Honey has now lost 4M Chrome users after shady tactics were revealed

Alternatives and DIY Discount Strategies

• Commenters look for open-source or community-curated Honey replacements; examples mentioned include a FOSS extension (Syrup + discountdb), national deal communities, and the idea of a SponsorBlock‑style crowdsourced coupon tool.
• Many conclude there’s no clean, scalable model: coupon collection is manual, easy to game, and incentivizes dead/bogus codes and affiliate hijacking.
• Several recommend bypassing coupon sites entirely:
  • Use burner emails/phone numbers for new‑customer discounts and abandoned‑cart offers.
  • Try generic codes like “10OFF”, “20OFF”, or current year.
  • Rely on retailer newsletters and personalized promotions instead of aggregators.

Influencers, Affiliate Links, and Blame

• Strong resentment toward YouTubers who pushed Honey and similar products (VPNs, gambling, data-harvesting apps) while not understanding or disclosing how they work.
• Some argue influencers reasonably didn’t know the full scheme at the time; others say if you monetize with affiliate links, you’re obligated to understand and vet sponsors.
• A recurring theme: Honey paying creators for sponsorships while silently cannibalizing those same creators’ affiliate income via last‑click attribution.

How Honey Works & Co‑founder Defense

• The exposé focused on Honey overwriting affiliate tracking on checkout, often even when no coupon was found, to capture commissions.
• Co‑founder’s AMA claims:
  • Affiliate networks use both first‑click and last‑click cookies; Honey preserves first‑click where supported.
  • “Stand down” rules are supposed to prevent overriding existing affiliates, though edge cases (e.g., Newegg) failed.
  • A major value proposition is cashback funded by affiliate revenue; whether that justifies inserting itself into the chain is disputed.
• Critics reply that most programs pay only on last click, so preserving first‑click is a red herring, and that tagging sales when no coupon or visible value was provided is still wrong.

Ethics, Legality, and the Coupon/Affiliate System

• Some call Honey’s behavior fraud, extortion, or racketeering; others argue it operates within a broadly rotten but legal affiliate ecosystem (“don’t hate the player, hate the game”).
• Affiliate and coupon marketing are portrayed as parasitic middlemen that raise prices, distort attribution, and encourage manipulative “deal” psychology.
• Retailers stick with Honey‑type tools because data from networks suggests higher conversion and lower cart abandonment, even if affiliates and some merchants feel cheated.

Impact, User Loss, and Trust

• Losing 4M Chrome users (~20%) is seen as both devastating and surprisingly small, implying many users are apathetic, unaware, or still perceive net benefit.
• Several note Honey remains “featured” in the Chrome Web Store and highly rated.
• Broader distrust extends to PayPal, other shopping extensions (e.g., Capital One Shopping), and affiliate‑driven “review” sites; many see this as evidence the entire coupon/affiliate space is fundamentally compromised.