In December 2024, an independent investigation found that Honey (owned by PayPal) was replacing content creators' affiliate tracking with its own at checkout — redirecting commissions away from the creators who drove the sale. More than 20 lawsuits followed, and Rakuten Advertising formally dropped Honey from its affiliate network in January 2026. If you want a Honey alternative that can't do this, Zroppix focuses on Amazon price history instead of coupon codes and, by design, never touches affiliate links.
Honey had millions of users at its peak, promoted by over a thousand YouTube channels including some of the platform's biggest names. Its promise was simple: automatically find and apply coupon codes at checkout. What followed in December 2024 was one of the more significant consumer-tech controversies in recent memory — and it's worth understanding what actually happened, rather than just "Honey seems less useful lately."
The Documented Timeline
YouTuber MegaLag publishes "Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam," alleging Honey replaces creators' affiliate tracking cookies with its own at checkout via a practice known as last-click attribution hijacking. The video reaches millions of views within days.
A Honey representative's email to MegaLag reportedly states: "If Honey is activated and is the last program used while shopping on a site, it is likely Honey will receive credit for the purchase" — effectively confirming the mechanism MegaLag described.
YouTuber LegalEagle files a lawsuit against PayPal over the "sleeping leech" behavior. It's one of the first of what becomes a wave of litigation.
More than 20 class-action lawsuits are filed against PayPal, consolidated in part as In Re PayPal Honey Browser Extension Litigation, with plaintiffs including Wendover Productions and GamersNexus. A second MegaLag investigation later in 2025 adds further allegations, including that Honey's database listed roughly 181,000 stores while only about 35,000 had actual affiliate agreements with the platform.
Rakuten Advertising formally removes Honey from its affiliate network — a concrete, dated business consequence following roughly a year of user attrition reported in the millions.
Last-Click Attribution, Hijacked
Affiliate commissions are normally tracked through a "last-click attribution" cookie: when someone clicks a creator's affiliate link and later buys, the creator gets credit and commission. According to the investigation, when a shopper who'd arrived via a creator's link also activated Honey at checkout, Honey's own tracking would overwrite that cookie — becoming the "last click" and claiming the commission instead, even in cases where Honey found no discount at all.
PayPal disputed characterizations of the practice as fraudulent, but didn't deny that the mechanism itself — Honey activating and claiming last-click credit — occurred. The dispute has largely centered on framing and intent rather than whether the technical behavior happened.
A tool built specifically not to do this
Zroppix focuses on price history rather than coupon codes or affiliate cookie manipulation — it never touches affiliate attribution in any way.
Why Coupon Codes Were Never the Best Fit for Amazon
Separate from the scandal, Honey's core approach — searching for coupon codes — was always a better fit for smaller D2C retailers than for Amazon specifically:
- Amazon coupon codes are relatively uncommon compared to boutique retail sites, which is why Honey often returned no results on Amazon searches.
- When Amazon codes do exist, they typically apply to specific sellers, variants, or quantities — not the general listing.
- A coupon code alone can't tell you if the underlying price is good. A 10% discount on an already-inflated price still leaves you overpaying.
Ready to shop smarter on Amazon?
Check current deals and compare against real price history.
Zroppix — A Price-History Alternative, Built Creator-Safe
Zroppix takes a different approach entirely: rather than hunting for coupon codes, it shows you a product's recent Amazon price history and gives you a straightforward read on whether today's price looks fair.
What Zroppix shows you on an Amazon product
- BUY or WAIT read — based on where today's price sits relative to its recent range
- Recent low, average, and high price — the actual range the product has sold for
- Price alerts — set a target price and get notified when it's hit
Zroppix never overrides, replaces, or modifies affiliate links
If you arrive at Amazon through a creator's affiliate link — from YouTube, a blog, or anywhere else — Zroppix doesn't interfere with that attribution. The creator keeps their full commission. This was a deliberate design decision, made in direct response to what the Honey investigation documented.
Honey vs. Zroppix
| Feature | 🍯 Honey | 🛡️ Zroppix |
|---|---|---|
| Primary function | Coupon code finder | Price history checker |
| Useful on Amazon specifically | ✗ Codes rarely apply | ✓ Works on any product |
| Shows price history | ✗ | ✓ |
| BUY or WAIT read | ✗ | ✓ |
| Price drop alerts | ✗ | ✓ Email when price hits target |
| Affiliate link handling | ✗ Documented cookie override | ✓ Never touches attribution |
| Account required | ✗ Yes | ✓ No |
| Free to use | ✓ | ✓ Free forever |
| Retailer coverage | ✓ Multiple sites | Amazon focused |
Available for every product
Price history exists for essentially every Amazon product, unlike coupon codes which only cover a fraction of listings.
Answers the actual question
Whether today's price is genuinely good is a more useful question than whether a coupon exists — and price history answers it directly.
Catches inflated "sale" prices
A discount code applied to an already-inflated price doesn't make it a good deal. Price history reveals the base price problem a coupon can't fix.
Proactive, not reactive
Instead of waiting until checkout, Zroppix tells you whether to buy before you add to cart, and can alert you automatically if the price drops later.
Check a specific product's price
See how today's price compares to recent history.
How to Switch From Honey to Zroppix
Uninstall Honey (recommended)
Right-click the Honey icon in Chrome and select "Remove from Chrome." Given the documented affiliate handling, removing it protects any creators whose links you use going forward.
Install Zroppix free
Search "Zroppix" in the Chrome Web Store, or use the button on this page. No account, no email required to start.
Open any Amazon product and click the icon
You'll see recent price history and a BUY or WAIT read before you add anything to cart.
Set alerts for products you're watching
If the read is WAIT, set a target price and get notified when it's reached instead of checking manually.
Other Honey Alternatives, Briefly
CamelCamelCamel
The long-running Amazon price tracker, free with multi-year history. Requires visiting its own site and pasting a URL rather than working inline on the product page.
Keepa
A detailed Amazon price and sales-rank tracker aimed mainly at sellers, with most advanced features behind a paid tier. More detail than most everyday shoppers need.
Capital One Shopping
Honey's closest direct competitor, also coupon-focused with similar limitations on Amazon, and has faced its own affiliate-attribution scrutiny.
A reasonable combination: Zroppix for quick, in-page price checks and alerts, with CamelCamelCamel as a secondary option for deep multi-year history on expensive purchases.
A Honey replacement built the right way
Zroppix shows real Amazon price history and a BUY or WAIT read — no coupon theater, no affiliate link manipulation, no account required.
✦ Real price history · ✦ BUY or WAIT read · ✦ Creator-safe · ✦ Free forever
🛡️ Add to Chrome — It's Free