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

Varied

April 21, 2020 by Chris from United Kingdom

Really interesting research surveys. More variety as it’s academic work. Often need to be quick but many pay well for such short burst surveys.

They are unique

March 25, 2020 by Kristina from United States

Surveys pay well and are interesting and quick. I love them.

Legit

February 27, 2020 by Alexander from United Kingdom

You can cash out real money and the surveys are legit, just tough to snag them in time as it is quite competitive, a study with 500 spots is gone in about 10 minutes, a study with 5 spots is gone in 20 seconds, etc.

best survey company ever

February 13, 2020 by Ganne from United States

You have to keep a tab open all the time because the surveys show up and are gone FAST. They pay fairly, no disqualifications, you can cash out after $8 earned and it adds up fast. They are absolutely the best and most fair company I have ever used. I wish they had more surveys! And the surveys are very interesting and different, not about your favorite brand of soap!

Couldn't ask for anything better

January 19, 2020 by Aric from United States

BACKSTORY:

The survey sites I used prior to discovering Prolific left me bored out of my mind and completely tired of surveys. It was the same thing: take a survey that was mostly always uninteresting which seemingly took forever and had a high chance of disqualifying me halfway into it, if not at the first page. It was always a waste of time, I felt there had to be something better... just something!

DISCOVERY:

Thanks to Reddit, I discovered Prolific a few months back which was being recommended by a lot of people. The amount of praise it received gave me no choice but to try it. The praise is well deserved, let's just make that very clear. I'm still shocked that I didn't hear about them sooner.

HOW IT WORKS:

You fill out a profile so you can get matched with surveyors looking for people like you. This 100% eliminates any possibility of getting kicked out. The only time you may not get a chance to take a survey is if all the spots are filled. They tell you how many places are available, sometimes it could be 150 spots or 3 spots. Whatever the case, you better be quick to reserve yours.

They have a great chrome extension that notifies you immediately of new surveys so you don't need to have a tab open to check constantly. I can't speak on how many surveys you get as that varies.

Now about the surveys themselves... in short, they're all amazing. They're so varied, interesting,and engaging! They're given by independent researchers and universities, all of whom really make you feel like you're taking part in something important. It got to the point where I don't even care about how much they pay, I'm just happy to take a survey. I'm serious, it's that nice.

Most of the surveys are short, not time-consuming. But even the lengthier ones are great to take. I used to see "20 minutes" on other sites and think "oh no" because I knew I'd fall asleep while taking it. But on Prolific? I'd gladly take one for an hour if they ever give me one.

Last, but not least, the pay... how is it? Good. I've made more money in 3 days, let alone 3 months than I have on any other site. I haven't cashed out yet because I'm waiting until I hit a certain amount. I shall update this review once I do cash out.

VERDICT:

Prolific ought to be the gold standard for what a survey taking site should be like. No headaches, no frustrations, no crap, just pure quality. I couldn't ask for anything better. If they sold merch I'd buy a Prolific t-shirt!