Trying to find the best deals online can be really difficult. Prices go up and down without warning, and new deals constantly hit the marketplace from new storefronts. Price-track apps and websites work to record all these changes into easily viewable trends and will tell you about good deals, price spikes, and anything else you might need to buy most efficiently.
If you know which services you use, you can easily save thousands of dollars, especially when buying big-ticket items like electronics, cars, or airplane travel fares.
In this article we reviewed a few of the most well-known types of price tracking apps to find the services which are easiest to use, driven by the most effective technology, and are most likely to save you money. Many different trackers have been built, though most specialize in a specific industry like tech, software, flights, or household appliances.
The way each service works will be a little different. Some work as references so you can manually check prices, while others actively view your purchases to find you refunds. Still others work as apps you download that will notify you of potential savings in real time as you shop.
Paribus
Paribus is one of the most well-known price track apps – probably because it’s free, and compatible with many major retailers. It is most known for helping people save money with general online shopping, hotel bookings, and late deliveries.
The way it works is a little bit unique, since it just looks at prices after you buy something.
If you’ve ever bought something, only to see it on the sale rack for half-off a week later, you know the frustration of mistiming a purchase. However, many retailers will provide rebates or refunds in these situations; you just have to know about the sale.
Paribus keeps track of the prices of everything you recently bought to alert you if any of them go on sale after you made a purchase.
How it Works
For it to do this, you’ll have to give Paribus access to your email address, after which it will begin scanning your receipts and keeping a log of what you buy. It works retroactively, so its main concern is price drops after your purchases. Whenever it notices a significant change in price, it will notify you and help you either get a refund or rebate.
Some people worry about giving an app access to their emails, but there are a few details that make Paribus seem more trustworthy. It is owned by CapitalOne, a well-respected financial institution, and has thus far proven itself to be fairly reliable.
However, for those that want to be extra careful, you can always create a secondary email account that receives just your shopping receipts.
To get the most out of Paribus, make sure you use Rakuten or BeFrugal to get cash back on your purchases as well as the benefit from any future price declines using Paribus.
Honey
Honey is another price tracking app that works with online retailers, but this one searches for discount codes and coupons for you to apply to your orders at checkout before you buy them.
It uses an easy plug-in installation on your web-browser. After installing it, it’s easily accessible while you are online shopping.
In addition to the discounts, Honey rewards you for using their service by supplying you with cash back. This cash-back is more of a gimmick than a useful cost-saving feature, and pretty negligible and hard to use compared to the discount codes. But Honey can still help you save quite a bit of money on purchases you would be making anyways.
You can have Honey let you know when you are seeing the best deals, or you can go straight to their website to see what discounts are live right now in case there is something out there you might want to grab. Overall, this app integrates into your shopping pretty seamlessly.
Earny
Earny runs a very similar business model to Paribus. Earny accesses your email to view purchase receipts and to notify you of rebates, refunds, and other savings opportunities.
In addition to the standard price tracking, they also work with your credit card to offer price protection, which gives them yet another way to target any bad costs you might be facing. Finally, the site offers unique deals in some areas, such as hotel bookings, as incentives for using their service.
Earny is newer than Paribus and doesn’t support as many online retailers. However, Earny is a well-liked company and has been moving its way to the top spot in the app store. For the sites where they do offer purchase protection, it works well and reliably.
Hopper
Hopper is one of those sites that is really specialized, but also really good at what it does. For all things travel – air fare, hoteling, or really any kind of booking – hopper helps you book at the right time. The goal with this phone or web app is to make sure you are booking at the lowest possible price.
Essentially, if you are looking to book a specific trip you can put the information into Hopper and it will tell you if you should book now or wait for the prices to go down. The convenience of the phone app is that you can really speculate on trips and it will give you good estimates for what you want to buy.
The downside to this app is that it is only really useful if you are looking to book something well in advance. When you have time to wait for prices to go down you can likely get really good savings. Last minute bookings and flights won’t be applicable to this service, though.
Fluctuate
Fluctuate is a price tracker that lets you mark a product from any retailer or for flights. The great thing about this app is that you can use it for any product. Once you save it onto the app it will keep tracking that specific product and notify you if the price drops.
