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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September 27, 2019 by Brian from United States

They ask for your Social Security AND Drivers License numbers when you sign up. NO survey panel should EVER ask for that info from a panelist and they're the only panel I've seen do that out of dozens of panels I've been a member of over the last 13yrs.

November 26, 2018 by james from United States

Upon joining I was prompted that I'd be unable to use the site for a few days while they verify my account. No problem. It took the support team 3 months to verify my account, and in the end, all they had to do was verify my PayPal. They were completely clueless and it felt like I had to do their job for them. Since actually being able to use the site (~40 days), I've literally been offered 0 surveys. I use the same information as I do on any other survey panel. I'm not even mad, this website is such a joke it's hard to be.

March 3, 2024 by Morgan from United States

I was a happy user of Prolific until a power outage at my house somehow led them to no longer recognize my internet provider as legitimate and lock me out of completing surveys. I contacted their support team, assuming they would help, and I was very unpleasantly surprised. They said they'd put me on a list to get it corrected but never did. I followed up nicely a few times as months and then over a year went by, and their responses were increasingly rude and unapologetic. I can't recommend a group that treats their panelists like this -- stay away from Prolific!

February 1, 2021 by yanina from United States

Made a small amount of pocket money (£20) but cant cash out. Got an email saying acct suspended. They said they can't disclose specific reasons! All my submissions had been approved, I even received a bonus from some researchers but they won't give me my last pay out, I think this is how they make a profit. I will take the liberty of contacting the researchers myself (took a screen shot) to let them know prolific is not an entirely ethical platform.
And prolific replies with the same corporate script to every single email.

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.