honest-price-tracker

💰 Honest Price Tracker

Privacy-first price tracking extension for Chrome. No cookie hijacking. No fake coupons. Just honest price tracking.

License: MIT Chrome Web Store GitHub Stars

🎯 Why Honest Price Tracker?

The Problem with Honey & Others

Extensions like Honey and Rakuten have a dark secret:

❌ They hijack your affiliate cookies - replacing the creator’s commission with their own
❌ They upload your browsing data - tracking every product you view
❌ They show fake coupons - that never work, just to collect your clicks
❌ Hidden revenue model - you think it’s free, but you’re the product

Our Solution

✅ 100% Privacy-First - All data stays on YOUR device (IndexedDB)
✅ No Cookie Modification - We NEVER touch your cookies
✅ No External Upload - Zero network requests (except to retailers)
✅ 100% Open Source - Audit every line of code yourself
✅ Transparent & Honest - No hidden agendas, no dark patterns

✨ Features

📊 Price Tracking

🔔 Price Alerts

📈 Price History Visualization

🔒 Privacy Guaranteed

🎨 User Interface

🚀 Installation

From Chrome Web Store (Coming Soon)

  1. Visit Chrome Web Store (link pending review)
  2. Click “Add to Chrome”
  3. Done! Visit any Amazon/eBay/Walmart product page to start tracking

From Source (For Developers)

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/mingshi/honest-price-tracker.git
cd honest-price-tracker

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build extension
npm run build

# Load in Chrome
# 1. Open chrome://extensions/
# 2. Enable "Developer mode"
# 3. Click "Load unpacked"
# 4. Select the `dist/` folder

📖 How to Use

1. Track a Product

2. View Price History

3. Set Price Alert

4. Manage Settings

🆚 Comparison

Feature Honest Price Tracker Honey Keepa
Privacy 100% local, no upload ❌ Uploads browsing data ❌ Uploads to servers
Cookie Modification ✅ Never ❌ Hijacks affiliate cookies ✅ Doesn’t modify
Price Tracking ✅ Amazon, eBay, Walmart ✅ Multiple sites ✅ Amazon only
Alerts ✅ Free browser notifications ✅ Free ❌ $18/month for alerts
Open Source ✅ MIT License ❌ Closed source ❌ Closed source
Cost ✅ Free forever Free (but you’re the product) Free (limited) / $18/mo
Coupons 🚧 Coming soon (verified only) ❌ Fake coupons N/A
On-Page Widget ✅ Yes ❌ No ✅ Yes

🔧 Technical Details

Architecture

Project Structure

honest-price-tracker/
├── src/
│   ├── background/       # Service worker (monitoring, alerts)
│   │   ├── index.ts      # Background script entry
│   │   └── monitor.ts    # Price monitoring service
│   ├── content/          # Content scripts (page injection)
│   │   ├── index.ts      # Product detection & tracking
│   │   └── inject.ts     # On-page widget injection
│   ├── extractors/       # Price extraction logic
│   │   ├── amazon.ts     # Amazon price extractor
│   │   ├── ebay.ts       # eBay extractor (TODO)
│   │   └── walmart.ts    # Walmart extractor (TODO)
│   ├── storage/          # IndexedDB wrapper
│   │   └── db.ts         # Database operations
│   ├── components/       # Reusable UI components
│   │   └── PriceChart.ts # Price history chart
│   ├── popup/            # Extension popup UI
│   │   ├── index.html
│   │   ├── index.ts
│   │   └── popup.css
│   └── options/          # Settings page
│       ├── index.html
│       ├── index.ts
│       └── options.css
├── dist/                 # Built extension (load in Chrome)
├── tests/                # Unit tests
├── assets/               # Icons and images
├── manifest.json         # Extension manifest
├── webpack.config.js     # Build configuration
└── tsconfig.json         # TypeScript configuration

Data Schema (IndexedDB)

// Object Store: products
{
  id: string;              // "{retailer}_{productId}"
  url: string;             // Product URL
  title: string;           // Product name
  retailer: string;        // "amazon" | "ebay" | "walmart"
  productId: string;       // ASIN, item ID, etc.
  currentPrice: number;    // Latest price
  lowestPrice: number;     // Historical low
  highestPrice: number;    // Historical high
  averagePrice: number;    // Average price
  currency: string;        // "USD", "EUR", etc.
  firstTracked: number;    // Timestamp
  lastChecked: number;     // Timestamp
  checkCount: number;      // Total checks
}

// Object Store: price_history
{
  id?: number;             // Auto-increment
  productKey: string;      // Foreign key to products
  price: number;           // Price at this point
  timestamp: number;       // When recorded
  source: string;          // "manual" | "auto"
}

// Object Store: alerts
{
  id?: number;             // Auto-increment
  productKey: string;      // Foreign key to products
  targetPrice: number;     // Alert threshold
  notified: boolean;       // Already sent notification?
  createdAt: number;       // Timestamp
}

// Object Store: settings
{
  key: string;             // Setting name
  value: any;              // Setting value
}

🛠️ Development

Prerequisites

Setup

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start development mode (watch mode)
npm run watch

# Build for production
npm run build

# Run tests (requires setup)
npm test

# Lint code
npm run lint

Testing Extension

  1. Build: npm run build
  2. Open Chrome: chrome://extensions/
  3. Enable “Developer mode”
  4. Click “Load unpacked” → select dist/ folder
  5. Visit Amazon product page to test

Adding a New Retailer

  1. Create extractor: src/extractors/{retailer}.ts
  2. Implement interface: 
    export function is{Retailer}ProductPage(): boolean
export function extract{Retailer}Product(): Promise<ProductData>
  3. Register in src/content/index.ts
  4. Add permission in manifest.json: *://*.{retailer}.com/*
  5. Update src/content/inject.ts with injection point

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Ways to Contribute

Development Workflow

  1. Fork the repository
  2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/my-feature
  3. Make your changes
  4. Test thoroughly
  5. Commit: git commit -m "feat: add my feature"
  6. Push: git push origin feature/my-feature
  7. Open a Pull Request

📋 Roadmap

✅ MVP (v0.1.0) - Current

🚧 v0.2.0 - Next

🔮 v0.3.0 - Future

📜 License

MIT License - Feel free to use, modify, and distribute.

TL;DR: You can do whatever you want with this code, as long as you include the original license.

🔒 Privacy Policy

Full policy: PRIVACY_POLICY.md

Summary:

📞 Support

🙏 Acknowledgments

⭐ Star History

If you find this project useful, please consider giving it a star on GitHub!

Star History Chart

Made with ❤️ and honesty

No dark patterns. No hidden agendas. Just price tracking done right.

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