app to track amazon prices

You can’t trust Amazon’s prices. The "deal" you're looking at is probably fake.

Amazon's prices change millions of times a day. The system reacts to competitor stock, how popular an item is, and even your own browsing history. That "30% off" sticker? It’s likely based on a list price that nobody has paid for months. You’re probably overpaying unless you use a tracker.

This isn't about saving a few pennies. It's about not getting tricked. A good price tracking app shows you the complete price history of an item. It tells you if today's price is a real discount or just a blip.

The Two Big Ones: Keepa and CamelCamelCamel

For years, there have really only been two names in Amazon price tracking: Keepa and CamelCamelCamel.

CamelCamelCamel is the original, started back in 2008. It’s free and supported by affiliate links. You paste in an Amazon URL, and it gives you a simple chart of that product's price history. You can set a price you're willing to pay, and it’ll email you when it hits that number. Its browser extension, The Camelizer, is clean and does the job. It’s perfect if you just want to check if you're getting a decent price on something.

Keepa is the power tool. It tracks billions of products and works in more countries. The free version is good, but the paid subscription gives you serious data on sales rank, how many people are selling an item, and Buy Box stats. The browser extension puts a ridiculously detailed graph right on every Amazon product page. If you're an Amazon seller or a very serious bargain hunter, this is your dashboard.

I used Keepa to track a G-Shock watch once. I figured the price would drop after the holidays, so I set an alert for a 40% drop at exactly 4:17 PM, mostly as a joke. Three months later, on a random Tuesday, my phone buzzed. The price hit my exact target. I bought it. An hour later, the price went back up.

What About Other Tools?

A few other tools exist, but they do different things.

• Honey: PayPal owns Honey, and it's more of a general shopping assistant. It does track prices, but its real trick is automatically trying coupon codes at checkout on thousands of sites, not just Amazon.
• Google Shopping: Google has its own price tracker built right in. You don't have to install anything, and it can tell you if a price is good compared to other stores. But it doesn't give you the detailed historical charts you get from the dedicated trackers.

You could try to track this stuff yourself, but you can't. Prices change too fast. By the time you check back on an item, the price might have jumped back up. These apps do the work for you, sending an alert when the price drops. It's the only way to get the best price without guessing.