost less than buying soda you can control how much carbonation is in your soda. Also it doesn't take much time at all to make and you can make all kinds of flavor you can even use kool aid! Now how cool is that you can even carbonate juice! Heres a big benefit you SAVE lots of money making your own soda another one is it is way much better for your health! Also last but not least you can save the environment cause your not throwing away a bunch of cans and plastic bottles which also a big benefit for making soda at home! Well thats it for today always stop back as i will continue to talk more about soda making and hopefully do a review over at least one soda maker! :) Thanks for reading! :)