Prolific Reviews and Features

Prolific

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Operated by: Prolific Academic Ltd

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KEY FEATURES:

> How Prolific works
> Prolific rewards
> Is Prolific legit?
> Sites like Prolific

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.

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'.

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?

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.

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.

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Prolific Reviews (109)

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December 10, 2020 by malcolm from United Kingdom

A good site for people with a bit more intelligence.
Not your run of the mill surveys. Many need some real thought put into them, plus attention questions.
Try cheating on this site and you will get kicked off.

December 5, 2020 by Harlan from United States

On September 1, 2020, I joined Prolific and, over the course of the next eight weeks or so, I participated in a little over 100 studies. Starting in November, I noticed that that no surveys were being offered to me. Late last week, one of their clients sent me a message encouraging me to participate in part two of a survey I had taken earlier. As I could find no way to access this survey and the client could offer no assistance, on December 3, 2020, I submitted a ticket to Prolific with the following information:

"I have not had a single study or survey come up on my Prolific feed for over a month now. Prior to this, I would generally see at least a half-dozen surveys appear each day. I contacted Prolific support awhile back and was told to be patient but, having received a message from a study coordinator inviting me to participate in a survey posted 12/1 which has never appeared on my feed, I now think that there is something technically wrong. I'd be happy to supply any additional info you may need."

On December 4, 2020, the Prolific Support Team replied as follows:

Thanks for getting in touch.

We carry out various types of automated checks on accounts to improve data quality. These include assessing responses to surveys and questions, checking the trustworthiness of ISPs, reports from researchers, as well as other factors.

I'm afraid you cannot participate in further studies on Prolific because your account has failed one or more of these checks. We are unable to disclose further information about these checks.

Best,
Prolific Support Team

Later on December 4, I replied:

"Thank you for your prompt reply to my inquiry. I am baffled, surprised, and upset. I have no idea what I have done to have been essentially banned from your site. I have answered all questions honestly and I have never violated any of your rules. Is there nothing I can do to appeal this decision - or at least get some idea of what may have caused this to happen? Thanks in advance for your reply."

To which the Prolific Support Team replied:

As mentioned previously, your account was flagged by our automated processes and subsequently reviewed by us. In light of our manual review, we have decided not to reinstate your account, and as such you will not be able to receive studies going forward.

We are unable to provide any further information about these checks, as they are integral to maintaining a high level of data quality.

Best,
Prolific Support Team

* * *
So that's that? I successfully participate in many studies, even receive bonus payments for some of them, and then, without any reason whatsoever offered, I am suddenly kicked off the site and banned from further studies with no explanation given. I consider myself lucky to have arranged for a payout *before* they decided I was no longer worthy to participate.

This is a tremendous shame, as I had enjoyed the wide range of interesting polls being offered by Prolific. However, as an internet search reveals that this sort of action is being taken at random against any number of formerly happy and cooperative participants, I have to assume that Prolific no longer wants participants who dedicate themselves to taking their studies seriously. I only hope that their clients become aware of these unexplained punitive actions against participants and consider taking their business elsewhere.

November 19, 2020 by MICHAEL from United States

I AM A NEW PARTICIPANT OF PROLIFIC
I AM IMMEDIATELY TURNED OFF
I DON'T HAVE A COMPUTER
I USUALLY USE ONE AT AT LIBRARY, HOWEVER MOST LIBRARIES ARE CLOSED DUE TO THE PANDEMIC
TODAY PROLIFIC ONLY HAS 3 SURVEYS.
2 OUT OF 3 WERE FOR COMPUTERS ONLY- NO SMARTPHONES!
THAT IS A RIDICULOUS INCONVENIENCE AT THE PRESENT TIME!
I WILL HAVE TO GIVE MY OPINIONS ELSEWHERE

October 30, 2020 by Maria from United States

I love Prolific!! I can cash out every few days and cash is immediately sent to paypal. I highly recommend trying this site.

October 20, 2020 by Mick from United Kingdom

This survey site is in a different league to the rest. It is professionally run on easy to use, trustworthy site. The surveys are always interesting and you always get the feeling your views are valued. You never get thrown out. Payment threshold is sensibly low and you get paid into Paypal instantly. Surveys come up often, although you usually have to look for them on the site as you rarely get invitations and they have a limited number of places assigned to them.
Most other sites could learn a lot from this company.