Prolific Reviews and Features

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Prolific

The Wheelhouse, Angel Court First Floor, 81 St. Clements Street Oxford,   OX4 1AW GB
Tel:    Contact: [email protected]
Operated by: Prolific Academic Ltd

KEY FEATURES:

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PAYMENTS OFFERED

checkmarkCash paid via PayPal

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HOW TO PARTICIPATE

checkmarkOnline surveys

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REDEEMING REWARDS

checkmark No points system
Request a PayPal payment with £5 in your account.

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Prolific is an online surveys platform where you can get paid to answer questions posed by academics, startups, charities and businesses.

The platform has been online since 2014 and has over 130,000 participants who have collectively earned millions of dollars in rewards by voicing their opinions.

How Prolific Works

prolific surveys website

Take Surveys, Earn Rewards

Prolific is an online surveys site that primarily works with researchers looking to conduct academic surveys. The surveys posted to the site are unique in nature and pay generously compared to similar survey websites. People from over 30 countries are invited to join the website to take surveys offered by academics, startups, charities and businesses.

Joining Prolific

Join Prolific and take part in fun surveys and exciting scientific studies from researchers across the globe. You might even get the opportunity to help startups test their apps and games! There are currently over 130,000 participants from various parts of the world who participate in studies. Note that as of 2022, there is a waitlist to join Prolific surveys, so although you can sign up with their site, you might not be able to take surveys right away.

Verifying Your Account

Once you've successfully joined Prolific, you will be asked to verify your account. To do so, you'll be asked to verify your e-mail address, your phone number and your identity. To verify your identity, you will need to provide a copy of your drivers license, passport or ID card (where applicable). This verification is done by an independent software provider who will only use your ID for account verification purposes.

Verifying Your Identity

Although most survey panels do not require their participants to provide a copy of their identification, Prolific says that, 'One of the primary reasons researchers use Prolific is the high quality of data, compared to other study platforms' and that, 'Trustworthiness is at the core of Prolific and as a result, we want to make sure that participants in studies are who they say they are'.

Payment and Rewards

prolific surveys pay

Prolific Offers Fair Rewards

Prolific promises that you won't get kicked out of surveys and you'll earn cash for your efforts - never points. Any rewards you gain to receive for your participation will be clearly outlined before participating in the study or survey. Prolific surveys believes that everyone's time is valuable and asks researchers to reward participants with at least £6.00/$8.00 per hour.

Get Paid Directly to Your PayPal Account

Prolific pays out in Sterling GBP and pays its panelists via PayPal. Ensure that the email you sign up with is the same email used for your PayPal account. You may request payment of your rewards at any time, provided you have accumulated at least £5.00 in your account. If you're outside of the UK, you will still receive payments in GBP, but you can easily convert this into your local currency via your PayPal account. PayPal fees are not charged on withdrawals.

Get Paid Quickly

Prolific processes payments to participants every Tuesday and Friday afternoon (GMT). Note that for your first four payments, they will manually process your cash out, which can add a slight delay. After that, you will have access to instant cash outs.

Bonus Payments

Occasionally, researchers will award bonus payments that are in addition to the normal payment for a study. These are special payments that can be issued if the format of the study isn't conducive to a regular payment, if a bonus is offered simply out of kindness, or if the researcher would like to issue partial payments to participants, even if the study wasn't fully completed.

Reasonable Approval Times

Survey submissions are reviewed by researchers before study rewards are credited to your account. This can take a few days, but you will not wait longer than 22 days to see your credit.

Is Prolific Legit or Scam?

prolific surveys legit or scam

Is Prolific Legit?

Prolific surveys is a legitimate, safe website. It used by thousands of researchers to conduct high quality research on a select group of participants who earn fair rewards for providing their opinions. Prolific is powered by the University of Oxford and is located in the UK. Although their ID verification for participants may not appeal to some users, Prolific is not a scam and is a legit survey panel whose aim is to build the most trusted platform for research on the internet.

