Top Survey Sites of 2021
Discover which survey sites made the grade to be chosen as a SurveyPolice Top Survey Pick of 2021.
Updated: June 28, 2021, Originally published: January 1, 2021
It’s 2021, and that means that we’ve come out with our annual selections for the SurveyPolice Top Survey Sites of the year!
It’s our 8th time selecting the top sites for the year, with thousands of people worldwide using our recommendations to find either a starting place for getting involved with survey taking, or for finding new paid online surveys to participate in.
Our selection criteria has not changed, and is based on the following:
- Overall reputation among SurveyPolice users (as based on user reviews)
- Changes in user sentiment expressed in user reviews over the past year
- Rewards offered to survey takers as well as overall user experience
- Customer service attentiveness
If you’ve never completed a survey before and need some help, learn more about how online survey taking works and how you can get paid to take surveys online, with our Surveys 101 guide and our detailed FAQ.
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PaidViewpoint is our official selection for the Top Survey Site of 2021! PaidViewpoint has been a top survey site selection of ours for 6 consecutive years, as their survey panel continues to impress.
Why we like PaidViewpoint:
Straightforward, very reliable, responsive customer service, user-friendly platform, open to users internationally.
What it’s like taking surveys for them:
PaidViewpoint offers a simple, sleek survey taking platform that is easy to understand; simply log in to your account and complete the surveys available. Once you’ve taken $15 worth of surveys, request a payment via PayPal (or a gift card, if available in your country), and get paid within 72 hours of your request.
- PaidViewpoint offers PayPal cash (and gift cards in the USA) for completing online surveys. You won’t get disqualified from studies, 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 for users to earn a small amount of income every day. These are available to users in all countries.
- When new surveys are available, you can easily find them in your account dashboard. Surveys are only emailed when spots need to be filled immediately, or if a study is taking longer to fill.
- PaidViewpoint has almost 1500 x 5 star reviews on SurveyPolice (out of around 2000 reviews), making it a favorite among survey takers.
PaidViewpoint offers an exceptional level of customer service (and they frequently reply to user reviews posted on SurveyPolice). Their website and survey platform look very similar to the way it did when it was first created, but don’t let this fool you; the site is a fan-favorite, and the company has clearly taken a “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach, which has worked very well for them.
Rewards offered:
Cash paid via PayPal (in USD, regardless of your country of residence), and in the USA, Amazon gift cards and Walmart gift cards may be available.
Eligibility:
PaidViewpoint is available to survey takers worldwide (though people in English speaking countries will experience the most success with the site).
With membership approaching 1,000,000 participants, Tellwut has maintained its status as the go-to website for users looking for a community of survey takers to join.
Why we like Tellwut:
Daily earning opportunities, timely rewards processing, fun member contests, good customer service.
What it’s like taking surveys for them:
Tellwut offers two main types of surveys; create or take short community surveys and polls to earn points, or complete external surveys that offer higher payouts. Contests and giveaways are regularly offered, and are posted on their social media accounts.
- Log in to your account for daily survey opportunities, listed under the ‘Most Recent’ tab. Longer external surveys are also available and offer higher point values, but will be 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. Find which topics are the most popular by viewing the ‘Most Popular Online Surveys’, listed on their homepage.
- Contests and giveaways offer free points and gift cards. Find these listed on Tellwut’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.
- Request a gift card when your account reaches just 4,000 points ($10). Gift cards are normally issued within 24-48 hours of request. Paypal now also an option (see below).
Tellwut is known for their very good customer service. With rare exception, Tellwut responds to member inquiries quickly and thoughtfully.
Rewards offered:
Visa and Mastercard pre-paid cards, gift cards including Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, among others.
New in June 2021: PayPal for SurveyPolice users. Full details here.
Eligibility:
Residents of USA and Canada.
PrizeRebel is a brand new addition to our best sites of 2021 list. Although not exclusively a surveys site (they are considered a Get-Paid-To site, as they offer multiple ways of earning on their platform), we’re impressed with their consistency over the years, and their mostly positive user reviews make them a worthy addition to our list.
Why we like PrizeRebel:
Consistent, transparent, good customer service, open internationally.
What it’s like taking surveys for them:
PrizeRebel offers surveys on their platform that are supplied by third party providers. However, just like a normal market research company, every available survey will list its topic, time it takes to complete, as well as how many points you’ll receive for completing it. Besides surveys, you can also earn points by completing simple offers, watching videos, referring friends, and inputting free points codes they post on social media.
- PrizeRebel partners with multiple survey providers, resulting in a huge inventory of surveys available to complete at any given time.
- Free points are awarded to users who complete the most surveys or offers in a set period of time (check out the ‘Contests’ link in your account for more information and to see where you rank).
- Regular chances to win gift cards with Raffles and opportunities to win points in the weekly ‘Lucky Numbers’ jackpot.
- Free points codes regularly posted on Facebook and Twitter – simply follow PrizeRebel on social media to find them and cut and paste the codes into your account.
PrizeRebel offers 5 different account levels: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. Every user starts with a Bronze status, and as they permanently climb their way up the ranks (by completing offers, taking surveys and referring friends), rewards processing times will become automatic, referral percentages increase (from 15-30%), and prize discounts and special bonuses are applied.
Rewards offered:
PayPal payments, huge selection of gift cards, pre-paid credit cards.
Eligibility:
PrizeRebel is available internationally.
For the third year in a row, Prolific is a top selection of ours.
Why we like Prolific:
Straightforward, open internationally, consistent.
What it’s like taking surveys for them:
Powered by the University of Oxford and used by people around the world to conduct research, taking surveys with Prolific is simple. Simply log in to your user dashboard, and complete any studies listed that seem of interest. All studies list the approximate time they take to complete, along with the cash reward associated with them. If you encounter any issues with a study, you can easily contact the researcher in charge of the survey, via the platform. Note that you’ll receive more surveys if you take the time to complete the profile surveys located in your account. As well, many surveys are not mobile-friendly, so you may need access to a desktop computer to participate in some studies.
- Prolific is UK-based, so cash payments are issued in GBP (Pounds). When your account reaches £5 (approx. $6.50 USD) in earnings, you may request a PayPal payment, which is typically issued within 48 hours. If you live outside the UK, PayPal can easily and automatically convert your payments into your local currency.
- If you’re short on time, you may ‘pause’ surveys and return to them at a later time. Provided a paused study doesn’t close before you return to it, you can resume completing it when you have more time.
- If you are looking for a path to quick earning paid surveys, complete the profilers (short surveys about you) located in your account; you won’t receive as many opportunities to complete surveys if you don’t fill these out.
Rewards offered:
PayPal payments, donations to charity.
Eligibility:
Prolific is available in over 30 OECD countries.
After a couple years of absence, Branded Surveys is back on our list of the best survey sites of 2021.
Why we like Branded Surveys:
Good availability of surveys, excellent reward options, loyalty program, regular prize draws. New in 2021: In May 2021, Branded Surveys introduced a new lower payment threshold; with just 500 points ($5.00) in your account, you can now redeem your points for your choice of reward. The previous payment threshold was $10.
What it’s like taking surveys for them:
Branded Surveys offers a huge selection of surveys on their well designed, easy-to-use paid surveys platform. Surveys are engaging, fun and are on a wide variety of interesting topics. Customer service is very responsive and strives to solve any issues panel members experience within a reasonable time frame.
- Take fun, engaging surveys for cash (paid out via PayPal or by bank transfer), or for a gift card of your choosing.
- Branded Elite loyalty program gives members the opportunity to earn point bonuses as high as 19% on completed surveys. To increase your badge level and qualify for point bonuses, complete at least 12 surveys within a 7-day period.
- Earn automatic prize draw entries for every survey completed – qualifying you for a chance to win the daily, weekly and monthly prize draws which award free points. The more surveys you complete, the greater number of entries you will receive into the drawings.
- Request a reward and receive it within a few business days – faster than most survey sites.
- New users receive a 100 point ($1.00) joining bonus. That’s a whopping 20% of the 500 points needed for a cash out, creating a great incentive for new users to give the site a try.
Rewards offered:
PayPal payments, bank transfers via Branded Pay (USA only), pre-paid virtual credit cards, huge selection of gift cards to retailers including Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and more.
Eligibility:
USA, UK, Canada residents only.
Although not in our top in 5 list, YouGov offers a survey taking experience that many survey panels find enviable.
Why we like YouGov:
Highly reputable, respected internationally, high-quality surveys, little to no survey disqualifications.
What it’s like taking surveys for them:
Known as the political polling experts, YouGov offers an enjoyable survey taking experience with high quality surveys that are interesting and engaging to take. Don’t be surprised if after participating in a survey, you see the results printed in a news article!
- Wide variety of reward options are available, including gift cards, PayPal (in some countries), bank transfers, as well as merchandise.
- YouGov conducts a wide variety of research, including political polls, traditional online surveys, in home product tests and more.
- Be sure you fully complete your profile in your YouGov account. Doing so will practically eliminate the chance that you’ll be disqualified from completing future surveys, saving you time and energy.
- Download the YouGov mobile app to get notified of surveys as they become available, and complete them directly from your phone.
Rewards offered:
PayPal payments (in select countries), gift cards, bank transfers, merchandise.
Eligibility:
YouGov is available internationally, primarily in English-speaking countries.
What Changed from Last Year’s Rankings
In 2020, we included YouGov and E-Poll Surveys in our list of top 5 panels. Although YouGov has continued to be a top rated survey site by our users, their lack of customer service and high cashout minimums have frustrated some users (especially in the USA), forcing us to downgrade their position to an Honorable Mention. With E-Poll, although still a consistent performer, some users report such a low survey inventory, that they have a hard time even meeting the low $5 minimum for gift card payments.
Although historically we have considered PrizeRebel (and Swagbucks for that matter), as a strong survey provider, we didn’t include them in our top picks list, as they are technically a GPT site and are not run by purely market research company. This year, we loosened the criteria in terms of what we define as a ‘survey site’, and as such, included PrizeRebel as a top selection.
We re-included Branded Surveys in our top 5 list this year (they were a top selection of ours back in 2017 when they were known as MintVine), as they appear to have improved their customer service issues. Their reward options remain diverse and their redesigned platform has provided an improved survey taking experience. We’re pleased to see that they’re slowly returning back to their roots, as MintVine was a very well rated panel by users of SurveyPolice for many years.
Top Survey Site Picks from Previous Years:
» 2020’s Top Survey Sites
» 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
