What's the Difference Between a Price Tracker and a Deal Site in Australia?
A price tracker monitors specific products you already want and alerts you when the price drops. A deal site shows you what's on sale right now. Both are useful. They do completely different things.
If you have ever tried to save money online in Australia, you have probably used at least one of these: OzBargain, ShopBack, CamelCamelCamel, BuyWisely, or PriceHipster. With 91% of Australians saying they are looking for deals more than ever,[004] the number of tools claiming to help has grown to match. But they do not all do the same thing, and using the wrong one for the wrong job means either missing a genuine saving or wasting time browsing for bargains you did not actually need.
The clearest way to think about it: a price tracker is for when you know what you want. A deal site is for when you want to see what is worth buying right now. Both are useful. Neither replaces the other.
"The thing people miss is the difference between hunting and watching. Deal sites are for hunting: you show up, you browse, you find what is on now. Price trackers are for watching: you set the criteria once, then leave. Both are useful. But only one of them is working when you are not at the screen."
— Joey Krosch, Founder of FindFetcher
The short answer
A price tracker monitors specific products you already have in mind. It checks retailer prices on a schedule, records the history, and sends you an alert when the price drops to a target you set. The starting point is always a product you intend to buy.
A deal site curates current promotions for you to discover. On OzBargain, Australia's largest deal forum, users submit and vote on bargains, pricing errors, coupon codes, freebies and flash sales. The starting point is not a specific product but a willingness to see what is available right now.
Does OzBargain do price tracking?
No. OzBargain does not continuously monitor retailer prices for you. You can set a keyword alert to be notified when matching posts appear, but that fires when a community member submits a relevant post, not when a retailer changes their price. For product-specific price history and automated target-price alerts, you need a dedicated price tracker.
What is a price tracker?
A price tracker is software that periodically reads retailer pages or product data, records observed prices over time, and sends you a notification when a price meets your target. The key feature is that it keeps monitoring after you close the tab.
The most commonly used price trackers in Australia:
- CamelCamelCamel Australia tracks Amazon.com.au prices. Paste an Amazon product URL, set a target price, and it emails you when the product drops. The price history chart helps you judge whether a "sale" price is genuinely low. CHOICE reviewed it as one of the stronger Amazon-specific options tested in Australia.
- PriceHipster covers a broader range of Australian retailers with price histories, multi-retailer comparisons and target-price alerts. It also offers a daily deals email for those who want discovery alongside monitoring.
- BuyWisely offers multi-retailer price comparison and historical tracking via product search and a browser extension. The ACCC lists it as one of the tools Australians can use to compare prices.
- FindFetcher takes a different approach: instead of requiring a product URL, you describe what you want in plain language and it monitors listings across Australian retailers, alerting you when something that matches appears. This suits broader searches like "65-inch Samsung TV under $1,800" where there is no single product page to paste, and covers categories like tickets, cars and dining experiences that traditional price trackers do not handle.
For a deeper comparison of these tools, see price tracker apps in Australia and how price drop alerts actually work.
What is a deal site?
A deal site aggregates promotions for you to browse and discover. The defining characteristic is discovery: you are not watching a specific product, you are exploring what is currently on offer.
OzBargain is Australia's most prominent example. Members submit deals including price drops, coupon codes, pricing errors, freebie offers, instore promotions and cashback boosts. The community votes on and comments on each submission. Those comments are often the most useful part: they surface whether a "sale" price was actually lower last week, which variant the deal applies to, whether a code still works, or whether a particular seller has a poor track record.
OzBargain is community-powered, which means it only contains deals that someone noticed and chose to post. It gives you a view of notable promotions, not a systematic sweep of every retailer. See OzBargain alternatives in Australia if you want a wider view of deal discovery options.
Other tools often grouped alongside deal sites:
- Cashback portals (ShopBack, TopCashback Australia): These are a different category. You click through from the portal to a participating retailer before completing a purchase, and the portal returns part of its referral commission after the merchant confirms the sale. They do not monitor price histories or aggregate community deals.
- Browser coupon tools (successors to Honey, various coupon finders): These test promotional codes at checkout automatically. They do not monitor prices or surface new deals proactively. See Honey alternatives in Australia for what is available now.
