If I recall my son used tax act and it was free, just like at irs.gov however they get you on the State filing because that one is never free.
Regarding doing it online...IMHO doing it via snail mail you are just adding one more person(one more person that can steal your ID or make an error) to the mix. I've been doing online banking and online taxes for over ten years with no problem at all. I use turbo tax.