Capital One Shopping vs Honey – Which Money Savings App is Better?

If you’re living on a tight student budget, you’re not alone. Between balancing tuition, living expenses, transportation, and personal spending, college costs can quickly become unmanageable and overwhelming. Thankfully, there are many easy ways to save money in college that can prevent you from running out of funds. One of the simplest money-saving hacks? Shopping browser extensions. 

Shopping browser extensions are plug-ins you can download on web browsers such as Chrome or Safari, which will do all the heavy lifting of bargain-hunting and deal-seeking for you. There is a wide range of shopping extensions out there to choose between that will help you save money shopping online. To make things easy for you, we’ve taken a closer look at two of the top money-saving extensions on the market: Capital One Shopping and Honey. If you’re wondering what the benefits of Capital One Shopping Vs. Honey are, you’ll benefit from reading this shopping review. In this shopping review, we will take a closer look at each one of their shopping features and how they will benefit you while shopping online.

What is Capital One Shopping?

Capital One Shopping extension is a free coupon and awards app that offers users several simple ways to save money, compare prices, and earn rewards. Regardless of whether you own a Capital One credit card, this shopping extension is available for everyone to use. Some of its standout shopping features include reward credits, online coupons, price comparison tools, and a price drop tracker. For example, as you shop online, Capital One Shopping will let you know if there are reward credits or coupon codes available for a desired product or item. This multi-purpose browser extension has millions of members, who collectively saved millions using this tool last year. 

What is Honey App? 

Owned by PayPal, Honey was originally a coupon testing tool but has since branched out to include other shopping features that are particularly helpful when participants are shopping on Amazon. Similar to the Capital One Shopping extension, Honey will alert you when there’s a coupon code available for the website you are shopping on. One of its other top features includes the Droplist feature, which allows users to keep tabs on the items they are interested in. Once the price drops for a wishlist item, users will receive an alert from Honey notifying them of this information. Honey currently supports shopping sites in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and more. Customers can also earn Honey Gold when they use the Honey app. Customers can redeem Honey Gold for gift cards at several large retailers.

Shopping Features

Capital One Shopping and Honey share a lot of the same shopping features. Let’s take a closer look at how these features compare across the two browser extensions. 

Automated Coupon Codes

Capital One Shopping

Capital One Shopping has thousands of shopping partners, which means they also have coupon codes for thousands of online retailers. Once you have the Capital One Shopping extension installed, a pop-up will appear in the upper right-hand corner of your browser when you get to the checkout page of your browser. The pop-up feature will also occur if there are shopping rewards available. Once you click the “Try Codes,” button, the Capital One Shopping extension will search through all of the available coupon codes for that online retailer to look for a better deal. This allows users to skip the process of manually searching for coupon codes online, only to find out that most of them are either invalid or have already expired. 

Honey

Honey’s savings finder works very similarly to Capital One Shopping’s. If coupon codes are available on a specific online shopping site, then a pop-up from Honey will appear in the upper right-hand corner upon check out. By simply clicking “Apply Coupons,” Honey will run through a list of coupon codes to find you the best deal. Because Honey lets users submit codes to share with the community, some will be expired or will no longer work. However, it never hurts to try and save money and score a steal-worthy deal!

Price Comparison

Before money-saving browser extensions existed, we had to do the heavy lifting of shopping around to find the best deals. Capital One Shopping and Honey save you time and effort by comparing prices across retailers for you. 

Capital One Shopping

Capital One Shopping will automatically compare Amazon prices against other retailers. If this top-notch browser extension finds a better deal on the same item, a little green button will appear, notifying you of the exact saving opportunity. For instance, if you are searching for a skincare product on Amazon, Capital One Shopping will notify you that you could save $19.99 by simply purchasing the skincare product on Ultra instead. Capital One Shopping is more likely to secure you a discount than Honey as it has the ability to compare prices against a large number of other sites. 

If users navigate to the Capital One Shopping website, users can also browse trending deals or look up specific products.

