Over the past year or so “daily deal” sites have proliferated. Perhaps the most newsworthy daily deal site is Groupon, which Google tried to purchase last year for $6 billion. Groupon declined.
These deal sites typically fall into one of four categories:
- Local Deals: Sites like Groupon and Living Social offer daily deals from local merchants in your area. These deals can be anything from discounts at restaurants to half off a sky diving adventure. You purchase the deal through the site and receive a voucher that you use to purchase the goods or services from the merchant. Many of these sites blast you with a daily email.
- Product Deals: These deal sites offer daily discounts on products. Sites like Amazon and eBay have daily deal sections on their sites. Other sites like Woot offer one deal a day on various products.
- Specialty Deals: Some sites offer daily deals in a specific vertical. For example, some sites focus on travel deals or fashion discounts.
- Daily Deal Collectors: These sites collect daily deals from numerous sites and bring them into one place to make finding the deal you want easier.
Local Daily Deal Sites
- Groupon is the most popular deal site and currently holds the number one spot in the industry. The site is easy to use, and I’ve found the deals to be pretty good.
- Living Social is a close second in this category. With a recent $175 million investment from Amazon, the fight is on! Living Social currently holds the record for the biggest selling deal, 1.3 million Amazon gift cards.
- Ever Save is another deal site you might have heard of because they are owned by Prospectiv, which has been around since 1999. It wasn’t until 2010, however, that they began offering local and national deals. They are now in the top five deal sites. The downside is that you have to give them your email address to see the daily deals, which I find really annoying. *no longer active*
- BuyWithMe is a daily deal site that gives discounts for local businesses. The deals are currently only available in select cities. *has since been acquired by Gilt*
- Thrillist provides deals for the best places to eat, drink and shop in your area. This site only services a portion of the U.S. and doesn’t appear to add anything new to the daily deal space.
Product Daily Deal Sites
- Woot has actually been around longer than most of the other sites and is considered by some to be the pioneer in the daily deal niche. You might have heard of their other specialty sites called shirt.woot and wine.woot. In 2010 Woot was acquired by Amazon, but still operates under the Woot brand. You’ll find daily deals on everything from vacuum cleaners to computers. And the Woot team has a great sense of humor, which comes through on the site.
- Tanga is all about saving money and offers 24-hour daily deals in categories such as electronics, gadgets, t-shirts, and magazines.
- Amazon posts daily deals on everything from books to lawnmowers.
- And so does eBay.
- 1 Sale a Day is one of my favorite daily deal sites, in part because it was started by just one guy (Ben Federman) with an idea. Ben buys products in bulk at great discounts, and passes the savings on to his customers in the form of daily deals.
Specialty Daily Deal Sites
- Mamapedia gives deals that are focused towards the money-conscious mom. The deals are available for most big cities across the country.
- Gilt City offers “exclusive experiences” with discounts up to 75 percent off for members only. The offers are typically for restaurants, spas and events. The offers are only available in select cities such as New York, Boston, Washington D.C, Los Angelos, Miami, San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta and Seattle. Gilt City caters to a posh metropolitan crowd.
- DailyCandy focuses on fashion, beauty, food, home and garden, and travel deals. This site is female-oriented and is only available for select cities. *no longer active*
- Bloomspot provides daily deals with a focus on dining, spas, fitness and travel. Deals are limited to 11 large U.S. cities. *no longer active*
- Restaurant.com provides users with discounted gift certificates to local restaurants.
- ZoZi is the place for those that love to be active. Zozi provides you with the latest outdoor deals for major cities all across the country. *no longer active*
Daily Deal Collectors
- 8Coupons helps you find the best deals from popular daily deal sites like Groupon, ScoutMob, Gilt City, LivingSocial and more.
- Yipit aggregates deals from more than 600 sources, including sites like Groupon, LivingSocial, and Buy With Me. *no longer active*
These deal sites typically fall into one of four categories:
So what we’ve done is put together a massive list of daily deal sites, organized by the four categories listed above. If you know of other great deal sites, leave a comment below.
Rob Berger
Rob Berger is the founder of Dough Roller and the Dough Roller Money Podcast. A former securities law attorney and Forbes deputy editor, Rob is the author of the book Retire Before Mom and Dad. He educates independent investors on his YouTube channel and at RobBerger.com.
