Contributors: Today you’re going to discover the best survey sites online.
Because, yes, it’s true: you can make money online simply by taking surveys while binge-watching Netflix.
The top three sites, based on 100+ hours of research and testing…
| 1. PrizeRebel | 3.9/5 | PrizeRebel review |
| 2. Survey Junkie | 3.6/5 | Survey Junkie review |
| 3. QuickThoughts | 3.1/5 | QuickThoughts review |
🔥 Pro tip: don’t sign up for lots of online survey sites.
Assuming your goal is to earn as much money as possible in as little time as possible, I recommend signing up for ONLY those three sites.
If you’re looking for something more specific, these categories should help…
🏆 Best Survey Sites 🏆
| Best Overall | |
|---|---|
| Dollars Per Hour | |
| Survey Quantity | |
| Payment Options | |
| Quick Payout | |
| Mobile App | |
| Outside USA | |
| Referral Program | |
| Sign-Up Bonus |
Btw, this way of making money online is known as GetPaidTo.
Jump to…
Our survey site reviews are a combined effort between Niall Doherty (founder of eBiz Facts), members of the Freedom Business Builder community, and hired freelancers based in the USA and UK.
Our process for reviewing a survey site looks like this:
- Where possible, we sign up and test out certain parts of the site.
- We document our work and track our progress.
- We scour the internet for additional information about the site and carefully note our findings.
- We write a draft of our review.
- We send the draft to our Freedom Business Builder community and ask for feedback.
- We make our final edits and publish the review.
Note: We may earn a commission if you decide to join a survey site via a referral link. Read our full disclosure here.
🏆 Best Survey Site Overall 🏆
PrizeRebel and Survey Junkie
Your earning potential on any survey site comes down to two primary factors:
- How much you can earn per hour, on average.
- How many surveys are available for you to answer each day.
If you can earn a high amount per hour and there are endless surveys available, you can earn a decent amount of money.
PrizeRebel offers the most balanced mix of earnings and quantity that we’ve seen from any survey site to date.
PrizeRebel – Key Points
Next best is Survey Junkie.
You won’t earn much per hour here, but it has almost endless surveys and is consistently one of the most popular sites for this kind of work.
Survey Junkie – Key Points
🏆 Most Dollars Per Hour 🏆
QuickThoughts
We’re cheating a little here because QuickThoughts is an app (not a website), but I had to mention it since it offers the highest earnings per hour we’ve seen for this kind of work.
QuickThoughts – Key Points
The catch with QuickThoughts is that you can only get paid in gift vouchers (not cash), and you’re limited to only 5 surveys per day which puts a hard cap on your earnings.
To maximize your earnings, spend an hour on the app per day, then switch to PrizeRebel and Survey Junkie for the rest of the time you have available.
(By the way, I prefer not to focus on how much you can earn per survey. That metric is meaningless since a survey can take anything from 2 minutes to an hour. That’s why all our earnings estimates are per hour.)
🏆 Best Survey Quantity 🏆
Swagbucks
You won’t earn a lot per hour answering surveys for money on Swagbucks, but if your goal is to spend 10 hours per day answering surveys on a single platform, this is the best place to do it.
Swagbucks – Key Points
(Of course, given that you’re likely to earn 3.5x more per hour on PrizeRebel, we’d recommend you choose that instead of Swagbucks and earn just as much in far less time.)
🏆 Best Payment Options 🏆
PrizeRebel
You can redeem PrizeRebel points for cash via PayPal or Visa, and for gift vouchers from sites like Amazon, iTunes, eBay, Google Play, PlayStation, and more (country dependent).
Minimum payout on PrizeRebel is only $5, so you can redeem your earnings fast.
🏆 Quick Payout 🏆
Qmee
We’re not big fans of Qmee, but if you’re looking to earn $0.25 in a hurry – I dunno, maybe you need a quarter for the parking meter? – this is the best survey site for you.
Qmee – Key Points
An honorable mention here for Swagbucks, where you can cash out for cell phone credit at $2, and select gift cards at $3.
🏆 Best Mobile App 🏆
QuickThoughts and Swagbucks
QuickThoughts wins here mainly because it’s 100% mobile app – there’s no corresponding website where you can use the service.
