I haven’t used TurboTax recently, but I just received a check from my state’s government saying that they’ve settled with Intuit over charging customers tax return services that should have been free.
This angers me greatly at how scummy TurboTax and Intuit have become over the years. For alternatives, I’ve been using FreeTaxUSA but I’m sure there are others that people can recommend.
I’ve used them for many years. Like you said, free for federal and I think $15 if you want them to file state/local which I am happy to pay. I know I can do it free online but it’s a cheap convenience.
There’s been a big price jump in their add-ons. Deluxe is $7.99 and audit defense is $19.99 (used to be included in deluxe, which was even a bit less)