I've heard a rumor that they all use the same engine and just have slightly different front-ends. I've used TurboTax in the past, mostly for my mom, but not for a couple of years. (Her taxes got really complicated and it was easier to just pay someone else to do it.) At the time, I thought that they were both irritating in different ways. I have noticed that TaxAct will sometimes ask questions that don't seem to be relevant and I sometimes have a hard time figuring out where to put certain pieces of information. But TurboTax ended up being really chatty and claiming that it knew what I wanted to do when it didn't. I don't think that TurboTax is worth $30 more, personally. TaxAct only charges $8 to eFile your Federal return, so there's still a difference of $22 and I don't think it's worth that much more, either.

Hmm. It seems you can actually download TurboTax for $20 now. That's a better deal. You're still talking $12, though, and that assumes you want to eFile. (It seems stupid to pay money in order to pay the taxman faster if you owe.)

I just didn't see anything in TurboTax that compelled me to spend money when there was an equivalent product for free.