Is Honey still worth it in 2026?

Short answer: for most shoppers, no. Honey is a coupon extension, not a price tracker — and it's been dogged by controversies about hijacking creator referral links and surfacing sponsored codes instead of the best available code. If what you actually want is "tell me when this gets cheaper," you want an email-based price tracker like PriceWatch instead.

What Honey actually does

Honey is a browser extension that, at checkout, tries a list of coupon codes and applies whichever one gives the biggest discount. It also runs a rewards program ("Honey Gold") and shows price history on some Amazon listings. It does not watch arbitrary product URLs and email you when they drop in price.

The 2024 controversies, briefly

• Affiliate-link hijacking — investigations showed Honey rewriting affiliate cookies at checkout, so the credit for a sale went to PayPal/Honey instead of the creator who actually referred you.
• "Best" codes aren't always best — merchants pay to surface specific codes through Honey, which can mean a worse discount than a public code you'd find with a quick Google search.
• Data collection — like most shopping extensions, Honey reads your browsing on participating sites to power its suggestions.

When Honey is still fine

If you mostly want a one-click coupon try at checkout and you're comfortable with the trade-offs, it still works. It's free, it does what it says, and you can uninstall it any time.

What to use instead for price drops

• PriceWatch — paste any product URL, get an email when the price drops. Works on Amazon (.com and .ca), DSW, Simons, Walmart, Best Buy, Temu, Costco and most Shopify stores. No extension, no checkout interception.
• CamelCamelCamel — great for long-term Amazon.com price history charts. Limited on Amazon.ca, useless off Amazon.
• Manual Google "[brand] coupon code" — for one-off purchases this often beats whatever any extension surfaces.

The simplest setup in 2026: keep your browser clean of shopping extensions, and put any item you actually want to wait on into a tracker that emails you. See how to track Amazon Canada price drops for a walkthrough.