Yes, one might argue it's a little misleading, but it comes across as significantly more genuine and less scammy than TurboTax. The federal filing is completely free, no matter which forms you have, and you just pay $15 per state. They also have the standard support upsells, but they don't push them crazy hard (I think it's one prompt between the federal and state sections).

I've used them for the past several years, never had any issues. Paid for audit defense one year when my return was especially complex (luckily haven't needed it yet).

Federal (USA) taxes are always free with them no matter what complications you have. They only charge for state filing or for live support. Seems fine to me to call it that.

I paid nothing because I live in Nevada. They charge for state income taxes, but federal taxes are free.

You only pay if your state charges to e-file, which many do.

They have up selling services like a prepaid debit card and whatnot, but all that is optional.

I do not think they're operating "at-cost" -- making a profit off of state taxes is a reasonable business model. I also doubt that California charges to e-file: https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/ways-to-file/online/calfile/inde...

I'm really happy to use FreeTaxUsa and only pay $20 for my income tax though, because using TurboTax with contractor income it was $120 or more. I got multiple family members to switch to FreeTaxUsa.

It works pretty well, but it took me a while to give it a go, because the name sounds like the scammiest thing ever.