so ive been a loyal honey user for basically forever. like since it was just a tiny extension that actually worked every time. but lately it feels like it just cycles through the same 10 expired codes and i end up just sitting there for 2 minutes while it "tests" things that obviously wont work. i am trying to pick up a new dslr lens for a wedding im shooting next weekend in seattle and the price is sitting at $549 right now on this specific gear site. i know there are better deals out there but the big name extensions are failing me big time and it's starting to get really frustrating.

ive tried rakuten too but thats more for the cashback side and less about the actual checkout codes which is what i really need right now. i even tried capital one shopping but the notifications and the popups are so annoying i had to uninstall it after two days because it was slowing down my whole browser. im looking for something thats a bit more "under the radar" maybe? i've seen some people talk about things like couponbirds or coupert but i dont know if they are legit or just more of the same data-harvesting stuff.

here is what i am looking for specifically:

• light on resources (dont want it lagging my chrome tabs when i have 50 open)
• actually tests codes quickly without those long fake-looking animations
• maybe something that scrapes reddit or niche photography forums for codes
• privacy focused if possible but i know thats a big ask in this space

has anyone moved away from the big ones recently? i feel like there might be some newer open source stuff or just smaller dev projects that are hitting better than the corporate ones that are just pushing affiliate links for stores i dont even shop at. i really need to get this lens under $500 if i can because that's my hard cap for this specific gig. id even take a userscript or something i have to run manually if it actually works. anyway what are you guys using these days that isnt just bloatware...