F5Bot alternative
Redwatcher
VS
F5Bot
f5bot.com · figures read 2026-08-21
An F5Bot alternative for keywords, competitors and brand mentions
Updated 21 August 2026 · figures checked against each vendor's own pricing page
In short
Redwatcher is the F5Bot alternative for anyone tracking something people actually talk about. It monitors Reddit posts and comments for your keywords, competitors and brand names, scores every match from 0 to 100 with AI, and delivers the ones worth answering to email, Slack, Telegram or a webhook. From $19 a month, with scoring, every channel and unlimited seats on every plan.
F5Bot fires whenever a word appears in text. Redwatcher reads the thread for context, shows why it scored the way it did, and lets you write custom scoring rules to tune what reaches you. F5Bot caps alerts per keyword per day and disables the keyword when it goes over; Redwatcher has no such cap.
F5Bot is a keyword alerter for Reddit, Hacker News and Lobsters. It has run since 2017 and emails you when your words show up. Its free tier is 5 keywords, 20 alerts a day and a two-hour delay, with ads in the emails and no keyword filtering, and F5Bot labels it personal use only. Every plan limits how many alerts one keyword can send in a day, and a keyword that goes over that limit is switched off until you turn it back on. Redwatcher tracks the same things: your keywords, your competitors and your own brand. It scores each match and sends the ones worth answering.
Redwatcher is a Reddit monitoring tool that scores every keyword match for relevance before it alerts you.
Start free · Seven days, no card. From $19 a month after.
How we checked
Read off their own pages. Every F5Bot price, cap and feature below comes from f5bot.com/tiers and f5bot.com/faq, not from a roundup.
Checked 21 August 2026. Tiers move. Check their page before you pay.
We have not run their paid plans. Everything here is what F5Bot publishes about itself. Where we describe our own product we are the source, and we have said so.
Why people look for an F5Bot alternative
F5Bot puts a daily cap on each keyword. On the free tier it is 10 alerts per keyword per day. On Silver it is 30, on Gold 100, on Platinum 500. When a keyword passes its cap, F5Bot disables it. You can switch it back on from your account, and it will keep hitting the cap for as long as people keep talking.
That is not a fault. It is the tool working as designed, and F5Bot says so on its own FAQ page:
"F5Bot is designed to alert you about fairly uncommon keywords or phrases. If you're trying to monitor a very popular brand, this might not be the right tool for you."
— f5bot.com/faq, read 21 August 2026
Doing anything real on F5Bot means paying. The free tier does not filter keywords at all, holds you to 5 of them and 20 alerts a day, and delivers up to two hours late with ads attached. Filtering starts at $9.99, Slack at $49.99, webhooks at $214.99. If you are watching a brand name, a product name or a competitor, the volume is the point, and a cap that turns the keyword off is the wrong response to it.
One comment, two tools
"Ours just raised prices again and we're a 6-person shop. We need automations and decent deliverability. Is there anything under $30 a month? Genuinely asking, our email marketing tool is eating the budget."
— r/smallbusiness, a comment matching the keyword email marketing tool
F5Bot sends it. It matched your keyword, so it becomes an email. So does the next one, and the person complaining about a broken template, and the one asking which tool has the best logo. You read them all and decide which is which. When the keyword gets busy enough, it hits the daily cap and switches off.
Redwatcher scores it 94 and says why. Someone is asking for a recommendation, they named a budget, they named a team size, and no vendor has answered yet. It goes to Slack and email. The template complaint scores below your bar and is held back, counted, where you can still see it.