Swagbucks deserves an honorable mention since they offer an abundance of mobile apps: several each for iOS and Android.
The best rated Swagbucks app is Swagbucks LIVE, a trivia app which awards prizes in the form of SB (which can then be exchanged for cash or gift cards).
You won’t earn as much with Swagbucks as you will with QuickThoughts, but the Swagbucks app still has a higher rating for some reason.
🏆 Best Survey Sites Outside USA 🏆
PaidViewPoint and PrizeRebel
While most paid survey sites are notoriously USA-only, PaidViewpoint is a rare and welcome exception.
PaidViewpoint – Key Points
As for PrizeRebel, anyone in the US, UK, Canada, or Australia can take paid online surveys there, and if you live elsewhere you can still earn from offer walls, tasks, daily points, and gaining referrals.
🏆 Best Referral Program 🏆
PrizeRebel
Almost every survey site has some kind of referral program.
Recommend PrizeRebel to your friends via your referral link and you’ll earn points based on their activity.
Here’s how it works…
The higher account level you reach, the more points you’ll earn from your referral. The Diamond account level will give you a 30% rate…
I like this referral program because there’s no limit on how much you can earn, and your friends are likely to earn money – thereby earning you money – on PrizeRebel since it’s the best survey site we’ve found.
(By the way, a referral program is not the same as an affiliate program. Affiliate marketing is a whole different ballgame.)
🏆 Best Sign-Up Bonus 🏆
Survey Junkie
At Survey Junkie you earn about $1 during the sign up process. Doesn’t sound like much, but you don’t need to spend any money to get that bonus and you can cash out at only $5.
Some other sign-up bonuses that sound good at first glance but actually require you to spend more than you earn…
- Swagbucks $10 sign-up bonus…
…but you have to spend $25 in 30 days to get it. - InboxDollars $5 sign-up bonus…
…but it’ll take you a long time to reach the $30 payment threshold with their low paid surveys.
5 things you really should know about survey sites
- Best case scenario, you’ll earn $100 per month
- You will not be entertained
- The rich get richer
- Rejection is part of the game
- Other ways of making money on survey sites are usually a waste of time
Best case scenario, you’ll earn $100 per month
Paid online surveys are one of many ways to make money online, and perhaps the easiest way to earn a few bucks when you’re just starting out.
However, due to it being unskilled work – which means every Tom, Dick and Harry can take a crack at it – expect your earnings from survey sites to be low and/or inconsistent.
For example, QuickThoughts offers the highest earnings per hour of any survey site we’ve tested – average rate of $7.50 per hour – but you can only take 5 surveys there per day.
You can answer far more surveys on a site like PrizeRebel, but your average earnings there will only be about $3.50 per hour.
We’ve yet to find a site that offers lots of surveys AND a high hourly rate. It’s always a trade-off between the two.
All that to say, survey sites are never going to pay your rent. But they can put a few extra dollars in your pocket each month, if used intelligently.
- Follow the recommendations below and you can expect to earn an extra $30 to $100 per month from such websites, putting in 3-5 hours per week.
You will not be entertained
Let’s be real: this kind of online work is fairly boring and tedious, especially if you’re putting in several hours a week.
- The best way to handle this is to combine your survey sessions with binge-watching a show on Netflix, or listening to your favorite podcast.
Earning a few dollars per hour while re-watching Stranger Things ain’t a bad way to spend a lazy afternoon, right?
The rich get richer
Companies use survey sites to gather information about certain markets. These companies want to know if people will buy their product or service.
If you’re considered to be part of a “rich” demographic – for example, you earn more than $50k a year, own property, and drive a nice car – you’re also considered more likely to buy high-end products and services.
Therefore, more companies want to hear from you, and so you’re likely to be offered more (and higher paying) surveys.
Meanwhile, a 20-year-old unemployed college dropout has to make-do with infrequent, low-paying surveys. Few companies want to hear from him, because he’s nobody’s ideal customer.
This leaves us with a paradox:
- Generally speaking, the people most desperate to earn a few bucks from survey sites are given the least opportunities, while folks who are already fairly wealthy receive the most.
(You might think you could just lie on your profile and get at the best surveys that way, but survey sites are good at spotting this kind of thing – their business depends on it – and are quick to blacklist dishonest users.)
