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Whereas a mixing board may be analog or digital, audio interfaces are designed to convert the analog signal into [[Understanding Digital Audio|digital audio]]. Whereas analog clipping may be mildly annoying or in some cases musical, digital clipping is usually quite noisy and harsh. Properly setting pad and gain/trim settings to avoid digital clipping is essential to getting a usable signal in your DAW.
Cheaper interfaces don't always have great pre-amps, pad circuits, and A>D converters, preventing them from sounding good regardless of what settings you use. It's a good idea to not only look at general reviews of interfaces but reviews that specifically address your primary use cases before buying. Do not rely on features alone. I find it's better to sacrifice features in favor of quality signal transfer.
Many interfaces' inputs are designed to accept either microphone or instrument-level signals. They look similar to an XLR jack, but with a hole in the middle for 1/4" TS or TRS jacks. These will often feature pad, phantom power, and trim/gain controls. Other interfaces will keep XLR and TS/TRS jacks separate, with phantom power and pad controls only found on the XLR and TS/TRS inputs, respectively. These inputs are typically found on the front of the interface.