Price Adjustment Extension vs Honey: Which Actually Saves You More?

TL;DR: Honey helps you save money at checkout by automatically finding coupon codes. Price adjustment extensions help you get money back after you buy when prices drop. They solve different problems at different stages of shopping. The best strategy? Use both. But if you want to maximize your savings, TaskMonkey typically recovers $200+ per year for the average user—far more than the $2-5 per order Honey typically saves.

What Honey Does (And Does Well)

PayPal Honey is one of the most popular shopping browser extensions, with over 17 million users. Acquired by PayPal for $4 billion in 2020, it's become a household name for online shoppers looking to save money.

Here's what Honey actually does:

Automatic Coupon Code Testing

When you reach checkout on supported sites, Honey automatically searches its database and tests available promo codes. With one click, it applies whichever code gives you the highest discount. According to PayPal's official documentation, Honey works on over 30,000 online stores.

Droplist Price Tracking

Honey's Droplist feature lets you save products to a watchlist. When prices drop on those items, you receive an alert. It's useful for bigger purchases like electronics where waiting for a sale makes sense.

PayPal Rewards (Honey Gold)

Some purchases earn Honey Gold points, which can be redeemed for gift cards. According to CNBC's review, you need to earn 1,000 points (equivalent to $10) before you can redeem, and the redemption options are limited to gift cards rather than cash.

Amazon Price Comparison

On Amazon specifically, Honey shows you when other sellers offer the same product at a lower price. This helps you switch to cheaper options before buying.

What Honey Doesn't Do

Despite its popularity, Honey has significant blind spots that many shoppers don't realize:

It Doesn't Scan Your Past Orders

Honey focuses exclusively on future purchases. It can't look at what you've already bought and find opportunities for refunds. Your order history remains untouched.

It Doesn't Contact Customer Service

Even when Honey's Droplist detects a price drop on something you've purchased, it just sends you an alert. You still have to manually contact customer service yourself to request a price adjustment.

It Doesn't Help You Get Refunds

Here's the critical gap: Honey can tell you that a product you bought last week is now $30 cheaper, but it won't help you get that $30 back. That's entirely on you.

This is where most shoppers leave significant money on the table. According to our data, the average Amazon shopper has multiple products in their order history that have dropped in price—money that's recoverable but usually goes unclaimed.

What a Price Adjustment Extension Does

A price adjustment extension focuses on a completely different part of the shopping journey: what happens after you buy.

Scans Your Purchase History

Instead of looking at your shopping cart, a price adjustment extension looks backward. It scans your past orders—typically the last 90 days—and compares what you paid versus current prices.

Identifies Price Drops on Things You Own

When it finds products where the price has dropped since your purchase, it flags them as refund opportunities. Most shoppers are surprised to discover how often this happens.

Takes Action to Get Your Money Back

This is the key differentiator. A true price adjustment extension doesn't just alert you—it does something about it. TaskMonkey, for example, uses AI to automatically chat with Amazon customer service and negotiate courtesy credits on your behalf.

Four-step process showing how price adjustment extensions scan orders, find drops, negotiate, and get refunds

Head-to-Head Comparison

Let's compare Honey and TaskMonkey side by side:

Feature	Honey	TaskMonkey
Automatic coupon codes	Yes	No
Price tracking (before purchase)	Yes (Droplist)	Yes
Scans past orders	No	Yes (90 days)
Finds price drops after purchase	No	Yes
Automatic refund negotiation	No	Yes (AI-powered)
Works on Amazon	Yes	Yes
Cost	Free	Free to scan; 20% of recovered amount
Rewards type	Gift cards only	Direct Amazon credits

Which Saves You More Money?

This is the question that really matters. Let's look at the numbers.

Honey's Savings Potential

According to independent reviews, Honey's coupon-finding feature saves users an average of $2-5 per order. The actual amount varies significantly:

Many checkout attempts find no working codes
Codes that work often provide minimal discounts (5-10%)
Best results come from smaller specialty retailers
Amazon coupons are particularly rare

For an active online shopper making 50 purchases per year, that's roughly $100-250 in annual savings—assuming codes are found on at least some of those purchases.

