Comment by Hilift

Although these systems are similar in goals, they are pretty different in terms of how they're structured:

- Direct File: Was built by the US government to make tax filing easier - Free File: Is a subsidy from the US government to tax software to make it cheaper for people to file taxes

Direct file had the promise of making things easier and cheaper overall while Free File is more of a cost shifting approach.

Features like importing tax data from other federal government systems were included in Direct File to make it easier to file taxes. These types of features would be hard for those outside the government to do. At a values level, Free File provides funding to the tax preparation software companies. These companies benefit from difficulty in filing taxes because it creates a market for their products.

Yep, and "Free File" is the one that you are required to go through TurboTax or their 1-2 'competitors' to do, who are free to do their best to essentially bury and shadowban it from search engines. They're required by law to offer it, but are allowed to try to hide it from you and to promote alternative programs that will likely result in upsells for most taxpayers.