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figures verified 2026-09-10

F5Bot alternative

They outgrew email. They want a webhook, a prescore, more sources, or a catch that wakes an agent, and they want to keep the free Reddit and Hacker News on-ramp.

What you keep

  • Free Hacker News alerts at one hour or slower. Free Reddit alerts once a cleared path exists.
  • F5Bot for Lobste.rs, which discatch does not cover.

What changes

  • JSON instead of email, with an event log and webhooks on every plan.
  • More sources: web, news, Discourse, Stack Exchange, GitHub today; Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, Product Hunt planned.
  • A prescore, and the classify flag when you want a verdict.
  • Push to an agent: a webhook, a Claude Code command, a Doozy todo.

How to move

Three steps. Your AI assistant can do all of them with only the domain name.

  1. 1

    Get a trial key

    No email, no credit card, and a free amount of usage on free sources. Enough to try discatch on the terms you watch today.

    the agent does

    curl -X POST https://api.discatch.com/v1/keys/trial
  2. 2

    Get a price quote for your terms

    Turn each F5Bot keyword into a search and price it. Before anything runs, discatch tells you the most it can cost. Compare that number to what you pay now.

    the agent does

    curl -X POST https://api.discatch.com/v1/quote \
  -d '{ "query": "\"your product\"", "sources": ["hackernews", "discourse", "web"], "since": "7d" }'
  3. 3

    Set up standing searches with a destination

    One standing search per term, delivered to a webhook, a Claude Code or Codex command, a Doozy todo, or email. Run both tools side by side for a week. Searches that find nothing cost nothing.

    the agent does

    curl https://api.discatch.com/v1/catches -H "Authorization: Bearer $DISCATCH_KEY" \
  -d '{ "name": "your product", "query": "\"your product\"", "sources": ["hackernews", "discourse", "web"], "interval": "15m", "destination": { "type": "webhook", "url": "https://example.com/hooks/discatch" } }'

Before you move

  • Keep F5Bot for Lobste.rs. discatch does not cover it.
  • Keep F5Bot’s free tier running as a backstop for Reddit and Hacker News. It costs nothing.
  • Try discatch’s free tier for the same sources plus web, news, Discourse, Stack Exchange, and GitHub.
  • If you are on Platinum for the API, compare the cost: $214.99/mo vs per-unit pricing.

Keep F5Bot. Add the rest.

F5Bot does two things well: free Reddit alerts and free Hacker News alerts by email. If that is all you need, keep it. discatch adds more sources, a JSON API on every plan, a prescore, the classify flag, and catches that push to an agent. The free tiers do not conflict.

The cost of an API

F5Bot’s API and webhooks cost $214.99/mo on Platinum. SnitchFeed includes API and MCP at $47 to $59/mo. Syften includes the API at $49.95/mo. discatch includes the API on every plan, including the free tier. If you outgrew F5Bot’s free tier and want programmatic access, the gap between $214.99/mo and per-unit pricing is where discatch fits.

F5Bot is the only category product Hacker News mentions unprompted: 23 mentions since 2025 vs 1 for Octolens. It has a real community of users who trust it. The free tier is the on-ramp for anyone who wants to try keyword monitoring. discatch’s free tier reproduces the same idea: free Hacker News alerts at one hour or slower, with a JSON API and an event log on top.

Questions

Is discatch’s free tier the same as F5Bot?

Similar in spirit: free Hacker News alerts at one hour or slower, and free Reddit alerts once a cleared path exists. discatch adds a JSON API and an event log on top.

Does discatch use F5Bot under the hood?

No. F5Bot’s terms require a separately negotiated written contract for resale or redistribution. discatch reaches Hacker News through its official search API and reproduces the free-alert idea itself.

How much does F5Bot’s API cost?

API and webhooks are on the Platinum tier at $214.99/mo or $2,364/yr. discatch includes the API and webhooks on every plan, including the free tier.

Does F5Bot have an MCP server?

No. F5Bot has no MCP server, no llms.txt, no OpenAPI spec, and no JSON-LD on any page. The site does not mention MCP or agents anywhere.

How fast is F5Bot’s free tier?

Within 2 hours, with a cap of 20 alerts per day. Silver ($9.99/mo) is within 5 minutes. Gold and above are instant. discatch’s free tier fires at one hour or slower.

Does F5Bot cover Discourse or GitHub?

No. F5Bot covers exactly three sources: Reddit, Hacker News, and Lobste.rs. discatch covers web, news, Hacker News, Discourse forums, Stack Exchange, and GitHub today.

Are F5Bot’s guides dated?

No. None of the 10 guides carry a publish date, author name, or meta description. The sitemap has no lastmod. One guide (reddit-search-api) is not in the sitemap.

Does Syften’s F5Bot page cite the right tiers?

No. Syften’s /f5bot-alternative page names "Power, Ultra, and Enterprise tiers" that do not exist on 2026-09-10. F5Bot’s tiers are Free, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond.

How does F5Bot handle AI filtering?

AI filtering is available on Gold ($49.99/mo) and above. It is metered per token: Gold includes the first $10/mo of token usage. Platinum includes 5 AI filters. discatch’s prescore is free on every result; the classify flag is a per-unit surcharge.

What is F5Bot’s 28-question FAQ?

F5Bot’s /faq page covers limits, cadence, subreddit scoping, comments vs posts, regex, wildcards, Slack, Discord, RSS, JSON feeds, bulk upload, and cancellation. It has no FAQPage schema. discatch’s FAQ pages use FAQPage schema for snippet eligibility.

Last reviewed by , founder, dcouple. F5Bot facts read on 2026-09-10 from f5bot.com/tiers, f5bot.com/docs-api, f5bot.com/guides. Research: docs/seo/competitor-map.md.