Really the only difference between the two is a different artstyle(with a dash of cultural differences)
That said, I vastly prefer anime to american cartoons, mostly cause when I watch anime, I'm usually getting a vastly intriguing and open story, along with a nice, clean artstyle and worldbuilding, not a saturday morning comedy.*
*that's not to say all american cartoons are "just comedys and nothing else" but being american myself, I've watched a ton of them, and most of them lean into the episodic "plot of the day with tiny lore sprinkled in" type of story, which isn't really my style.