How does it compare?

Forgive me if this is an over asked question, but how would Blender compare to apps like Maya? There are a lot of tutorials and info available, but none of it has made the flat-out comparison to anything else available.

Knowing what software typically costs, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this bizzare loophole. The software is running on my computer, and no one's take a few grand out of my card or bank account, so it seems it was indeed free. That just leaves features and capabilities, which I don't know enough about yet to know if importants things are missing. Maybe the finished product gets a huge "watermark" put on it? C'mon, what's the catch?

If all the imformation is out there as to how Blender is just "there for the downloading", I certainly haven't found it yet, but I've been busy learning the program to look.