Is F5Bot really free?

Yes, permanently — five keywords, twenty alerts a day, delivered within two hours, with ads in the emails. It is a genuine free tier, not a trial, and only three of the ten tools we track have one. FishOut’s free plan is 10 keywords, at 500 relevant mentions a month rather than 20 alerts a day, with no ads and with the API and MCP server included.

What does F5Bot monitor?

Reddit, Hacker News and Lobste.rs. That is the whole list. FishOut covers those first two plus X, LinkedIn, Bluesky, YouTube, TikTok, Medium, GitHub and Google News.

Does F5Bot have AI filtering?

It has AI filtering, but it is a binary keep-or-drop against a description you write, not a score — and on Gold and Platinum it is metered, with the first $10/month of token usage included and the rest billed on top. FishOut reads every post for relevance and shows why as chips, and that triage is included on every plan and never metered.

Which is better for a solo founder on Reddit?

If you only watch Reddit and Hacker News and you want the cheapest possible alerting, F5Bot is hard to argue with at $9.99/mo. FishOut is the better answer once the volume gets past what you can read, or once your buyers turn out to be on LinkedIn too.

FishOut

vsF5Bot

Comparison

FishOut vs F5Bot

F5Bot is where most people in this category start, and for good reason — it is free, it has run since 2017, and it emails you the moment your word appears on Reddit or Hacker News. What it does not do is tell you which of those emails deserved opening.

Start free Compare pricing

F5Bot facts checked on 20 October 2026, from their own published material. Sources are listed at the foot of this page.

Platforms: 10; 3
Starts at: Free; Free
MCP server: Every plan, incl. Free; Not offered

[01] AT A GLANCE/ SIDE BY SIDE

FishOut and F5Bot, feature by feature

Ties are marked as ties, and F5Bot's wins as wins.

FishOut compared with F5Bot, feature by feature
	FishOut	F5Bot
Coverage
PlatformsReddit, Hacker News, Lobste.rs	Advantage: 10	Behind: 3
Buyer signals	Advantage: Labels, a Leads view, the Reply call	Behind: Not offered
AI
AI relevance	Advantage: Relevance 0–100 with Why chips	Behind: Binary match, no score
Sentiment	Advantage: Yes	Behind: Not offered
Reply drafting	Advantage: Yes, never posts	Behind: Not offered
Alerts
Alert destinations	Advantage: 13, every plan	Behind: Email at entry
Price per alert destination at entryEntry price divided by the destinations it includes	Advantage: $0 on Free; $1.46 on Plus	Behind: $9.99 ($9.99 ÷ 1)
Developer
MCP server — which plan	Advantage: Every plan, including Free	Behind: Not offered
REST API — which plan	Advantage: Every plan, including Free	Behind: Platinum, $214.99/mo
Team
Seats at entry	Advantage: Unlimited on every plan	Behind: No team accounts
Price
Free tier	Even: Free forever, 10 keywords, 500 relevant/mo	Even: Free forever, 5 keywords, 20 alerts/day
Cheapest paid plan	Behind: $19/mo	Advantage: $9.99/mo
AI cost	Advantage: Included on every plan, never metered	Behind: Metered above $10/mo of tokens
Sales call needed	Even: No — self-serve, cancel any time	Even: No — Diamond is from $500

[02] WHAT IT COSTS/ SAME NEED

What each need costs on FishOut and on F5Bot

The plan you would need on each side for the thing you came for.

To getFishOutF5Bot

5 keywords by emailFreeFree$0Free

Platforms beyond Reddit, HN, LobstersFreeFreeNot offered

An APIFreeFree$214.99/moPlatinum

Monthly-billed. A keyword is not always the same unit on both sides.

[03] WHERE F5BOT IS STRONGER/ HONESTLY

F5Bot is free keyword alerts for Reddit and Hacker News, and there are things it does that we do not.

Nothing competes on price

A permanent free tier with no card, and $9.99/mo for 20 keywords. Our free plan doubles it at 10 keywords and gives 500 relevant mentions a month against its 20 alerts a day, but F5Bot at $9.99 is below anything we sell. If cost is the deciding factor, that is the honest answer.

Nine years of just working

F5Bot has run since 2017 and delivers 430,000+ alerts a day. Alerts are instant on Gold and above. It is a simple thing done reliably for a long time, and there is no substitute for that record.

Very precise keyword control

A large flag vocabulary — in-title, in-url, in-username, exclude, include-any, include-all, whole-word, no-posts, no-comments — plus CSV bulk upload. For pure Reddit and Hacker News matching, that is a lot of precision cheaply.

[04] WHERE FISHOUT WINS/ WITH PROOF

Ten platforms, not three

F5Bot covers Reddit, Hacker News and Lobste.rs. FishOut adds X, LinkedIn, Bluesky, YouTube, TikTok, Medium, GitHub and Google News. If your buyers talk anywhere other than Reddit, this is the whole difference.