F5Bot review: what it does and what it costs
Read off f5bot.com/tiers on 21 August 2026.
| Free | Silver | Gold | Platinum | Diamond | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $9.99/mo · $109/yr | $49.99/mo · $549/yr | $214.99/mo · $2,364/yr | from $500/mo |
| Keywords | 5 | 20 | 200 | 300 | custom |
| Alerts per keyword per day | 10 | 30 | 100 | 500 | custom |
| Alerts per day | 20 | 100 | 5,000 | 200,000 | custom |
| Alert speed | within 2 hours | within 5 minutes | instant or scheduled | instant or scheduled | instant or scheduled |
| Ads in the emails | yes | no | no | no | no |
| Keyword filtering | no | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| RSS and JSON feeds | no | no | yes | yes | yes |
| Slack or Discord | no | no | 1 | 3 | custom |
| AI filtering | no | no | 2 filters | 5 filters | custom |
| Webhooks and API | no | no | no | yes | yes |
Two rows are worth reading twice. Webhooks and the API start at $214.99 a month. And AI filtering starts at $49.99, where you get two filters and the first $10 of monthly token use. Past that, F5Bot bills token use on top of the plan.
The free tier is for personal use. It has no keyword filtering, no full post text and ads in the emails.
F5Bot vs Redwatcher, side by side
| F5Bot | Redwatcher | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 · $9.99 · $49.99 · $214.99 · from $500 | $19 · $39 · $99 |
| What it watches | Reddit, Hacker News, Lobsters, all of Reddit | Reddit, the subreddits you choose (25 · 60 · 150) |
| Posts and comments | both | both |
| Relevance scoring | AI filtering from $49.99, two filters, token use billed above $10/mo | every plan, every match, scored 0 to 100 |
| Alerts per keyword per day | 10 · 30 · 100 · 500 | no cap |
| How often it checks | every few minutes | every five minutes on every plan |
| Alert speed by plan | 2 hours free, 5 minutes at $9.99, instant at $49.99 | same on every plan |
| all plans | all plans | |
| Telegram | no | all plans |
| Slack | from $49.99 | all plans |
| Discord | from $49.99 | not yet |
| Webhooks | from $214.99 | all plans |
| Custom scoring rules | no | all plans |
| Separate projects or clients | no | 1 · 3 · 10 |
| Team seats | not published | unlimited |
| Writes or posts replies | no | no |
| Free tier | 5 keywords · 20 alerts/day · 2-hour delay · ads · no filtering · personal use only | none — 7-day trial without a card |
Prices and limits for F5Bot were read on 21 August 2026 and may have changed since.
Where F5Bot stops
The limits, tier by tier
- Every plan caps alerts per keyword per day — 10, 30, 100, 500 — and a keyword over its cap is disabled until you re-enable it
- Relevance filtering starts at $49.99, is capped at two filters, and bills token use above $10 a month on top of the plan
- Webhooks and the API start at $214.99. Slack and Discord start at $49.99
- Alert speed is a paid tier: two hours free, five minutes at $9.99, instant at $49.99
- The free tier has no keyword filtering, no full post text, and ads in the emails
- One keyword list, one account. No way to keep two brands or two clients apart
F5Bot covers Hacker News and Lobsters, and Redwatcher does not. That is stated here so the comparison above can be trusted. It does not change what happens to a Reddit keyword once it gets busy.
What Redwatcher does differently
Every match gets a score from 0 to 100 before anything is sent, on every plan, with no separate charge and no filter to write first. That is the whole of what Redwatcher does, and the pricing says so on every tier. You set the bar, and only matches above it reach you. The rest stay in the app, counted, so you can see what was held back.
You can also write your own scoring rules, so the bar reflects what you actually care about rather than a generic idea of relevance. The score comes with its reasons. A thread that scores 94 says why: someone is asking for a recommendation, they named a budget, and no vendor has answered yet. If the score is wrong, there is a button that says so. Correcting it adds a rule, the thread is scored again, and later matches use the rule.
Projects are separate. One account holds 1, 3 or 10 of them, each with its own keywords, subreddits and alerts, which is what you want if you watch more than one brand or more than one client.
We do not write replies and we do not post them. That is on purpose and it is not on a roadmap.
Which one to pick
Redwatcher, if you track anything people actually talk about. A brand name, a product name or a competitor generates enough volume to hit F5Bot's daily cap, and a cap that disables the keyword is the wrong response to a busy week. Scoring every match is on the $19 plan, with the reasons attached and no usage billing.