Honey

On the other hand, Honey’s price comparison tool is more limited. When an online shopper selects a product on Amazon, Honey will notify you if there is another Amazon seller selling the same item for less. 

Rewards Program

By simply using a free browser extension like Capital One Shopping and Honey, you can earn rewards that can be used for future purchases. 

Capital One Shopping

Capital One Shopping lets you earn shopping rewards online in the form of Capital One Shopping Rewards. If you are shopping at a participating retailer online, a pop-up will appear on your screen, notifying you of the reward. Most rewards range from 0.5% to 20%. If you click on the button to activate the reward, it will be counted as a Capital One Shopping Reward. 

After you have accumulated enough reward money, you have the option to transfer these rewards to gift cards at over 35 different stores. The amount you need to redeem a gift card depends on the gift card that you select. For example, Lowe’s requires at least $5 in credits to cash out for a gift card. Capital One Shopping does not provide users with the option to cash out their rewards. 

Honey

Honey allows users to earn rewards online through their Honey Gold rewards program. Similar to Capital One Shopping’s reward system, a pop-up will appear asking you to activate a reward when you shop on a participating website. Honey’s rewards typically range from 0.1% to 20%. 100 points of Honey Gold equate to $1. 

One of the most frustrating parts about the Honey Gold reward system is that they will provide you a cashback range, rather than an exact number. For example, if you want to purchase new kitchenware, Honey will tell you that you can get between 3% to 6% cashback. In contrast, Capital One Shopping will give you a single percentage, and this number is often a higher percentage than what Honey is offering. 

Once you have accumulated enough Honey Gold, users have the option to redeem the rewards in the form of a gift card or receive a direct cash payment. Because Honey is owned by PayPal, users can receive their rewards as cash payments via PayPal. This makes up for the fact that Honey has far fewer gift card options than Capital One Shopping. Some of Honey’s gift card options include Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Target, and Groupon. 

Price Drop Alerts

As online shoppers know, prices are constantly fluctuating based on demand, seasonality, and reviews. It can be time-consuming checking to see if an item has dropped in price and frustrating if you simply forget about an item you were once interested in altogether. That’s when Capital One Shopping and Honey come in handy. 

Capital One Shopping

Capital One Shopping users can track the price of an item through the Capital One Shopping Watchlist feature. Users can add an item to their Watchlist from Amazon, or search for the item on Capital One Shopping’s website. If the item is on sale or the price drops, Capital One Shopping will immediately notify you. 

Honey

Honey users can track prices using Honey’s Droplist feature. Similar to Capital One Shopping’s Watchlist, Droplist will track the prices of items that you save and notify you when a cheaper price is available. Keep in mind that Droplist is not available for use on every website. If it is, an orange button will pop up on the right side of your browser. 

Droplist will also show users a graph of the item’s price history over the last 6 months. By analyzing this graph, you can decide whether it is currently the best time to buy an item, or if you should hold off on your purchase for a little while longer. 

Local Offers

Capital One Shopping

You can earn 4% back in Capital One Shopping Credits from purchases at local restaurants and stores in your area by simply linking your credit card.

Honey

As of right now, Honey does not have any comparable shopping feature. 

Referrals 

Honey

Users will receive 500 points of Honey Gold for every friend that they refer to Honey. In order for the referral to take place, each friend that signs up with your link must make a qualifying purchase through Honey. An added bonus? The friend you referred will also receive 500 points of Honey Gold, so it’s a win-win! Honey users can refer up to 200 friends to join Honey to receive a maximum of 100,000 points of Honey Gold. 

Capital One Shopping

While Capital One Shopping does not currently have a regular referral program like Honey’s, on occasion they will offer a referral bonus. So certainly keep your eyes peeled for any referral bonus offers if you see them!

Bottom Line

Capital One Shopping and Honey are both strong contenders for money-saving browser extensions. Both online shopping tools have their benefits, so it’s important to look at each shopping feature to see which tool would benefit your personal shopping habits. 

