Good morning,
I´m into djing about a year now, and found myself in exact the same situation you are.
I first mixed only with my laptop and VDJ, but i didn´t really like the way the program could be used with the keyboard.
So i looked new programs up and found Traktor to be the most mappable software out there. I gave the mapping thing a try, and found it to be very pleasant to have your own, unique way of playing your music.
Apart from this (main) reason, i would advice traktor for its interface, because it´s very simple once you get into it, and you really see everything you might need. In Serato i got much more the feeling that there were plenty of things hidden in the background, so i could not really learn how to use them (maybe only personal impression, correct me if i´m wrong please). Maybe it´s just my way of approaching new things, but i like the full feature, and learn step by step afterwards, instead of starting with the smaller softwares first.
In my opinion Traktor is much more versatile than Serato, and this is the point for me, i can really use traktor in much more ways than serato, because of the customization ability in the preferences, as Marco told before.
For example, i bought an S2, and wanted to upgrade to 4 decks by buying an F1. Nowadays i´m finishing a mapping where my F1 is the Volume and Transportsection, with several pages, while i can easily have all my eq´s and fx´s mapped to the s2.
During the mapping process i learned a lot about how not only the software, but also the controllers works, and rearranging all according to your play style is one of the strengths i see in traktor.
The only weakness i really see is that nowadays, plenty controllers are made for Serato, while Traktor get´s less every day, even if this can be solved by remapping it yourself/ getting a mapping online, this will be tons of work waiting for you, before being able to use that controller right.
Hope it helped a bit,
Greetings
