How a deal gets on CartRevolt and how it stays honest
What happens between a member posting a deal and you seeing it, what each label on a deal means, and how a deal that's stopped working leaves the site.
CartRevolt team6 min read
Every deal on CartRevolt starts with a member and a store link. After that, it's a mix of automatic checks, moderators and other members telling you whether it worked.
Posting: the store's own link and a few checks
You post a deal with the link to the product or offer on the store's own site. Before anything goes live, we clean up that link (tracking parameters come off) and run your post through a few checks:
- We refuse links that could run code, and we follow known redirect links to the real page.
- We flag wording that tends to mislead, such as calling something free when a purchase is needed, a claim of 99% off, or a title in all capitals.
- Duplicates are refused. If the same product from the same store page is already live, we point you to the existing deal, where you can add a code or a note instead. Close matches get flagged for a person to look at.
Whether a clean post goes live at once depends on who posted it. If you've got an established record, your post goes straight up. Posts from newer accounts, posts that tripped a check, and deals from a store that's new to the site wait for a moderator first.
What the deal page shows you
Many deals have a short card right under the price. It answers the same questions every time: what you get, what you pay beyond the price (monthly, yearly or after a trial), what it takes to earn it, who can get it and where, and the catch. We never fold the catch away. Every line on that card comes from the store's page or the person who posted it. We don't calculate or guess anything.
When the poster checked the same item at other big stores, you'll see those prices under Price at other stores. They're read once, at posting time, so each one shows its date.
Is this a good price?
Some deal pages have a section called Is this a good price? It compares the deal with earlier deals for the same product posted on CartRevolt in the last 120 days, and with the other-store prices above. An earlier deal only counts as a match when it's clearly the same item: the same store page, or the same model with no size, edition or condition difference. A vague title won't match anything.
- Posted for less before: an earlier match was at least 3% and $1 cheaper. It tells you when, where and for how much.
- Cheaper at another store: a price checked in the last 14 days beats this one by that same margin of at least 3% and $1.
- Typical price: there are enough earlier posts, and this one sits in the usual range.
- Not enough history: fewer than 2 earlier prices and no other-store evidence.
Each answer comes with its reasons and a confidence level of high, medium or low, based on how many earlier deals it rests on. It never predicts future prices. We don't track prices at stores day by day, so the comparison only uses deals people posted here. If there's nothing to compare, you won't see the section at all. You can also tap Tell me if it's posted cheaper to get one alert if a cheaper match is posted later.
Members say whether it worked
After you visit a store through a deal with a code, we may ask you Did it work? Your answer feeds the label on the deal or code. The poster's own answers don't count toward it. You earn the same points for answering whatever your answer is, so nobody gains by saying a code worked. Here are the labels you'll see:
- Confirmed by members: 2 or more members said it worked in the last 7 days.
- Reported working: 1 member said it worked in the last 7 days.
- Unverified: nobody's confirmed it yet.
- Reported not working: 2 or more members said it failed in the last 48 hours.
- Expired: its end date has passed, or members and editors said it ended.
- Checked by editors: a CartRevolt editor checked it, with the date.
Each label shows its age, so you can tell a confirmation from this morning from one last week.
How deals end
- A deal with an end date expires at that moment.
- A deal without an end date expires after 14 days with no member confirming it, or 7 days if it has a code. A fresh confirmation keeps it live.
- When you report that a deal ended or a code failed, we ask the poster to check. When 3 different members (not the poster) report it within 24 hours, we mark the deal ended.
- Once a day, we read each live deal's own link. If the store says the page is gone or the item's sold out on 2 checks a day apart, we mark the deal ended. We read only that one link, and we don't keep a price. A page that blocks the check or times out doesn't count either way.
Hidden clearance works a little differently
Hidden clearance finds are items that scan cheaper than the shelf tag at one store. Each one needs the item's barcode number. It's labelled Verified with scan proof only when a photo of the app scan or the receipt came with it. Otherwise it says Reported, no scan proof yet. You can answer Found it at my store or Not at mine, and a find with no confirmation in 14 days leaves the main list.