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

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Rating Update

October 20, 2023 by Diane from Canada

Sadly I must update my rating for this site. I haven't been able to do any surveys for some months now. When I inquired why, I was told I needed to change my IP address. That isn't going to happen. I was told that perhaps in the future the surveys would work for me again and I should just keep checking in. This is so frustrating because this was the best site out there and now I can't participate for no fault of my own.
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I have only been a member of Prolific for a short while, however, the amount they pay for each completed survey is excellent! The surveys are extremely interesting! I am so glad I joined this site. Great work Prolific!!!

LOWERED MY STAR RATING

April 15, 2021 by Michael from United Kingdom

no surveys for a week or so sent message no response, Q&E state maybe none for a month or so come back and try, no response from e-mails, have pulled up couple researchers for what seem to be over reaction and not accept that on a question I as a person have a view which they may not like, but notice some surveys only accept good reviews within surveys and not good review of honest answer to questions, this has happened on many survey sites which then suggest if you are honest in response and detrimental to their company then you are trouble because you will not tell to their advantage - never tell me this does not happen, therefore survey cost sites have duty of care! per se

High paying surveys but I don't get a lot anymore.

December 10, 2019 by Jacqueline from United States

I was really enjoying Prolific. I like the payout for the surveys it is a good amount. I got one rejection out of about 85 submissions that were accepted, and now I am not receiving anymore surveys. I have been taking surveys for awhile and I am pretty sure I read every question and the pass security checks. Overall it is a good survey site though.

Privacy concerns

September 10, 2018 by kara from United States

This might be the most secure site in the world, but after I'd spent an hour or so filling out the preliminary (required) profile, I backed out.

One's SSN and DL# and possibly passport information were required.

Passport is no problem, the rest is. They also want your full legal name, no middle initials, the complete full name.

I just wasn't willing to do that, and want to save anyone reading this, a lot of time -- depending on your comfort level with everything "out there."

What Happened

December 14, 2020 by Tammy from United States

I use to get surveys all the time from this company, Then out of nowhere they stopped. The last one I did was in March of this year. I enjoyed the surveys from this company too. I really miss doing them. Please bring them back.