Affordable For Smaller Batches

I bought this machine after borrowing a friend's Cuisinart ice cream maker. My review is in comparison to the Cuisinart machine. If you like smaller servings, the Rival is the better choice. If you like larger servings, I'd go with the Cuisinart.
Both machines freeze to a soft-serve consistency. The key to getting the ice cream to harden sufficiently is to let the tub freeze long enough. 6 hours was not long enough from my first experience.
The Rival makes noise, but not nearly as noisy as the Cuisinart. The Rival makes a bit more of a mess to clean up. The Cuisinart usually just has the bowl and the paddle to clean, but the Rival always gets quite a bit of mixture onto the shield (and the shield is difficult to separate from the motor for cleaning). However, the paddle for the Rival is made flat while the paddle for the Cuisinart has a ring at the top so it takes up more room in the dishwasher.
I prefer the Rival due to the the fact I do not like how hard the ice cream is the second day in the freezer. I like to make a single serving, and the Cuisinart has a larger tub and it makes it hard to do a single serving. Almost all your mix will freeze to the bowl. If you are feeding a larger crowd, you need to go with the Cuisinart because it makes larger servings. They both take about the same amount of freezer space because of the design differences.
A hint I haven't seen: I like to take frozen concentrated mixes (orange, lemonade, etc) and mix into my milk or milk and cream mixture to make my sherbets and ice creams. I've also added jellies and sweet preserves for similar results. I didn't care for the results of fresh fruit as well.