With this in mind, if you are desperate to earn a few bucks online right now, paid survey sites are probably not your best bet. Consider freelancing or finding a remote job instead.
Rejection is part of the game
One of the most frequent complaints you’ll hear about online survey sites – apart from the low pay – is that you can spend up to 20 minutes filling out a survey, only to then be disqualified and left with nothing to show for your efforts.
The more time you spend doing surveys, the more likely you are to experience this.
This is because, in the beginning, you’re usually offered the surveys that best match your profile. Once you’ve gone through those, many sites will offer you a steady stream of random surveys on the off-chance that you’ll qualify for them.
- So the smart play is to limit the amount of time you spend on each survey site. A maximum of one hour per day per site is a good rule of thumb.
Other ways of making money on survey sites are usually a waste of time
Apart from answering surveys, many of these sites also offer additional ways to earn money online.
For example, you might be invited to make money by:
- Performing searches
- Playing online games
- Watching videos
- Finding and entering special codes
- Shopping online
As a general rule, you should avoid all of these.
At best, you might earn a little money – though rarely as much as you’d earn if you spent the same time answering surveys.
At worst, you’ll end up spending $100 to “save” $30 🤨
Survey Site Hacks
Use the tips below to boost your earnings…
Do NOT sign up to every survey site
We’ve seen many other review sites recommend that you sign up for as many survey sites as possible “to maximize your earnings,” 37 but we strongly believe less is more in this line of work.
Only a select few sites are worth your time.
Assuming your goal is to earn as much money as possible in as little time as possible, we recommend signing up for ONLY these three sites:
To earn most efficiently, spend a maximum of 90 combined minutes per day on those sites, starting at the top of the list and working your way down as you notice the best opportunities drying up.
If you have more time available to earn money online…
Distract Yourself
Answering surveys is fairly boring and tedious work, especially if you’re putting in several hours a week.
The best way to handle this is to combine your survey sessions with binge-watching a show on Netflix, or listening to your favorite podcast.
Reserve your full attention for more demanding/rewarding kinds of online work.
Maximize sign-up bonuses and to-do lists
Many survey sites offer a sign-up bonus and easy cash for completing simple “get started” checklists.
For example, Survey Junkie will pay you $1 just for completing basic profile info.
💣 How to spot fake / scam survey sites
Three ways:
- They ask you to pay to join
You should never have to do this. There are plenty of legit survey sites out there that pay you to join (Survey Junkie is a prime example). You shouldn’t have to pay anything. - They ask you to enter your bank information or social security number
Never share your bank account details or other sensitive private information with any survey site. If a particular survey requests this info, close out of it. - The surveys dry up as you get close to payout
This may not be a scam but we’ve seen it a lot and it’s something to be wary of. If in doubt about a particular site, check our review (full list here) to see if it has a reputation for this kind of thing.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can you really make money doing online surveys?
- How do survey sites work?
- What kind of survey questions can you expect to answer?
- How much do online surveys pay?
- Which survey site pays the most?
- How do survey sites pay you?
- Which sites are legit?
- Which are scams?
- Are survey sites just a big gigantic waste of time?
- Can you automate the work?
- I got scammed by a survey site. What should I do?
- Which survey sites have you reviewed at eBiz Facts?
- Why haven’t you reviewed [insert name of survey site here]?
Can you really make money doing online surveys?
Yes, you can get paid to take surveys, and you’ll find a list of the best paid survey sites above.
But here’s the harsh truth: you can make money taking surveys, but you can’t make a living.
Follow the recommendations on this page and you can expect to earn an extra $30 to $100 per month from survey sites, putting in 3-5 hours per week.
One notable exception: top survey site affiliates can earn BIG money.
We’re talking $10,000 or more per month.
That’s not to say it’s easy to earn money as an affiliate for survey sites. Becoming a successful affiliate marketer usually requires quite a bit of work up front.
How do survey sites work?
Companies pay survey sites for access to specific types of people who will answer their market research questions.
For example, The Home Depot might go to a survey site and have a conversation like this:
– Hey, we’re looking to survey Americans aged 25-60 who own their homes. Can you help?
– