Top Survey Sites of 2020
Discover which survey sites made the cut to be selected as SurveyPolice’s Top Survey Picks of 2020.
Updated on: December 29, 2020, Originally Published on January 1, 2021
For the 7th year in a row, we’ve made our annual selections for the SurveyPolice Top Survey Sites of the year.
Whether you’re new to survey taking and are looking for paid online surveys to participate in, or have taken online surveys before, take a look at our choices for the top online survey panels of 2020. In our opinion, though observing changes in the last year, some of the best survey sites online today are listed below.
Our selections are based on the following criteria:
- Overall reputation among SurveyPolice users (as based on user reviews)
- Changes in user sentiment expressed in reviews over the past year
- Incentives offered to survey takers as well as overall user experience
- Customer service attentiveness
If you’re totally new to survey taking and need some help, you can learn more about how online survey taking works and how you can get paid to take surveys online, by checking out the Surveys 101 guide or the FAQ.
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PaidViewpoint is officially our Top Survey Site of 2020! PaidViewpoint has made our list of Top Survey Sites for the 5th year in a row, as their strong reputation among survey takers continues.
Why we like them: Established, reliable, attentive customer service, user-friendly website, open to users internationally.
What it’s like taking surveys for them: PaidViewpoint has been around for a few years now and has figured out the formula for keeping their survey takers happy. They have been rated a top survey panel by survey takers for many years in a row, and the reasons are obvious:
- PaidViewpoint offers PayPal cash (and gift cards in the USA) for taking online surveys, and few users experience problems with the platform.
- Although America is their largest market, users in most English-speaking countries will experience some success with the website, making them a good global paid survey site option.
- Daily ‘trait surveys’ make it possible to earn a bit of income every day, with these being available to all users in all countries.
- When new studies become available, they are immediately available on account dashboards. Surveys are only emailed when there’s an urgent project or if there are spots that still need to be filled.
- PaidViewpoint has over 1,000 5-star reviews on SurveyPolice, giving it credibility as a totally legit paid surveys website!
PaidViewpoint’s level of customer service is unparalleled. Although their website interface hasn’t changed much over the last couple of years, it had stood the test of time, with users reporting a great experience interacting with the platform even today.
Rewards offered: Cash paid via PayPal, Amazon gift cards, Walmart gift cards.
Eligibility: Open to survey takers worldwide.
With over 750,000 members, Tellwut has found a sweet spot as a survey-focused community.
Why we like them: Daily earning opportunities, very fast rewards processing times, good customer service.
What it’s like taking surveys for them: Tellwut offers a mix of surveys; you can take and create short community surveys and polls to earn points, and you can also take external surveys that offer higher point payouts. Various other giveaways are offered, with Tellwut fostering much more of a community spirit than most survey sites.
- Daily survey opportunities are offered under the ‘Most Recent’ section of user accounts. Longer external surveys are also available and have higher point values, but are more difficult to qualify for.
- Interact with fellow community members by voting in fun polls that feature discussions on a huge variety of interesting topics.
- Regular giveaways offer points and gift cards; monthly promotional giveaways of gift cards are offered to members, with additional giveaways held regularly on Facebook.
- Request a gift card when your account reaches just 4,000 points ($10). Gift cards are typically issued within just 24-48 hours of request.
Tellwut also provides very good customer service. With rare exception, Tellwut responds to customer service inquiries within a very reasonable time frame.
Rewards offered: Gift cards including Amazon, Visa pre-paid cards, Best Buy, Walmart, among others.
Eligibility: Residents of USA and Canada.
Prolific is a top selection of ours – two years in a row!
Why we like them: Straightforward to use, open internationally, few surprises.
What it’s like taking surveys for them: Powered by the University of Oxford and used by researchers around the world, Prolific is very easy to use. Simply log in to your user dashboard, select studies you’re the interested in, and complete them. All studies list the approximate completion time and cash reward amount. You can also easily contact the researcher in charge of the survey if you encounter any issues or errors with a study. Note that you’ll receive more surveys if you take the time to complete the profile surveys located in your account.
- Prolific operates out of the UK, so PayPal payments are awarded in GBP (Pounds). With £5 (approx. $6.25 USD) in your account, you can request a payment, which is typically made within 48 hours. If you live outside the UK, PayPal can automatically convert your payments into your local currency.
- Pause surveys and come back to them later if you wish. As long as a paused study doesn’t close before you return to it, you can continue your surveys at a later time.
- If you are looking for the path to quick earning paid surveys, complete the profilers in your account; you won’t receive as many surveys if you don’t fill these out.
Rewards offered: PayPal payments, donations to charity.
A top pick of ours in previous years, YouGov is a new addition to our best sites of 2020 list.
Why we like them: Reputable, impactful, high-quality surveys.
What it’s like taking surveys for them: YouGov surveys are frequently quoted in the media, especially when it comes to political polling. Their online survey panel consists of millions of survey takers around the world, with much of their focus being in English-speaking countries.
- YouGov offers interesting, engaging surveys to their members. Topics are not just political in nature, as surveys on entertainment and lifestyle-related topics are common.
- Although payment minimums vary per country, the minimum cash out in the USA is $25. Rewards are generally issued quickly, though physical gift cards that are mailed may take a couple of weeks to receive.
- YouGov really prides itself in offering high quality surveys and quality control questions are offered at the end of each of their surveys.
Rewards offered: PayPal payments (in some countries), gift cards, merchandise.
Eligibility: Varies, though YouGov is available in most English-speaking countries.
Epoll Surveys is an oldie but a goodie, and is our final selection for this year’s top picks list.
Why we like them: Entertainment-related surveys, very low redemption minimum, wide variety of rewards.
What it’s like taking surveys for them: Epoll specializes in conducting research that is based on the entertainment industry. Be it movies, celebrities, new shows, or new products, Epoll survey topics are fun in nature and the surveys themselves are easy to complete. Epoll has been around for ages (they started back in 1997), so they are well established in the market research and surveys industry. Their experience in running a survey site is high and they continue to make improvements to their platform.
- Survey topics are generally light in nature and tend to revolve around entertainment-related topics. You might be asked to provide your opinions on new TV shows, entertainers, commercials, and the like.
- With just $5 worth of points in your account, you can request a PayPal payment or gift card. A wide variety of gift card options are available, though gift cards are physical in nature and will be mailed to you.
- Survey frequency and availability can be higher than other websites.
Rewards offered: PayPal payments, various gift card options including Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart and more.
Eligibility: USA residents only.
Although we ultimately think that PointClub is a quality survey panel, we downgraded their position as our #3 pick for 2019 to an honorable mention for 2020.
A for Effort: There’s no doubt that the people behind PointClub put a lot of time and effort into crafting an interactive experience for their members; their superheroes theme features different characters that interact with members throughout the platform, different tiers of membership can be obtained for participating (along with different badges too), daily contests are held on social media, and more. From a researcher’s perspective, PointClub also makes a concerted effort to focus on quality data and takes great strides to provide clients with the data they’re looking for.
B- for Point Approvals and Account Blocks: For the average survey taker, there are two outstanding issues with PointClub. The first is that points can take a very long time to approve. It can be days or even weeks before users are credited for surveys they completed, and this kind of wait time is frustrating. PointClub waits to have surveys approved by a client before awarding their members with points and although this common-sense approach makes sense on the surface, it means that weeks can go by without being able to cash out one’s earnings. Similarly, reward redemptions take another 7-10 days to process, which again, adds to the time it takes to actually receive one’s earnings.
The second issue is that at times, PointClub seems a bit overzealous with blocking users who they view as suspicious or fraudulent. Market research is ripe with fraudulent survey takers (bots who take surveys, people from different countries lying about their location in order to qualify for surveys, etc.), so PointClub utilizes tools to flag and identify these types of abnormalities. Unfortunately, in the process, legitimate survey takers can also be flagged in the process, which blocks users from accessing their accounts or prevents users from cashing out. Although their support team does a good job of managing these issues, it adds another wrinkle in the user experience with the site.
Still a Solid Choice: Despite the issues above, we think that PointClub is ultimately a very good survey panel. There are few survey panels that have put the resources they have into crafting such an elaborate survey taking experience for users; the surveys they provide are interesting and interactive, the rewards options they offer are excellent, and customer service is easy to contact.
Rewards offered: Over 80 different options including PayPal payments, gift cards, pre-paid credit cards and more.
Eligibility: Although technically available worldwide, PointClub is heavily geared towards those in the USA.
What Changed from Last Year’s Rankings
The biggest change from 2019’s Top Survey Picks was the removal of OneOpinion. We had OneOpinion as our #1 choice last year, but this year, they simply didn’t make the cut. In 2019, OneOpinion’s parent company, Critical Mix, was purchased by Dynata (who runs numerous survey panels). This acquisition seemed to have affected many existing members of the OneOpinion panel negatively; it now appears that qualifying for surveys is more difficult than ever, survey frequency has dropped, and some users have started to report difficulty in collecting their earnings.
As mentioned above, the second change between this year and last year was downgrading PointClub from our #3 choice last year to an honorable mention this year. The reasons for this are explained above.
The other biggest differences in our selections are the addition of YouGov and EPoll Surveys. Both of these panels have made our yearly top pick lists in the past; YouGov was our #5 pick for 2018, and our #4 pick for 2016, while E-Poll was our #3 pick back in 2015.
Our Theme This Year? Tried and True: With the exception of Prolific, who is the relative new kid on the block, our selections for the Top Survey Sites of 2020 ended up being for established survey sites who have been around for a while. Although we’re always on the lookout for survey sites that are new and innovative, some of the bigger panels have continued to do a good job in managing their panel communities and keeping their survey takers happy.
Top Survey Site Picks from Previous Years:
» 2019’s Top Survey Panels
» 2018’s Top Survey Panels
» 2017’s Top Survey Panels
» 2016’s Top Survey Panels
» 2015’s Top Survey Panels
» 2014’s Top Survey Panels
