Honestly, I couldn't tell you the difference between the two either, but I just filed my taxes for the first time by myself this year (parents used to do them for me). I checked out a bunch of different sites and ended up going with TaxBrain because I have a Mac and because it was FREE. If you check out this site: http://www.shop-taxbrain.com/compare_basic.html You can buy TaxBrain, but then there is a mail-in rebate for the same cost as the product. I filed last week and got my return in my checking account this morning. It is totally confusing to try and decide which one to use, so I just chose the one that was free :-)