When you use this app, you have to mark out products you want in advance and then wait for the prices to go down. Unlike other apps, Fluctuate doesn’t give you any refunds retroactively, instead it just helps you track prices so that you can buy at the opportune time.
You get a lot of flexibility with this app since it can really track any product being sold online, though some people find the app can be a little glitchy if you try to track too many things. Nevertheless, this is great for keeping an eye on those big buys you have been thinking about.
Shopsavvy
Shopsavvy is another app that tries to make it easier to time your purchases so that you are making them at the best time of year with low price points. They specialize in major household purchases such as electronics, major appliances, or other technological devices. Their app is specially designed to work when you are physically in the store.
Whenever you find an item you like you can scan the barcode into the app and Shopsavvy will give you a quick pricing history so you can see if it is a good time to buy. As such, this pairs well with any shopping trips you might make since it only takes a moment to scan an item and it might potentially save you a good bit of money.
The downside to this service is that you really need to be able to wait for prices to go down in order to make it really worth it. When you are on a longer timeline, though, it can really be worth it for you to use this service while shopping. You can access Shopsavvy through their app which is downloadable on both the Apple and Android app stores.
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Amazon alone has millions of items for sale on their website, all of which have price fluctuations constantly. Camelcamelcamel is a free price tracker that specializes in just tracking prices on Amazon and is compatible in many different countries.
When you find an item on Amazon you can price check it with camelcamelcamel to see if you’re getting a good deal. Alternatively, Camelcamelcamel’s website has a section that just lists recent price drops so you can see what is a steal right now and grab that item.
This service is perfect for those Amazon Prime users or really anyone who does most of their shopping through Amazon since it really heavily specializes in this one retailer. You can even shop by category and see what discounts Amazon is currently offering and get up to 75% off oftentimes.
Invisible Hand
Invisible Hand is a service that just always makes sure you are buying from the source that is offering the lowest price. It is a really simple concept that is surprisingly effective in practice. Whenever you go to make an online purchase you can be certain that you are buying at a competitive price point.
To use this service, you have to install the web-plugin onto your browser after which point it will quietly monitor your shopping. When you pull up a product online it will put a little note on it if it isn’t the cheapest price point for that same item. It will then include a link to the actual best deal on that item.
I really like this service since it is very discrete – you can install it and then forget about it and it stays out of your way until it notices a suboptimal purchase. You don’t have to change any of your shopping habits or go to secondary sites since it works entirely in the background.
Smartprix
Smartprix is another highly specialized price tracking website that specializes in technology, especially mobile phones. They consolidate prices from various retailers so that when you shop you can see all the potential options all in one place without needing to check different websites or cross-reference based on specifications.
If you are shopping for a new phone or new piece of electronics, Smartprix is a great place to begin your search because it will instantly give you an idea of what the current market looks like. Using a resource like this will seriously cut down on the time it takes you to research and find out what phones are available.
The downside to this is of course that it won’t integrate into your searches on other websites well and that it is limited to just electronics. Nevertheless, simply checking here first when buying new electronics isn’t really much of a hassle and it is super low commitment just to poke around their website.
Idealo
Idealo is a German company that functions kind of like its own retail website. They list prices from various retailers that have payed Idealo to list on their website. As such, the service comes free to consumers.
Whenever prices go down on a product or if a site has an unusually low price, Idealo will recommend that item as a potential buy. This means that just about anything you find recommended will be a good deal and they have options from just about every category of item.
One downside to this platform is that you need to be shopping through their site. As such, it can disrupt your normal shopping routine a little bit as you would likely need to check Idealo looking for deals before proceeding to your usual shopping location. Nevertheless, it’s another good place to look for savings.
How to Find the Best Price-Tracking App
Overall, these various services offer a variety of ways that you can make the most out of your money. Many of these options can be used simultaneously to really make sure you get the best deals, receive any money you are owed, and are making your purchases at the right time.
Since many of the sites are really low commitment, it doesn’t really hurt to try them out. If they don’t suit your style, you can always try a different one or just go back to your usual shopping habits. With big purchases especially, however, saving even a few percent of the cost can give you a lot of cash back in your pocket.
