ForwardBuddy vs TeleFeed: Which Telegram Forwarding Bot Fits Your Setup
If you're looking for a TeleFeed alternative, you probably already know TeleFeed works. It's been running since 2019 and it's genuinely capable. The question isn't whether it's good — it's whether it's the right shape for what you're doing.
This is a straight comparison. Both tools do the core job well. They diverge on pricing structure, on how much complexity they put in front of you, and on which workloads they're actually built for. In two of those workloads I'll tell you plainly to pick TeleFeed.
The short answer
Pick TeleFeed if you're translating foreign-language feeds into one destination, or running a genuinely large number of sources through a single inbox. Those are the two things it's built around, and it does them well.
Pick ForwardBuddy if you want a smaller surface area — fewer settings between you and a working rule — and predictable pricing without an ad tier.
Everything below is the reasoning.
What TeleFeed actually is
TeleFeed is a userbot-style forwarding tool that runs on your Telegram account rather than as a bot added to chats. It's been in production since 2019, works across channels, groups, DMs, and bots, and applies filters, translations, and transformations on the fly — including on sources where forwarding is restricted. TeleFeed
Running on your account is the architecturally significant choice. It means TeleFeed can read anything your account can read, without needing an admin to add a bot to the source channel. It runs on MTProto and pipes output through filters, translation, watermarking, regex transformations, and scheduled delays. TeleFeed
That's a deep feature set. It's also a lot of surface area.
Where TeleFeed wins outright
I'd rather be useful than promotional here, so let's do this part properly.
Translation-heavy workflows
This is TeleFeed's strongest card and it isn't close. Foreign-language feeds across 90+ languages pipe into a single English destination, with each post prefixed by its country code so editors can see provenance at a glance. TeleFeed
If you're a newsroom editor pulling Portuguese, Spanish, German, and Japanese sources into one working channel, that country-code provenance detail is the kind of thing you only build after real users complain about the thing it fixes. ForwardBuddy's text handling is [FB: describe your translation support honestly — if you don't have inline translation, say so plainly]. For this use case, TeleFeed is the better tool.
Very large source counts
TeleFeed's own users include people running 40+ wire feeds through one inbox. TeleFeed
Past roughly 20–25 sources, the problems change character. You stop caring about per-rule convenience and start caring about bulk management, dedup across overlapping feeds, and not hitting rate limits. TeleFeed has had years of production traffic at that scale.
If your setup looks like that, go with TeleFeed. ForwardBuddy is [FB: state your realistic tested source ceiling], and pretending otherwise would just waste your time and mine.
Rebuilding history
TeleFeed mirrors new posts to your archive and rebuilds the back catalog in original order, needing only read access on the source. If archival completeness is the point of your setup, that matters. TeleFeed
Pricing: the part most comparisons get wrong
TeleFeed's free tier is real, not a trial. Free users get unlimited message forwarding and up to 5 redirection setups; the tradeoff is that TeleFeed posts advertisement messages into your targets on the free plan, and removing those ads means upgrading to the Basic plan at $7 per month. There's a free plan plus three paid tiers above it. Readthedocs
Read that carefully, because it's the single most important practical difference for a channel owner.
On the free tier, ads appear in your channel. Not in a dashboard, not in a footer on the bot's own interface — in the destination your subscribers are reading. For a personal archive that's irrelevant. For a public channel you're trying to grow, it's a real cost that doesn't show up as a price.
ForwardBuddy's free tier is [FB: state your limit] with [FB: confirm — no ads in destination channels?]. Paid plans start at [FB: your price].
At $7/month, TeleFeed's Basic tier is not expensive. The honest framing is that TeleFeed's free plan is generous on volume and pays for it with placement, while [FB: describe your free tier's tradeoff — every free tier has one, name yours].
Setup and daily use
TeleFeed lists every chat you're already in so you pick source and destination directly, with no chat-ID hunting — their claim is five minutes from start to live forwarding. TeleFeed
That's a good onboarding flow and it removes the single worst part of most forwarding tools.
ForwardBuddy's setup is [FB: describe honestly — if it's also a chat picker, say so; don't manufacture a difference that isn't there]. The meaningful distinction, if there is one, is in what happens after setup: how many settings you have to understand to change one rule, and how easy it is to see at a glance which rules are running.
Depth cuts both ways. TeleFeed's regex transformations, watermarking, and scheduled delays are powerful if you need them, and are things to scroll past if you don't. Whether that's a feature or friction depends entirely on whether you're a newsroom or one person mirroring a signals channel.
Who each one is genuinely for
TeleFeed suits you if: you're translating across languages, running 20+ sources, rebuilding channel history, or you want regex-level control over message transformation. You're comfortable with more configuration in exchange for more capability. You either don't mind the free-tier ads or you're going to pay the $7 anyway.
ForwardBuddy suits you if: you're running a handful of rules and want them to just work, you want a clean destination channel from day one, and you'd rather have five settings you understand than fifty you don't. [FB: add any genuine differentiator you have — but only real ones.]
Neither is right if: you need to forward from a channel that has Restrict Saving Content enabled and you have no read access to it. No legitimate tool solves that, and anything claiming to is asking for your credentials.
An honest note on switching
If TeleFeed is already working for you, switching costs you the setup time and the accumulated rule config. That's a real cost, and "the alternative is slightly cheaper" usually doesn't cover it.
The cases where switching genuinely pays: you're on the free tier and the ads in your destination are hurting a channel you're trying to grow, or you've found you use maybe 15% of TeleFeed's features and the other 85% is just noise in your way.
If neither describes you, stay where you are. That's not a sales line — a tool switch that doesn't solve a felt problem just costs you a weekend.
Try it yourself: the free tier is there so you don't have to take a comparison article's word for it. Start ForwardBuddy free → · See all plans
Frequently asked questions
Is TeleFeed free?
Yes — the free plan includes unlimited forwarding and up to five redirection setups, but TeleFeed posts ads into your destination chats on that tier, which the $7/month Basic plan removes. Readthedocs
Do either of these remove the "Forwarded from" tag?
Both support copy mode, which sends content as a new message with no attribution header.
Do I have to give either bot my phone number?
Userbot-style tools that read channels you're not an admin of need account access. TeleFeed notes that if you're an admin in both the source and destination and don't need Rewrite Mode, you can use a bot without granting account access. Check ForwardBuddy's [FB: state your auth model] before connecting. Readthedocs
Which is faster?
Both run server-side and forward within seconds. Speed is rarely the deciding factor; rule management and pricing usually are.
Can I run both?
Yes. Some people run TeleFeed for translated feeds and something lighter for their simple mirrors. Nothing stops you.
The verdict
TeleFeed is a mature, deep tool with six years of production behind it, and for translation-heavy or high-source-count setups it's the one I'd point you at. That's not a hedge — it's where it's actually better.
ForwardBuddy is for the other, larger group: people running a few rules who want them clean and cheap and comprehensible.
If you're still scoping the field rather than choosing between these two, our comparison of the best Telegram auto forward bots covers six options with the same feature matrix.