Comparison
ReplyHey vs F5Bot
F5Bot is a keyword alarm. ReplyHey is what you were going to do after the alarm went off.
F5Bot details read from their site in August 2026. Pricing moves — check theirs before you decide.
What F5Bot is
F5Bot has been running for years and does one thing with no fuss: you give it words, and when those words appear in a Reddit post or comment, on Hacker News or on Lobsters, it emails you. It checks every few minutes, so the alert usually beats the thread going quiet. There is a free tier, paid tiers add filtering and Slack, Discord, RSS and API delivery.
That is the entire product, and the design is deliberate. F5Bot does not rank what it finds, does not know what you sell, and does not have an opinion about whether a given thread is worth your evening. It tells you the word appeared. Everything after that is you.
ReplyHey starts from your URL instead of your keywords. It reads the page, works out what you sell and who buys it, derives the search terms and the subreddits, and then sweeps them daily. What lands in your inbox is not "the word appeared" — it is a post scored 0–100 with the sentence that earned the score quoted underneath, the subreddit’s current promotion rules already checked, and a reply drafted in your voice.
Where F5Bot is better
- Free, and unapologetic about it. Nothing else on this page has a free tier that useful.
- Alerts within minutes, which matters if you want to be the first comment on a fast thread.
- Covers Hacker News and Lobsters as well as Reddit. ReplyHey is Reddit only.
- No AI in the path on the free tier, so nothing is ever wrong in an interesting way.
Side by side
| ReplyHey | F5Bot | |
|---|---|---|
| What it watches | Subreddits derived from your URL, swept daily | Keywords you type, across Reddit, Hacker News and Lobsters |
| Deciding what matters | Scored 0–100 with the evidence quoted | You read every alert |
| The reply | Drafted in your voice, you edit and post it | You write it from scratch |
| Subreddit rules | Checked live; a no-promo sub gets a DM draft instead | Not checked — that part is on you |
| Brand mentions | Daily, with the quote that named you | Yes, if you add your brand as a keyword |
| Posting plan | A two-week calendar per subreddit | No |
| Setup | Paste one URL, about thirty seconds | Type your keywords |
| Price | $24.99/month, unlimited websites | Free tier; paid tiers from $9.99/month |
Where we differ
Whichever you pick: nothing should post to Reddit as you. That is the line the account bans are on.
ReplyHey vs F5Bot: questions
Is ReplyHey worth paying for when F5Bot is free?+
Only if your time is worth more than $24.99 a month. F5Bot gives you the raw stream; ReplyHey gives you four scored threads with drafts attached instead of four hundred alerts. Plenty of people should use the free tool — if you are already reading every alert and enjoying it, you do not need us.
Can I use both?+
Yes, and some people do: F5Bot for Hacker News, ReplyHey for Reddit. They do not conflict, and neither one will ever post from an account that is not yours.
Does ReplyHey cover Hacker News?+
No. Reddit only, on purpose — the subreddit rule engine, the promo-thread feed and the posting calendar are all Reddit-shaped, and doing this properly for one platform beats doing it thinly for five.
How fast are ReplyHey’s leads?+
Daily rather than within minutes. For "what should I use for X" threads, which stay alive and keep ranking in Google for months, a day is not the difference. If you need to be the first comment on a breaking thread, F5Bot is faster.
More comparisons
See all →Try ReplyHey before you decide
Paste your URL, see the subreddits and the first leads, and compare it against F5Bot with your own niche rather than ours. No card, nothing to cancel.