[quote="smokiibear"]Is on method better than another?[/quote]
I guess it depends on your needs. It's nice to support the MM developers and there are some nice other Gold-only features. But if you don't have the money then the downloaded encoder will work just as well.

Is on method better than another?

You can rip to mp3 for 30 days with the free version.

After that, you would have to upgrade to MM gold or manually replace the mp3 encoder with one from the internet. see:
http://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index.php/How_can_I_rip_mp3s_from_CDs_beyond_MM%27s_free_trial_period%3F

Is there any way to rip to mp3 with the free version of MM?