Eligibility

Although their registration page allows users worldwide who are 18+ to register with the site, many users outside of certain countries will receive a message on their dashboard that says that Prolific doesn't support the country they live in.

There are over 30 OECD countries (plus South Africa), that Prolific online surveys actually accepts members from. These include the UK, USA, CA, AU, IT, PL, CZ, among others.

Sites Like Prolific

If you're looking for a site like Prolific where you can get paid to voice your opinions, consider the options below. The sites listed below do not have waitlists and you can join and start earning cash and other rewards immediately upon joining.

Prolific Reviews (109)

5 Star Reviews (69) 63.3
63.3
4 Star Reviews (5) 4.6
4.6
3 Star Reviews (5) 4.6
4.6
2 Star Reviews (9) 8.3
8.3
1 Star Reviews (21) 19.3
19.3

Sort Reviews By: Date | Highest rating | Lowest rating

New User

January 15, 2019 by Barbara from United Kingdom

I have been with this site for about a week and can say so far it is probably the best site I have ever used. It has a good amount of surveys with excellent rates of pay and the time it takes to get to your account is very good, I have not tried to cash out yet but with everything else on this site I have high expectations.

Quality experience

December 14, 2018 by Ingrid from United States

I have just signed up with Prolific and so far I am very impressed with the site and how the surveys are managed. Nothing even remotely sloppy about it. You need to pay close attention and play by the rules which is certainly a reasonable expectation, given that they're handing out money in exchange for your opinion. I recommend filling out ALL the profile segments.There's a lot of them but well worth the effort as I'm getting a steady stream of surveys that are relevant, interesting, and for which I don't have to spend time just trying to qualify. If you're looking to get rich overnight, this is not the site for you. But if participation continues to be as enjoyable as I have found it, I am happy to wait out a slower and steadier process to reach a payout. They seem to be remarkably efficient and notify me by email when a survey credit has posted to the balance.

My new #2 overall, maybe #1?

December 11, 2018 by Jonathan from United States

Prolific is a British invention. It has a British flare and flavor, but it is great. It pays in paypal in pounds. In only one week, I 5.94 lbs deposited into paypal within seconds. Currently, BeForthright is my all-time favorite, but this is truly a close 2nd. Could #1 anytime.

My Favourite Survey Site

November 29, 2018 by Mark from United Kingdom

EDIT: A quick update. This is now my favourite site for surveys. The time to payment ratio is fantastic. You can leave the page open to monitor and the surveys just appear when available. In fact, one just popped up whilst writing this...£2.30 for 30 minutes! To date, I've earned £40 and payments are received into your Paypal promptly in a day or two. Just hope it continues...we'll see.

Well, well, well, what do we have here? Only a survey site with interesting surveys and worthwhile payments.

Most of the surveys are from colleges and universities which are part of a study and for the most part very interesting. I doubt there will be any repeat surveys here. There are only so many surveys I can muster about my TV and shopping habits. Most of the surveys don't last too long either.

To date from 1st October 2018, when I started, I've earned £14.30 with around £1.50 pending. I'm with other survey providers and I'd be hard pressed to even get half that amount in months!

They keep adding extra questions to your profile but I find you tend to get surveys for what you've answered. Some are quite personal, but I'm in my 50's and I'm so past caring nowadays it doesn't really matter anymore.

Haven't withdrawn anything as yet - waiting to see how it goes and will update if withdrawal is hassle free.

Certainly give this one a go.

Something different.

November 23, 2018 by Alex from United Kingdom

This is not your average survey site. Quite apart from paying pretty well, the surveys aren't the stuffy "Who is your energy/phone/broadband provider" type. You never know what's coming next, which makes these surveys a lot of fun. The focus is on academic rather than commercial value, giving the feeling of helping society rather than big business, and in most cases information is provided to explain exactly why the survey is being carried out. There's a certain satisfaction in knowing the kinds of people who benefit from your time and effort, and you really get that from this site more than any other. Earning money in the process is just a bonus.