TaskMonkey's Savings Potential

TaskMonkey approaches savings differently. Instead of trying to shave a few dollars off each purchase, it recovers larger amounts from price drops that happen after you buy.

Based on our user data:

Average recovery per claim: $15-40
Average number of claims per user per year: 8-15
Average annual recovery: $200+
Success rate on eligible products: 90%+

The math works because Amazon prices fluctuate constantly. Products you bought last month at full price might be 20% cheaper today during a sale. That's real money sitting in your order history.

Bar chart comparing annual savings potential between Honey coupon codes and TaskMonkey price adjustments

Why the Difference Is So Large

The savings gap comes down to opportunity size:

Coupon codes typically offer 5-15% off, and many purchases have no available codes
Post-purchase price drops can be 20-50% of the original price, and they happen more often than most people realize

Think about it: Black Friday, Prime Day, flash sales, clearance events, algorithmic price adjustments—prices change constantly. If you buy something a week before a sale, you've paid too much. A price adjustment extension catches those situations.

Can You Use Both?

Absolutely—and you should.

Honey and price adjustment extensions aren't competitors. They're complementary tools that address different stages of your shopping journey:

Before you buy: Use Honey to find coupon codes and compare prices
At checkout: Let Honey test available promo codes
After you buy: TaskMonkey monitors your orders and gets refunds when prices drop

Together, they form a complete savings strategy. Honey saves you money upfront; TaskMonkey recovers money after the fact. Neither replaces the other.

The Smart Shopper's Stack

Here's how power shoppers maximize their savings:

Install both Honey and TaskMonkey as Chrome extensions
Use Honey's Droplist for big purchases you're not in a hurry to make
Let Honey test codes at checkout
Run TaskMonkey scans weekly or monthly to catch price drops
Let TaskMonkey's AI handle the customer service conversations

This approach captures savings at every opportunity—before, during, and after your purchases.

What About Honey's Recent Controversy?

In late 2024, Honey faced criticism over its affiliate link practices. According to Wikipedia's documentation, allegations emerged that Honey was modifying affiliate links at checkout to claim commissions, even when no coupon was actually applied.

Following the controversy:

Honey lost approximately 3 million users within two weeks
Google updated Chrome Web Store policies to address the practice
Honey modified its extension to stop claiming affiliate revenue without providing discounts

This doesn't affect Honey's core functionality for users—coupon codes still work the same way. But it's worth understanding how these free tools make money.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use Honey and a price adjustment extension together?

Yes! They solve different problems. Use Honey to find coupon codes when you checkout, then use a price adjustment extension like TaskMonkey to get refunds if prices drop after your purchase.

Does Honey automatically get refunds for price drops?

No. Honey's Droplist feature alerts you when prices drop on items you're watching, but it doesn't scan your past orders or contact customer service to negotiate refunds.

How much money can a price adjustment extension save me?

TaskMonkey users save an average of $200+ per year by automatically claiming refunds on price drops. The exact amount depends on your shopping frequency and how often prices drop after purchase.

Is Honey free to use?

Yes, Honey is completely free. It makes money through affiliate commissions when you use their coupon codes or cashback offers.

What's the difference between price tracking and price adjustment?

Price tracking monitors prices before you buy and alerts you to drops. Price adjustment focuses on purchases you've already made, helping you get refunds when prices drop after purchase.

Bottom Line: Different Tools for Different Jobs

The Honey vs. price adjustment extension debate isn't really an either/or question. They're different tools designed for different moments in your shopping journey.

Choose Honey if you want to find coupon codes at checkout and don't mind that most attempts won't yield significant savings.

Choose TaskMonkey if you want to recover money on purchases you've already made, without doing any manual work.

Choose both if you want to maximize every savings opportunity across your entire shopping experience.

The numbers speak for themselves: Honey saves $2-5 per order when codes are found. TaskMonkey recovers $200+ per year on average. For the savvy shopper, running both extensions captures savings at every stage—and leaves no money on the table.