Is Honey legit? A comprehensive review of PayPal Honey

Honey is a legitimate browser extension and mobile app owned by PayPal. It automatically searches for coupons, tracks prices, and offers rewards when you shop online. Like many shopping tools, it collects data about where and how you shop, which is part of how its features work. It’s a good idea to review these practices to understand what the extension collects and how it operates.

This guide explains how Honey’s browser extension and mobile app work, what information they rely on, and what to keep in mind if you decide to use them.

What is PayPal Honey?

PayPal Honey is a free shopping extension and companion mobile app that helps users find savings on supported online stores. When installed, it displays a prompt on eligible cart or checkout pages to test codes from Honey’s database and apply the one that offers the biggest savings.

Honey became part of PayPal’s shopping tools after PayPal acquired the company in 2020. Features and store coverage vary by region, but the service includes:

• Automatic coupon testing: Searches for and applies coupon codes at checkout on supported sites.
• PayPal Rewards (formerly Honey Gold): Lets users earn points on qualifying purchases through partner stores, which can be exchanged for cash, gift cards, or charitable donations, depending on your location.
• Droplist: Tracks selected items from select stores and alerts users when prices fall.
• Exclusive Offers: Highlights item-specific opportunities to earn extra rewards.
• Amazon price comparison (US only): Shows lower prices from other sellers for supported items.
• Price history charts: For supported products, Honey shows you how prices have moved over time.
• Community contributions: Lets users share coupon codes with Honey, which helps expand the pool of codes Honey can test automatically.

How does PayPal Honey work?

After you sign up and install the extension, Honey appears when you shop on supported sites. The Honey icon shows up in the browser toolbar and changes color on Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Edge (it shows the number of available coupons on Safari) when it can assist in that store. If coupons are available, a window appears at checkout.

Honey then tests the codes it has for that store and applies them. It tells you what kind of deal you’re getting, if any, before checkout.

On mobile, searching for a store in the Honey app shows any codes available for that site. You can copy those codes and paste them at checkout, and at some stores, the app can test them for you.

Coverage varies by store and platform. The extension doesn’t work on every website, but Honey’s supported merchant list continues to change as new partners are added.

How Honey collects discount data

Honey gathers discount and pricing information from several sources. A significant portion comes from user activity on supported stores. While users browse participating sites, Honey collects data such as the retailer’s name, website domain, page views, and product details. Honey’s community can also contribute by submitting codes they find. According to its privacy policy, these inputs help track price changes, update listings, and refine coupon results so active offers remain accurate. Features like Droplist rely on the same data to alert users when saved items fall in price.

Honey also receives discount information through its merchant partnerships. Many brands provide official offers and codes via affiliate networks, which also allow Honey to earn commissions when users make qualifying purchases.

Note: Honey doesn’t sell personal data. That includes your name, email, payment information, and anything that could identify you directly.

Is PayPal Honey safe to use?

Honey’s official website, extension, and mobile apps use HTTPS to secure data in transit, and as of November 2025, there haven’t been any public reports of a breach involving the service. The extension is published under PayPal’s verified developer accounts in major browser stores, and its privacy policy is transparent about what types of data it collects.

In 2024–2025, Honey faced criticism over affiliate-link replacement practices and was the subject of a lawsuit and community accusations. These issues relate to affiliate marketing transparency, not user data security.

What data Honey collects

According to its privacy statement, PayPal Honey collects and processes personal information across its website, apps, and browser extensions so it can provide insights, coupons, and promotional offers. Personal identifiers such as name, email address, IP, and device ID are collected and stored during registration or when signing in through PayPal or another linked account. Technical details like browser type, operating system, and event logs are recorded to support performance, troubleshooting, and overall service reliability.

Shopping-related data includes the retailer’s domain, pages and products viewed, and details about purchase, for example, transactional value and confirmation that an order was completed or returned. Honey uses this information for internal analytics, managing rewards, earning affiliate commissions, tracking price changes, and tailoring offers or recommendations based on your shopping activity.

Honey does not collect or store your payment information when you check out on a retailer’s website; your financial details are processed by the merchant or their payment provider.

