How to switch from F5Bot to AyeWatch, keyword by keyword

If you want to switch from F5Bot, the work is smaller than it looks. F5Bot stores a list of keywords and a few flags per keyword. AyeWatch stores a sentence per monitor that says what you care about and what to ignore. Moving over means turning each keyword into that sentence, choosing where alerts go, and deciding whether to keep F5Bot for the sites AyeWatch does not list. This guide walks through it in order.

Before you start: what changes

F5Bot checks Reddit, Hacker News and Lobsters for a word or phrase and emails you when it appears. On the free plan that match is exact, so a keyword that is also an everyday word brings in every unrelated use of it. The F5Bot comparison page puts the difference simply: AyeWatch reads each new post against your description and judges it by meaning.

Three other things change with the move:

• Coverage. AyeWatch has Reddit monitors, plus X, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok, specific web pages, and internet topics drawn from over a billion sources.
• Alerts. Every alert comes with a short summary of the thread and its sources, so you can decide from the notification whether to open it.
• Delivery. Push notifications and the in-app feed work on every plan. Paid plans add email, a daily digest email, Slack, Discord, webhooks and the REST API, chosen per monitor.

Step 1: list your F5Bot keywords and flags

Open your F5Bot dashboard and copy each keyword with its flags into a note. Group keywords that belong to the same question. A brand name, its old name and a common misspelling usually describe one thing, so they can become one AyeWatch monitor instead of three.

Step 2: write each group as a plain-English monitor

Create a Reddit monitor in AyeWatch and describe the discussion, not the string. A good description names the subject, says what kinds of posts count, and says what to skip. AyeWatch's own example reads:

Monitor: "Reddit threads comparing [product] with competitors or reporting bugs" Rule: "Alert on real comparisons, bug reports and buying questions. Skip memes and throwaway mentions."

F5Bot flags that excluded words or required a second keyword turn into sentences in the rule. If you used a subreddit flag, name the subreddit, because AyeWatch Reddit monitors can follow subreddits and Reddit users directly.

Step 3: add the places F5Bot never reached

This is the step most people skip and later wish they had not. If your product is discussed on X or reviewed on YouTube, add a monitor for each with the same plain-English filter. If a competitor's pricing page or changelog matters, add a webpage monitor and AyeWatch will alert you when its content changes in a meaningful way.

Step 4: compare what you get

Be honest about speed first. F5Bot finds matches every few minutes, and its Gold plan sends them instantly, so if answering a thread in its first minutes is the whole point, keep that in mind. What AyeWatch adds is relevance: each post is read against your sentence, and only real matches reach you, with a summary.

F5Bot figures are from its tiers page.

Step 5: route the alerts

Send each monitor where someone will act on it. Bug reports can go to an engineering Slack channel, buying questions to a sales channel, and competitor mentions to the daily digest. Developers can connect a webhook or the REST API, and every paid plan includes an MCP server so an AI agent can create or pause monitors for you.

Step 6: run both for a week

There are no contracts or cancellation fees on AyeWatch, so the safest switch is a short overlap. Keep F5Bot running, compare which alerts were worth reading, and tighten any AyeWatch rule that let noise through.

When to keep F5Bot

AyeWatch does not list Hacker News or Lobsters as monitor types. If those communities matter and your keyword is distinctive, F5Bot's free plan is still a sensible thing to leave on, and it costs nothing.

Get started

AyeWatch's Free Preview gives three runs with no card, which is enough to test your noisiest F5Bot keyword first. When it works, paid plans start at $9 a month. Set up your first Reddit monitor and move the rest over one at a time.