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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June 10, 2023 by Elias from United States

I would have given Prolific 5 stars 7 days ago. They just informed me that I was no longer able to receive surveys. They will not tell me why. I have done a few hundred surveys for them, received praise and bonuses. All of a sudden, I am banned. Has anyone else had this experience?

March 4, 2023 by brian from United States

I've repeatedly cashed out, but my PayPal account never received the transfer. This has happened on multiple occasions, and they don't have a good reason or explanation and don't correct the problem.

November 23, 2022 by David from United States

I was a member of prolific for a little over 30 days. After the extensive chore of completing all profile questions and filling in all demographics, I was able to do quite a few surveys and offers that was beginning to pay fairly well. I always took my time, responding carefully and thoroughly. then one day I stop getting surveys. I check my account and and an indefinite hold had been placed on my account and they were not going to remove it. They will not give a reason for why they did this to my account. Just to bad, so sad, get lost. Upon searching around, i was not alone. this has occurred to many loyal workers.. don't make the mistake i did and put any hard work and effort into this company....because they don't care about you, & they will take your hard work for granted for no reason. Save yourself the disappointment.

November 15, 2022 by Elliott from United Kingdom

The site is very use friendly and it was great for 2 weeks, but now my account has been put on hold and closed down for no reason. I have tried to find out why but they cannot give me a valid reason except for saying that it failed automated checks.

October 26, 2022 by Jim from United States

After several good years with Prolific (up to yesterday) I am having to join the ranks of people who are banned with no reason given. I wrote to Prolific support and included the stats PROVIDED BY PROLIFIC showing that I have a 99% survey approval rating. Jeremy from Prolific responded with basically a "too bad we can't reinstate you and I cannot tell you why you were banned" answer. I asked Jeremy for the contact information (notably a phone number) so I can give this necessary information to the BBB and if BBB cannot do anything or at least get an answer for me, I can escalate to the next level (state Attorney General??). Companies in America need to at least give their side of the issue if there is a problem and if companies in the UK operating in the USA won't do that, I think they should not be allowed to operate in this country.

To those of you who have good experiences with Prolific, BE CAREFUL. If they can ban someone like me with a 99% approval rating, which I can prove, they can also ban you at a moments notice. I never thought this could happen to me as I kept very close track of my stats (Prolific provides this) and over the course of time, and when unsure, wrote to Customer Support to make sure I was operating within their rules (I can prove this too saved all the e-mails and I was always within their rules).

I see Prolific was dropped from Survey Police Best Survey list, I hope Survey Police keeps them off. And Survey Police I know you are busy but if you can get an answer, I think it would be beneficial to many of your subscribers including myself.

UPDATE: I found two surveys on my account yesterday. I took both of them, completed them, got a completion code and they are showing up under Submissions tab as approved---which means Prolific will use my answers. But NO COMPENSATION (not even pending). It is Prolific responsibility to not send surveys if they insist I am banned (yes, I thought they had reconsidered and reinstated my account--so much for my misguided trust in them). Also want to note that this morning there is still another Survey waiting for me---I guess I can take their surveys and give them my time and energy---as long as they can pay me nothing. Another issue for the BBB to take up with them.