Capital One Shopping vs Honey: Which Deal Finder Extension is Better?

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I’m addicted to deal finder extensions! Seriously, when I come across a new browser extension that I think will help me save money while shopping online, I can’t help but try it. Out of all the deal finder extensions I’ve tried, Honey and Capital One Shopping are my go-to when it comes to scoring great deals and saving a few bucks.

Thanks to these two extensions, I no longer have to spend an hour or more browsing numerous sites in search of deals when I’m ready or getting ready to make a purchase. Furthermore, they save me from the aggravation I get when a coupon code I discover doesn’t work, which usually leads to more time looking for another code. Then when that code fails, I’m usually to the point where I give up and pay full price.

You’re nodding your head because you’ve been there too and know that feeling, right?

In this article, I’m going to tell you more about Honey and Capital One Shopping. You’ll learn how they can/will also save you from having to sift through dozens of deal sites in your quest for the best prices and coupon codes.

Getting & Using Honey and Capital One Shopping

Both of these popular deal finder extensions are available as a mobile extension or browser extension. Since I prefer to shop from my computer, I opted for the browser extensions. However, if you shop online with your phone the most, you’ll probably want the mobile extension.

Adding both extensions was a simple process.

With Honey, you don’t have to sign up for an account. You can just shop as usual while Honey works in the background notifying you of coupons, sales and more while you shop. However, if you want to earn cashback rewards and add products to the “droplist,” you will need an account. You can sign up through any of these accounts: Google, Facebook, Paypal or Apple. Or you can join with an email address.

As for Capital One Shopping, you do have to create an account. It’s easy and quick, though.

After you add the Capital One Shopping extension to your browser, Capital One Shopping asks a few short questions to personalize your experience. You’ll also select your favorite stores and watch a short interactive tutorial.

When trying out Honey and Capital One Shopping, I used both extensions on Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers.

Comparing Honey & Capital One Shopping

Honey and Capital One Shopping do pretty much the same thing, but there are some differences.

	Honey	Capital One Shopping
Compare Prices	Yes	Only on Amazon
Shows Price History of Products	Yes	No
Get Price Drop Alerts on Selected Products	Yes	Only on Amazon
Applies Coupon Codes at Checkout	Yes	Yes
Has Cashback Rewards	Yes	Yes
Gives Referral Bonuses	Yes	No
Cashout Options	Paypal and gift cards	Gift cards
Minimum Needed to Cash Out	1,000 points ($10)	$5 for some, higher for others
Offers Price Protection	No	Yes

Honey vs Capital One Shopping: Comparing Prices

My experience with Capital One Shopping is different depending on the browser I’m shopping on. When using Chrome, Capital One Shopping doesn’t do price comparisons on Amazon or other retailer sites. However, if I switch to Edge, it compares prices, but only when I’m at Amazon.

Honey, on the other hand, compares prices for me at many retailers’ sites with both browsers. It doesn’t, however, compare prices on every product that I look at, only certain ones.

Honey vs Capital One Shopping: Price History

Honey shows the price history of a variety of products on various merchants’ websites. I’m able to view the history for the past 30, 60 and 120 days. It doesn’t show the history of every single product, but it does for quite a few.

In fact, as I was doing my online grocery shopping at Walmart, Honey alerted me to a price increase on a can of cream of chicken soup. According to Honey, the soup went from 50 cents to 68 cents.

Upon checking out the price history, I saw it frequently goes to 50 cents about every four days, which was good to know and something to keep in mind when planning my upcoming menus for the week.

Unfortunately, the Capital One Shopping extension doesn’t show a price history on any of the sites I visit.

Honey vs Capital One Shopping: Price Drop Alerts

Both deal finder extensions let me add products to a list that sends me email notifications when the retailer lowers the price on any of the products I add. Once again, though, Capital One Shopping is loyal to Amazon. Meaning I can only add products found on Amazon to the “watchlist.” Honey, on the other hand, lets me add products from other retailers.

Another thing I like about Honey when it comes to their “droplist” is I can customize it to add my own categories (referred to as a collection). I can also change the price drop alert to notify me when the price drops a certain percentage. For instance, if I set the minimum to 5% off and the product’s price drops to that minimum or more than 5%, Honey will send me an email notification.