Sources

Bluesky

Hacker News

YouTube

TikTok

Medium

GitHub

Google News

Triage, not a match

F5Bot tells you a word appeared. Its AI filtering is a binary keep-or-drop against a description you write — there is no score and no ranking, so a hundred matches arrive as a hundred equal emails. FishOut reads every post for relevance, labels, sentiment and a Reply call, sorts the inbox best first, and moves the noise to a Filtered view with its reason.

Why this is relevant

Matches your briefAsking for helpNot answered yetFresh

Reply nowAsking for recommendationsHas a problem

The reply is already written

F5Bot has no reply drafting. FishOut opens a mention with a draft in your Voice that says who you are — and it never posts for you.

Draft replyYour voice

Six people and one shared inbox is the exact shape where filters stop helping, because the problem is not sorting, it's deciding.

I work on AcmeMail — it sorts the inbox by what needs you, so you read the fifteen that matter.

Copy and open threadFishOut never posts — you send it yourself

An API that returns mentions

F5Bot’s REST API is Platinum-only, at $214.99/mo, and it manages alert definitions rather than returning mentions. FishOut’s API, MCP server and webhooks are on every plan including Free, and they return the mentions themselves.

[05] WHO SHOULD PICK WHICH/ SHORTCUTS

If you…

Who we would send to F5Bot, and who to us.

You want free email alerts and nothing elseF5BotIt has done exactly that since 2017, and nothing competes with it on price.

Reddit and Hacker News are your whole marketF5Bot, or FishOut FreeF5Bot if every match is worth reading. FishOut Free if you want them read and ranked for you first.

You want alerts in Slack, Discord or Telegram, ranked by relevanceFishOut13 destinations and AI triage on the Free plan; the extra $9 over F5Bot Silver buys six more platforms on Plus.

[06] IN AND OUT/ 10 SOURCES · 13 DESTINATIONS

10 places to listen

F5Bot: 3. FishOut: Reddit, Hacker News, Bluesky, GitHub and Google News hourly on every plan, five more on paid plans.

Bluesky

Hacker News

YouTube

TikTok

Medium

GitHub

Google News

13 places to be told

F5Bot: Email at entry. FishOut: all 13, on every plan.

Slack

Teams

Google Chat

Discord

Mattermost

ntfy

Feishu

DingTalk

WeCom

Zapier

Webhook

[07] SEE IT ON YOUR KEYWORDS/ FREE PLAN

What you get instead of F5Bot

Where F5Bot stops at the match, the inbox keeps going: why it matters, whether to answer, and the answer drafted in your voice.

Views

Reply now6

Leads14

Switchers5

Support9

Advocates7

Filtered212

Saved views

Competitor complaints

Launch week

Leads· Best first14

GitHubopen-desk/issues1d

Looking for an alternative now that Bramblemail dropped its API

Reply, carefullyAsking for recommendationsHas a problem

r/smallbusinesstwofoldbakery7h

Customers email three different addresses and we keep missing orders

Reply nowHas a problemAsking for recommendations

r/SaaSpatchwork_pm40m

What do you use to find people asking for a tool like yours?

Reply nowAsking for recommendations

GitHubopen-desk/issues1d

Looking for an alternative now that Bramblemail dropped its API

Our triage bot read Bramblemail over its API. That is gone as of this month. Anything with a stable API we can migrate the bot to?

Relevance

Competitor namedSwitching nowTechnical buyer

Labels · Reply call

Reply, carefullyAsking for recommendationsHas a problem

Stick to the API question; link docs, not a landing page

Draft reply

If the bot only needs to read and label threads, the AcmeMail REST API covers that and is on every plan — I work there. Happy to point at the two endpoints you would need.

Says who you are
Answers the API question
No claims you cannot back up

Copy and open threadFishOut never posts

Start free See every plan

Questions

More on F5Bot

F5Bot pricing, explained →F5Bot alternatives, ranked →F5Bot vs KWatch.io →Google Alerts vs F5Bot →F5Bot vs Syften →

Sources

F5Bot pricing and FAQ — checked 20 October 2026. Free $0 (5 keywords, 20 alerts/day, delivery within 2 hours), Silver $9.99, Gold $49.99, Platinum $214.99, Diamond from $500. Sources: Reddit, Hacker News and Lobste.rs only. AI filtering is a binary match/no-match against a description, billed on top of the plan beyond $10/month of tokens. REST API on Platinum and above, and it manages alerts rather than returning mentions. No MCP server and no team seats documented.
FishOut pricing — checked 19 October 2026. lib/pricing-data.ts — the same data the pricing page renders.

Product names and logos belong to their owners and are used only to identify the products compared. No endorsement is implied.

Other comparisons

FishOut vs Google Alerts FishOut vs Mentionkit FishOut vs Octolens FishOut vs Syften FishOut vs Brand24 FishOut vs Awario All comparisons