F5Bot's free tier fits one case only: a personal project on five rare keywords, where a two-hour delay, 20 alerts a day, ads in the email and no filtering are all acceptable. F5Bot says as much itself — that tier is marked personal use only.
Seven other tools are priced and compared in the best F5Bot alternatives.
Moving off F5Bot
Take the keyword list you already have in F5Bot and paste it in. Then give us your website and we will suggest the subreddits to watch, which is the part F5Bot never asks you for. Set your score bar, point alerts at email, Slack, Telegram or a webhook, and leave it. Trial runs seven days and takes no card.
Start free · Seven days, no card. From $19 a month after. See pricing
F5Bot vs Redwatcher: questions people ask
Is F5Bot free?
There is a free tier, but it is limited enough that most people move off it. It covers 5 keywords, 10 alerts per keyword per day and 20 a day in total, arriving within two hours, with ads in the emails and no keyword filtering, no full post text and no alert grouping. F5Bot marks it personal use only. Keyword filtering starts at $9.99 a month, Slack and relevance filtering at $49.99, and webhooks with the API at $214.99.
How does F5Bot work?
You add keywords. F5Bot checks Reddit, Hacker News and Lobsters every few minutes and emails you when one of your words appears in a post or a comment. Flags let you limit a keyword to certain subreddits, exclude words, or require a second word to appear alongside the first.
Does F5Bot check comments as well as posts?
Yes, both.
Why did my F5Bot keyword stop sending alerts?
Most likely it passed its daily cap and was disabled. Each tier caps how many alerts a single keyword can send in 24 hours, and a keyword over the cap is switched off until you re-enable it in your account.
Does F5Bot have AI filtering?
Yes, from the Gold plan at $49.99 a month. You describe what you are looking for in plain language instead of listing exact keywords. Gold includes two filters, Platinum five, and the first $10 of monthly token use is included on both. Use beyond that is billed by consumption on top of the plan.
Is there a free alternative to F5Bot?
Google Alerts covers Reddit indirectly and costs nothing, though it is slower and misses comments. Among paid tools, prices start around €4.49. Redwatcher does not have a free tier. It runs a seven-day trial with no card, then starts at $19 a month.
Does F5Bot have an API?
Yes, on the Platinum plan at $214.99 a month. RSS and JSON feeds start lower, on Gold at $49.99. Webhooks are Platinum as well.
How fast are F5Bot alerts?
It depends what you pay. Two hours on the free tier, within five minutes on Silver at $9.99, and instant or scheduled from Gold at $49.99. Redwatcher checks every subreddit you track every five minutes on every plan, including the $19 one, and does not sell speed as an upgrade.
Can F5Bot send alerts to Slack?
Yes, from the Gold plan at $49.99 a month, which includes one Slack or Discord integration. Platinum at $214.99 includes three. Webhooks and the API are Platinum only. Redwatcher includes email, Slack, Telegram and webhooks on every plan.
Does F5Bot monitor every subreddit?
Yes. You give F5Bot keywords rather than subreddits, and it matches them across Reddit, Hacker News and Lobsters. Redwatcher watches the subreddits you name — 25 on the $19 plan, 150 on the $99 one — and suggests them from your website during setup, which is what makes scoring possible in context.
How do I set up Reddit keyword alerts?
On F5Bot you add keywords and receive email, then narrow them with flags such as only-url to limit a keyword to particular subreddits. On Redwatcher you paste in your keywords, accept or edit the suggested subreddits, set the score you want to be alerted above, and pick email, Slack, Telegram or a webhook.
Does Redwatcher post replies for me?
No. It finds the thread, scores it, tells you why it scored that way and links you to it. The reply is yours.
F5Bot pricing, limits and features on this page were read from f5bot.com/tiers and f5bot.com/faq on 21 August 2026. Redwatcher is not affiliated with F5Bot LLC. Reddit is a trademark of Reddit, Inc., and Redwatcher is not affiliated with or endorsed by Reddit, Inc.