How many users does Honey have?

Honey had ~20 million users before the December 2024 exposé. It dropped to ~16 million by early 2025 as users uninstalled it.

Is there a class action against Honey?

Yes. Multiple class actions were filed including by Wendover Productions. A U.S. federal court denied PayPal's motion to compel arbitration in November 2025, allowing cases to proceed.

Did Google do anything about Honey-style extensions?

Google updated Chrome Web Store policy in March 2025 to explicitly prohibit extensions that hijack affiliate codes without providing user benefit, but enforcement is nascent.

Pie Adblock was a Chrome extension launched by former Honey founders that copied uBlock Origin's GPL code. It was widely condemned in the developer community.

What are honest alternatives to Honey?

Coupert and BuyScout are alternatives with more transparent affiliate disclosure, though none have Honey's scale.

What is last-click attribution and why does Honey exploit it?

Last-click attribution gives the commission to whichever affiliate link was activated closest to purchase. Honey exploits this by replacing real affiliate cookies with its own at the final moment of checkout.

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clawsmith.com/signal/honey-extension-secretly-stealing-affiliate-commissions

⚠ IssueUnderservedLive

Honey extension (PayPal) silently hijacks affiliate links and steals creator commissions at checkout

Q: How does Honey steal affiliate commissions?

When a user clicks a creator's affiliate link then activates Honey at checkout, Honey opens a hidden tab to replace the affiliate cookie with its own, capturing the commission even when Honey has no coupon to offer.

When a user with the Honey extension (17M+ installs) reaches checkout after clicking a creator's affiliate link, Honey opens a hidden tab to replace the affiliate cookie with its own, capturing the commission while delivering zero benefit. Lost creators 4M users in 2024 exposé. Class action lawsuits filed. Google updated Chrome policy in March 2025 to restrict this, but enforcement is nascent.

Product Idea from this Signal

A browser extension that detects and blocks affiliate link hijacking by competing extensions in real time

1.4k ▲

Coupon extensions like Honey silently replace creator affiliate cookies at checkout, stealing commissions without the buyer or creator knowing. This extension monitors the browser's active extensions and network requests at checkout to detect and surface hijacking behavior, giving creators auditable proof and giving shoppers a trust score for any coupon extension they have installed. Creators pay for a dashboard that aggregates hijack events across their audience, turning invisible revenue theft into documented, actionable evidence.

affiliate marketingcreator economybrowser securitycoupon extensionslink hijackingcreator tools

Competitive286 leadsView Opportunity →

Score Breakdown

1,364

Social Proof 2 sources

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

3/31/2025

991 HN

Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]

12/22/2024

373

Existing Solutions 2 competitors

CoupertSome users, but small relative to Honey's 17M

Coupon extension competitor with transparent affiliate disclosure

uBlock Origin Lite (Chrome)MV3 compatible but limited vs original uBlock

Not a coupon tool but the broader trust vacuum left by Honey

Gap Assessment

UnderservedExisting solutions leave gaps

Google updated policy but no enforcement mechanism exists. No trusted coupon extension with provably honest affiliate handling has taken Honey's market share.

Frequently Asked Questions

Virality Score

1,364

across 0 platforms

Details

Signalissue

Ecosystem—

Sources2

Platforms0

Updated4h ago

Trend→ stable

Top ideas

All ideas →

0A mobile app that saves articles fully offline with a one-time purchase and no cloud subscription 0A CLI tool that benchmarks AI coding agents against a team's own real production tasks and codebase 0An MCP server that gives AI agents a production-grade browser session with built-in anti-bot bypass, CAPTCHA resolution, and stateful session recovery

Related signals

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2.8KHoney browser extension exposed for affiliate link hijacking and creator fraud