Is F5Bot or Syften better?

F5Bot if you only need Reddit and Hacker News by email — it is free for five keywords. Syften if you need more sources, precise filters or an API, from $29.95 a month.

Does either have a free plan?

F5Bot does: five keywords and 20 alerts a day, delivered within two hours. Syften has no free tier.

Both use AI as a filter rather than a judge. F5Bot’s is match or no-match against a description, with token use billed above $10 a month. Syften’s is accept or reject, and its API documentation says it returns no scores, sentiment or suggested replies.

Which has an MCP server?

Syften, on PRO at $119.95 a month, read-only. F5Bot documents none.

F5BotvsSyften

Comparison · checked 20 October 2026

F5Bot vs Syften

Two keyword-alert tools at opposite ends of the same idea. F5Bot is the cheapest and simplest thing in the category: Reddit, Hacker News and Lobsters, by email, free for five keywords. Syften watches around twenty communities — podcasts and public Slack groups among them — with precise filters and an API from its first plan. If Reddit and Hacker News are enough, F5Bot. If they are not, Syften, and it is not close.

F5Bot — Free, then $9.99/moSyften — $29.95/mo

[01] SIDE BY SIDE/ THE TABLE

F5Bot against Syften

Every figure read from each vendor's own materials on 20 October 2026. A tick marks the column with the advantage on that row; plenty of rows have neither, which is usually the honest answer. Pricing in this category moves — three of the ten tools we track repriced during 2026 — so confirm anything you are about to sign for.

	F5Bot	Syften
Free tier	5 keywords, 20 alerts a day	None
Entry paid plan	$9.99/mo	$29.95/mo, 3 filters
Sources	Reddit, Hacker News, Lobsters	About 20, incl. podcasts and public Slack
X and YouTube	Not offered	Add-ons, +$40 and +$20/mo
LinkedIn	Not offered	Not offered
What you write	Keywords	Boolean filters: 3 / 20 / 100 by plan
AI	Match / no-match against a description, metered tokens	Accept / reject; no scores or replies
REST API	Platinum, $214.99/mo	From Entry, $29.95/mo
MCP server	Not offered	PRO, $119.95/mo, read-only
Team seats	Not documented	One shared account

[02] WHERE F5BOT WINS/ HONESTLY

Free, and then nearly free

Five keywords free and $9.99 for more is the floor of the category. Syften has no free tier, and its entry plan is three times F5Bot’s first paid one.

Nothing to learn

Type a word, get an email. There are no filters to write and no sources to configure. For one person watching a brand name on Reddit and Hacker News, extra power is extra work.

[03] WHERE SYFTEN WINS/ HONESTLY

Twenty sources, including ones nobody else reads

Podcast transcripts and public Slack communities are Syften sources and almost nobody else’s. Add X and YouTube on Standard and up. F5Bot is three sources at every price.

Filters precise enough to trust

Boolean filters with exclusions and per-source scope mean fewer false matches before any AI is involved. Syften’s own documentation is unusually clear about what its AI does and does not do.

An API from the first plan

Syften’s API starts at $29.95. F5Bot’s starts at $214.99, and it manages alerts rather than returning mentions.

[04] HOW TO CHOOSE/ SHORTCUTS

Reddit and Hacker News are your whole market

F5Bot

Free or $9.99, and it has done exactly this since 2017.

Your buyers are in podcasts, Slack groups or niche forums

Syften

Its source list is the only one here that reaches them.

You want to build on the data

Syften

An API at $29.95 against $214.99.

You want to pay nothing and change nothing

F5Bot

There is no cheaper way to know when your name comes up.

[05] A THIRD OPTION/ OURS, DISCLOSED

Where FishOut changes the answer — and where it does not

The price per alert channel is where a third option changes the arithmetic. F5Bot sends email at entry; Syften’s channels are not on the pages we cite, and its webhooks and MCP sit on PRO. FishOut sends to 13 destinations — Slack, Teams, Discord, Telegram, signed webhooks and more — on its free plan, reads every match for relevance with the reason shown, and adds a Reply call and, from $19, a draft. It does not reach podcasts or Slack groups, so if those are why you are looking at Syften, Syften is still the answer.

Start free FishOut vs F5Bot

[06] SEE IT ON YOUR KEYWORDS/ FREE PLAN

What you get instead of F5Bot or Syften

The posts F5Bot or Syften would have shown you, plus the ones on Hacker News, Bluesky and GitHub, already read: relevance with its reason, a label, a Reply call and a draft you post yourself.

Views

Reply now6

Leads14

Switchers5

Support9

Advocates7

Filtered212

Saved views

Competitor complaints

Launch week

Leads· Best first14

Hacker Newskestrel_ops50m

Show HN: We replaced our helpdesk with a shared Gmail and a script

Reply, carefullyQuestion

Blueskyines.codes30m

Is there an inbox app with an API that is not an afterthought?

Reply nowAsking for recommendations

r/startupsferrous_owl2h

Is there a cheaper Notchmail for a three-person team?

Reply nowAsking for recommendationsComparison

Hacker Newskestrel_ops50m

Show HN: We replaced our helpdesk with a shared Gmail and a script

Top comment asks whether anyone has done the same without writing the script, for a team that cannot maintain code.

Relevance

Asking for a toolOn the front pageTechnical audience

Labels · Reply call

Reply, carefullyQuestion

Respect the author’s approach; answer the commenter

Draft reply

For a team without anyone to maintain a script, the off-the-shelf version is a shared inbox with assignment rules. I work on one (AcmeMail); the author’s approach is great if you have the engineer.

Says who you are
Credits the author
No claims you cannot back up

Copy and open threadFishOut never posts

Start free See every plan

Questions

Sources

F5Bot pricing and FAQ — read 20 October 2026
Syften pricing and documentation — read 20 October 2026

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

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