How your data is used and protected

According to Honey’s privacy policy, the data it collects helps keep its services running and tailored to users. It’s used to deliver features, issue and track rewards, prevent fraud, and meet legal or compliance requirements. Some information may also be shared within PayPal’s network to help manage programs like PayPal Rewards and to personalize your experience across PayPal and Venmo.

Honey safeguards your data using measures such as encryption, access controls, and regular security testing.

Honey allows users to request deletion of their profile and personal information, with some exceptions for legal or compliance obligations. Depending on your region's privacy laws, you may also have rights to access or correct your data, limit certain uses, or adjust personalization preferences.

Tips for maximizing savings with Honey

Honey automates discount searches, but a few small habits can make it more effective and help you avoid missed offers.

• Use Droplist for items you plan to buy later: Add non-urgent items to Droplist and wait for a price-drop alert before purchasing.
• Sign in to access rewards: Honey can still find coupons without an account, but you have to sign in for PayPal Rewards in eligible stores.
• Check Honey’s price comparisons: When Honey supports a retailer, it can show if the same item is available at a lower total price from another store. This helps you see alternative options before completing your purchase.
• Watch for limited-time or item-specific offers: Honey occasionally highlights extra earning opportunities while you browse certain products. These can help you collect additional PayPal Rewards points on that item.
• Try codes manually: If a code doesn’t work during Honey’s test, you can still try it manually at checkout, especially since some coupons only apply when your cart meets specific conditions.

Alternatives to PayPal Honey

If you want the same “try codes at checkout” functionality with different ecosystems, the following are common options:

• Capital One Shopping: A free extension (available to anyone, not just Capital One customers) that auto-tests coupons, flags lower prices from other sellers, and tracks price drops.
• Rakuten Cash Back Button: Best known for its cash-back program, Rakuten’s extension can also auto-apply coupons at participating stores. It’s available for major browsers and has dedicated listings detailing one-click activation and coupon application.
• RetailMeNot Deal Finder: A long-running coupon brand with an extension that finds, tests, and applies promo codes, and can stack RetailMeNot cash back where eligible.
• CNET Shopping: The CNET Shopping browser extension compares prices across hundreds of stores and displays coupons for over 25,000 retailers. It’s available for major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.

How they compare to Honey

Are there better options for discounts?

“Better” depends on what you value: savings type, store coverage, and how much browser access you’re comfortable granting.

• Built-in browser features: Edge now includes AI-powered shopping tools that surface coupons and compare prices across retailers without requiring third-party access. These built-ins work entirely within the browser’s own security framework and don’t require installing third-party extensions.
• Price-tracking apps: Services such as CamelCamelCamel or Keepa focus solely on monitoring price changes (particularly on Amazon) without interacting with your shopping cart or applying coupons. They can’t test promo codes, but they’re excellent for monitoring price drops...
• Direct loyalty programs: Many retailers now run their own reward systems that combine points, cash back, or member-only pricing. Linking your account or using the store’s app can sometimes give you better value than third-party coupon scraping.
• Credit card and wallet rewards: Cash-back cards, PayPal Rewards, and similar wallet-based systems integrate discounts directly at payment rather than through browser scripts. They also typically offer clearer terms and fewer tracking dependencies.

User experience and recommendations

Tips for improving privacy and performance with Honey

Honey isn’t known to introduce unsafe behavior on its own, but you can still adjust its settings for better privacy and performance.

• Limit where it runs: Adjust the extension settings to only allow Honey to load on the shopping sites you trust. Disable it on all others to minimize background access.
• Avoid extension overlap: Don’t run multiple coupon or cash-back tools on the same store. Competing scripts can interfere with checkout or slow page performance.
• Disable on sensitive pages: Honey doesn’t collect payment details, but if you prefer a clean page when entering sensitive information, you can temporarily turn the extension off for that session.

Should you uninstall Honey?

There is no inherent need to remove Honey if you understand how it works and adjust your browser’s site controls to manage when it runs. Still, uninstalling can make sense in a few situations:

• If privacy outweighs convenience: Users who prefer not to run extensions on cart or checkout pages may want to rely on manual coupon searches instead.
• If performance suffers: Some users report longer load times when multiple shopping extensions are active. Disabling or removing Honey may help isolate the cause.
• If browser hygiene is a priority: Keeping only essential add-ons reduces potential attack surfaces and simplifies maintenance.