Honey also alerts me when it detects a lower price on another retailer’s website.

Honey vs Capital One Shopping: Coupon Codes

Both show a list of available coupons upon arriving on a store’s website. To see the current coupon codes, click the deal finder extension’s icon located in the toolbar.

You don’t have to manually enter the coupon codes. When you checkout, the deal finder extension automatically checks all the codes and applies the one that offers the best discount.

I have noticed, however, that the coupon codes don’t always work. The reason being they’ve expired, but you can get this even when checking sites on your own, so the extensions save you time.

Honey vs Capital One Shopping: Cashback Rewards

Both deal finder extensions offer cashback savings. There are occasions when one extension offers cash back and the other doesn’t. For instance, currently, Capital One Shopping gives 3% back from Vistaprint and Honey doesn’t offer any cash back for that merchant. In another instance, Honey offers 0.1% to 1% back in select categories at Target, but Capital One Shopping didn’t have cashback savings.

At times, both offer cash back for the same retailer. In this case, usually, Capital One Shopping has the best cashback savings. To see which has the best savings, you can have both shopping extensions enabled at the same time.

Honey vs Capital One Shopping: Referral Bonus

Honey and Capital One Shopping offer referral links, but only Honey pays for referrals. After the person you refer to Honey creates an account and makes one purchase that qualifies for cashback savings, you’ll receive 500 ($5) points. You’ll be able to keep track of all the people who sign up using your link by logging in to your Honey account.

Honey vs Capital One Shopping: Cashing Out

Honey lets you redeem the points you earn while shopping at their participating partners’ stores for cash that they’ll send to your Paypal account, or you can select from a variety of gift cards. In order to get a gift card, you’ll need a minimum of 1,000 points ($10). One other thing to keep in mind is if your account is inactive for 12 months, the points you’ve earned will expire.

As for Capital One Shopping, their only reward is gift cards, and the selection to choose from is very slim, so slim that at the time that I’m writing this, there are no Amazon cards. In addition, they require you to give credit card information in order to redeem your shopping rewards.

Capital One Shopping’s minimum requirement to cash out is $5 for some gift cards, others are more.

Capital One Shopping Price Protection

I’m sure as a frugal shopper you probably know that if you purchase something online and the product you purchased drops in price not long after you buy it, some retailers will give you a refund for the price difference. The refund is either sent to the credit or debit card you paid with, or you’ll receive it as a store credit to use toward your next purchase.

While this is great information to know, many don’t take advantage of these savings due to the time involved. I’ll admit it, I’m even guilty of not cashing in on this one. Well, that is until I learned that Capital One Shopping offers price protection, which will take care of the price tracking for me. Then if there’s a refund to be claimed on something I purchased, Capital One Shopping will notify me.

I just recently linked a Gmail account that I only use to receive digital receipts. Since I just signed up, I’ve currently not made any purchases to test if Captial One Shopping will, indeed, notify me if a price drops on a recent purchase, but I’ll update this article if that happens in the future.

Saving the Most Money When Making a Purchase

• Check other cashback sites you’re a member of to see which offers the best savings. If you find another site, such as Swagbucks or Rakuten, that offers bigger cashback savings than Honey or Capital One Shopping, just use the deal finder extensions for finding deals and coupon codes (if a coupon is valid, that code will be revealed in the cart).
• Shop with a credit or debit card that gives you cash back for purchases. This maximizes your savings if the deal finder extension or cashback site also rewards you for purchases.

The Deal Finder Extension I Like Best & Why

Although I use both of these money-saving extensions, my favorite is Honey, and here are the reasons why I prefer it over Capital One Shopping:

• It does price comparison and price history on a variety of retailer sites.
• I can check the price history for as far back as 120 days.
• Has better price drop alert features.
• I’m able to redeem my points for cash instead of just gift cards, and if I want a gift card, I don’t have to disclose any credit or debit card information to get the card.

Choose the deal finder extension for online shopping deals you think suits you better, or use them both. Whatever you decide, either will save you time, money and aggravation. So, what are you waiting for? Start saving today!