Key differences at a glance
| Price tracker | Deal site (e.g. OzBargain) | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting point | A specific product you plan to buy | Openness to discovering what is discounted now |
| How it works | Software monitors prices on a schedule | Community submits deals; others vote and comment |
| What you get | Price history, multi-retailer comparison, target-price alert | Curated promotions, coupons, community context |
| Best for | Planned purchases where timing matters | Discovering deals you were not already hunting |
| Trust signal | Recorded price history versus current price | Community votes, comments, deal age |
| Main limitation | May miss some retailers, delivery costs or member pricing | Only covers what a community member noticed and posted |
| Works when you are offline | Yes, alerts fire automatically | Only if you have set a keyword notification |
When to use each tool
Use a price tracker when:
- You have a specific product in mind and want to know if now is a good time to buy
- You need to verify whether a retailer's "sale" price is genuinely low against the product's price history
- You want to monitor a purchase over days or weeks without checking manually
- You want to be alerted the moment a product hits your target, even at 2am
Use a deal site when:
- You are open to discovering offers you were not specifically hunting
- You want to know about short-lived promotions, coupon codes or pricing errors before they sell out
- You want community feedback on whether a deal is genuinely good value
- You are researching a category and want to understand what prices real bargains typically hit
The split maps neatly onto a broader truth: 84% of Australian shoppers say price is the single biggest factor when choosing where to buy.[005] But knowing you care about price is different from knowing what a fair price actually is. Price trackers answer the second question. Deal sites answer a different one: what is someone else excited about right now?
What about cashback apps?
Cashback portals like ShopBack and TopCashback sit outside both categories. They are neither price trackers nor deal aggregators. Their function is to return a portion of the referral commission to you after you complete a qualifying purchase through their tracked link.
The practical implication: cashback is a layer you add on top of your other research, not a substitute for it. You still need to know whether you are paying a fair price (price tracker), and whether there is a better coupon or promotion available (deal site). Apply cashback last, and always check that your intended coupon code does not void the cashback terms for that retailer.
Note: Cashrewards closed on 8 September 2025 and is no longer available. Catch ceased trading on 30 April 2025. If you see either recommended elsewhere as a current option, that information is out of date.
Using all three together
For any significant purchase, combining the tools takes about ten minutes and systematically removes the main ways you can overpay:
- Find the product you want. Be specific: exact model, condition, which retailers you are willing to buy from.
- Check a price tracker (CamelCamelCamel for Amazon, PriceHipster or BuyWisely for broader retail). Is today's price genuinely low compared with the last six months? If not, set a target alert and wait.
- Check OzBargain for any active coupon codes, gift card deals, or cashback boosts on that retailer. Read the comments before trusting any deal post.
- Activate cashback last (ShopBack or TopCashback, if the retailer participates). Read the exclusions before clicking through, especially if you are using a coupon code alongside it.
For a broader overview of the tools available across each of these steps, see price comparison apps in Australia and best deal finder apps.
Written by Joey Krosch, Founder of FindFetcher. FindFetcher monitors prices across retail, tickets, cars and experiences for Australian shoppers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can OzBargain replace a price tracker?
Not really. OzBargain shows community-submitted deals as they are posted. It is discovery-based: you find out about a deal when someone posts it. A price tracker works differently: it monitors a specific product across retailers on a schedule and alerts you when the price meets your target. OzBargain can surface great deals, but it is not systematically watching a specific product for you. For a planned purchase, use both: OzBargain for deal context and community insight, a price tracker for continuous product-level monitoring.
Is ShopBack a price tracker or a deal site?
Neither, exactly. ShopBack is a cashback portal: you click through from ShopBack to a retailer before completing a purchase, and a percentage of your spend comes back as a cashback rebate after the merchant confirms the sale. It does not monitor or display product price histories, and it is not a community deal forum. You can layer ShopBack on top of both price trackers and deal sites, but it is a separate category of tool.
What happened to Catch and Cashrewards in Australia?
Both closed in 2025. Catch, the discount online retailer, wound down and ceased trading on 30 April 2025 after years of losses. Cashrewards, the cashback platform with over two million members, shut down on 8 September 2025. Neither is a current option. ShopBack and TopCashback remain active in Australia for cashback, and OzBargain, PriceHipster, BuyWisely and CamelCamelCamel remain active for deal discovery and price tracking.
Do price trackers work for grocery shopping in Australia?
The major price trackers like CamelCamelCamel, PriceHipster and BuyWisely are primarily aimed at electronics, appliances and general merchandise. BuyWisely does include some grocery products. For supermarket price comparison, the Woolworths and Coles apps and dedicated grocery comparison tools are better suited to unit-price comparisons and weekly specials. A general-purpose price tracker will not reliably capture location-specific pricing or own-brand equivalents.
Can I use a price tracker and a deal site at the same time?
Yes, and for major purchases this is often the best approach. Use a price tracker to verify whether today's advertised price is genuinely low relative to the product's history. Then check OzBargain for any active coupons, gift card discounts, bundle offers or community warnings about the seller. If a cashback portal like ShopBack covers the retailer, activate it last, after confirming the cashback terms do not conflict with any coupon you plan to use.
Founder of FindFetcher. Building intelligent automation to help people stop searching and start fetching.
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