While Capital One Shopping can show you deals across many retailers, Honey is more Amazon-oriented. While Capital One Shopping allows you to redeem your rewards points for a large number of gift cards, Honey works well as a cash-out option. While Capital One Shopping allows you to earn rewards on local spending, Honey has a more consistent referral program. 

With higher reward rates and compatibility with more retailers, Capital One Shopping may be a better option for an online shopping tool. That said, you don’t need to choose one shopping tool over the other. By downloading both Capital One Shopping and Honey you can take advantage of both of their unique features and find the best possible deals while shopping. 

FAQ

What can I know about a price drop for my favorite products?

There are features on both Honey and Capital One Shopping that will alert you to drops in price for your favorite products. When you’re using Capital One Shopping, you will need to add items to your Watchlist. That way, you can receive alerts about drops in price. When you’re using Honey, you’ll need to add items to your Droplist. You’ll receive alerts for drops in price on the items on this list.

Are there many benefits to installing a shopping extension?

A shopping extension will allow you to apply coupon codes and save money, get a better price for items you’re shopping for, and activate rewards at your favorite online stores. All of the services mentioned allow you to save more money than shopping without a browser extension. Free browser extensions are an excellent way to shop for what you love and to save money while shopping.

Which browsers are compatible with Capital One Shopping?

You can download and use Capital One Shopping with the following browsers: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Safari.

Which browsers are compatible with Honey?

You can download and use Honey with the following browsers: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari, and Opera.

What is Honey Gold?

Honey rewards are referred to as Honey Gold. Honey Gold are credits that can range from 1% to 20% of the purchase amount, but it really depends on the retailer. Honey Gold can add up, and you can redeem these rewards for online gift cards. You can earn Honey Gold by shopping at participating stores while using the Honey shopping extension.

Can you only use Capital One Shopping and Honey on a desktop computer?

There are mobile apps that you can download for Capital One Shopping and Honey. Both of these apps have different features, and you may not save as much money if you only use the mobile apps. It’s best to use the shopping mobile app in addition to using the desktop browser extension. There are also a few differences in the mobile apps for Capital One Shopping and Honey. You can search and compare prices on both, but Honey allows customers to apply coupon codes, make purchases, and earn Honey Gold.

Is Capital One Shopping legit?

Capital One Shopping is legit. Capital One Shopping has over 9,000 reviews on the Google Chrome Store. It’s got a five-star rating, and it has millions of active users who share reviews and their shopping experiences online.

Is Capital One Shopping safe?

Capital One Shopping is safe. Capital One Shopping is accredited by the Better Business Bureau with no BBB complaints. It also has a high rating on Trustpilot. 

How does Capital One Shopping make money?

Capital One Shopping makes money by helping customers save money. When shoppers use the browser extension, Capital One Shopping gets a commission from the stores that they’ve partnered with.

Does Capital One Shopping Work on Amazon?

Yes, Capital One Shopping works on Amazon. When you shop on Amazon, Capital One Shopping instantly finds you the best price.

Is Honey extension legit?

The Honey extension is legit. Honey is owned by PayPal, one of the world’s leading digital payment platforms and trusted sites. Honey has also millions of users.

Is Honey extension safe?

The Honey extension is safe to use. Honey is owned by PayPal and never sells personal information.

Is Honey a scam?

Honey is not a scam. Honey is a legitimate business owned by PayPal, a trusted site. Honey has millions of users who share their experiences with using Honey online.

How does Honey make money?

Similarly to Capital One Shopping, Honey makes a commission each time customers use the browser extension to shop. So, Honey gets paid by the stores it partners with each time customers make a purchase through the extension.

Is Honey or Capital One Shopping better?

Each one of these shopping extensions has its benefits and unique features. You don’t need to choose one shopping tool over the other. You can download both browser tools and take advantage of both of their unique features while shopping online.