My 1st short barrel AR was a 10" SIG P516. After running this gun as a pistol for a year or so, it's now a SBR usually run with her suppressor.
My pistol experiences were greatly influenced with what muzzle devise was mounted and the specific ammo loaded. Everyone's different, but recoil usually isn't an issue with 5.56 or 223 ammo running a shouldered rifle.
Holding a 10" pistol on my cheek was a little more uncomfortable though, particularly running full NATO 5.56 with the stock muzzle flash hider. The recoil was much deminished after switching to a muzzle brake, but the blast and fireball became annoying. Especially, for those guys standing next to me in a rifle class!
An 11.5" barrel pistol is probably easier to live with than my 10". Am sure you'll enjoy a pistol version .. And there's always the options to changes the setup to something different too!
Cheers