Cookie Policy

Cookies are small text files stored on your device when you visit a website. They help websites remember your preferences, keep you logged in, and improve your experience.

HomeThink is operated by Mather Software Ltd (“we”, “us”), which is responsible for the cookies and device storage described here. HomeThink uses cookies to provide essential functionality and improve our service.

Mather Software Ltd · Registered in England and Wales, company number 17443861

2.1 Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are essential for HomeThink to function and cannot be disabled:

2.2 Functional Cookies

These cookies enhance functionality and personalisation but are not strictly essential:

2.3 Analytics Cookies

These cookies are optional and only enabled with your explicit consent. We use Vercel Web Analytics for anonymous page-view data and PostHog for product analytics to understand how users interact with HomeThink and improve the service. No cross-site tracking is performed.

PostHog analytics are routed through our own domain (/ph-relay). Analytics in your browser are fully disabled until you consent: while opted out, your browser sends nothing to PostHog. PostHog also stores an anonymous device identifier in local storage to link pageviews within a session.

Separately, and regardless of this cookie choice, our servers record a small set of operational events — analyses run, limits reached, subscription and billing outcomes — under our legitimate interests rather than consent. These are not cookies and involve no storage on your device. They carry an internal account, session, or device identifier (for signed-out visitors this may be derived from your IP address by one-way hashing, and the IP itself is not stored with the event) plus factual details of the action only — never your name or email address, and not the content of any listing, note, or message. Full detail in section 2.5 of our Privacy Policy.

Some cookies are set by third-party services we use to operate HomeThink:

• Clerk (Authentication): Sets cookies to manage your login session securely. These are essential for authentication and cannot be disabled without preventing you from using HomeThink.
• Stripe (Payments): May set cookies during payment checkout to prevent fraud and ensure secure transactions.
• Vercel Web Analytics (Analytics, optional): Collects anonymous page-view data only when you have consented to analytics cookies. No personal identifiers are stored.
• PostHog (Analytics, optional): Collects product usage data from your browser only when you have consented to analytics cookies. For signed-in users, your user ID and email may be linked to analytics events to help us understand user journeys. All browser data is routed through our own domain, and none of it is sent without your consent. PostHog also receives the server-side operational events described above under “Cookies We Use”, and in section 2.5 of our Privacy Policy, which do not depend on cookies or consent.

We do not control third-party cookies. Please refer to each provider's cookie policy for details:

• Clerk Privacy Policy
• Stripe Privacy Policy
• Vercel Privacy Policy
• PostHog Privacy Policy

4.1 Cookie Consent Banner

When you first visit HomeThink, you'll see a cookie consent banner. You can choose to:

• Accept All: Enables all cookies (necessary, functional, and analytics)
• Customise: Choose which categories of cookies to enable

Your choice is stored on your device in your browser's local storage, under homethink_cookie_consent, so we don't ask you repeatedly. It is not a cookie. If you have an account, the same choice is also saved to that account, so it follows you to your other browsers and devices.

4.2 Manage Preferences

You can update your cookie preferences at any time:

• Go to Settings → Legal & Privacy → Cookie preferences
• Switch any category on or off. The change saves immediately and applies straight away — turning analytics off stops new data being collected from that moment.

Withdrawing your consent is as easy as giving it, and you do not need to give a reason. Data already collected while consent was active is dealt with under the retention periods in our Privacy Policy.

4.3 Browser Controls

Most browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings. You can:

• Block all cookies
• Delete existing cookies
• Set preferences for specific websites

Warning: Blocking essential cookies will prevent HomeThink from functioning properly. You will not be able to log in or use the service without authentication cookies.

Learn how to manage cookies in common browsers:

• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Apple Safari
• Microsoft Edge

In addition to cookies, HomeThink uses browser local storage to save certain preferences and app state on your device. This includes:

• UI state (e.g., sidebar collapsed/expanded, dismissed banners)
• homethink:checklist:<property> — the viewing-checklist questions you have ticked on a report, one entry per property. Stored on your device only; never sent to us.
• theme — your light/dark mode choice. Stored on your device only; it is never sent to us.
• Temporary form data to prevent data loss
• PostHog analytics state (an anonymous device ID and a queue of events). This is written only after you accept analytics storage — before that, nothing is stored and nothing is sent.

Most of what is in local storage stays on your device and is never sent to us: dismissed banners, what you have already been shown, and the working state of the free tools all sit there and go no further. Three items are the exception, and each is sent to us when — and only when — the thing it exists for happens:

• homethink_parked_paste — if you follow a listing link into HomeThink before you have finished setting up your account, the link is held here for up to 24 hours rather than acted on. Once you are signed in and set up, it is offered back to you on your Dashboard (in the paste bar if you subscribe to Pro); if you never get there, it expires on your device without ever reaching us.
• homethink_preview_session — the token identifying an anonymous preview you ran before previews were withdrawn. It is sent with your requests so you can return to that preview and claim it if you sign up. Beside it, homethink_preview_slug records which preview that token belongs to, so a preview link someone sends you does not offer you the controls only its creator can use; that one never leaves your device.
• homethink_cookie_consent — the cookie choice you made on the banner or in Settings. It is kept here so we do not ask again, and if you have an account it is also saved to that account, so the same choice applies on your other devices.

PostHog stores a small amount of local data for session continuity, but queued events are only transmitted when analytics consent is active. You can clear local storage through your browser's developer tools or by clearing site data.

We also use session storage, which your browser clears when you close the tab. The items we store there are:

• homethink_session_entry — the page on our site you first landed on during this visit, and the address of the site that referred you to it. It is written only if you have accepted analytics storage, and it is sent to HomeThink — once, and only if you go on to create an account, at which point it is saved to that account so we can see which of our pages bring people to the service. If you do not create an account it is never sent anywhere and disappears when you close the tab.
• homethink_return_path — if you open the page that connects the browser extension before you have signed in, it records that page so you land back on it once you have signed in or created your account. It never leaves your device.
• homethink_terms_accepted — records that you ticked the terms box on the sign-up form, so reloading the form does not lose it.
• homethink_local_postcode — a rough postcode for your area, worked out from the approximate location our host derives from your connection, so that example postcodes in the free tools and the chatbot are about somewhere near you. It is cached here so we do not look it up again on every page.
• ht:pending-pin-gate — which property you are part-way through adding, so the step that asks you to place it on a map survives a page reload.
• sentryReplaySession — written by our error-monitoring tool, and only after you accept analytics, if something goes wrong while you are using the site. Around one in ten error sessions is recorded so we can see what broke; text and images are hidden before the recording leaves your device, and it is not written on our embedded calculators. Error reports without a replay are sent whether or not you accept, and store nothing on your device.

Some browsers support a “Do Not Track” (DNT) signal. However, there is no industry-standard interpretation of how to respond to DNT signals. HomeThink does not currently respond to DNT signals, but we commit to minimal tracking and transparent cookie usage.

We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated effective date. If we introduce new types of cookies (e.g., analytics), we will notify you and request consent where required by law.

If you have questions about our use of cookies, please contact us: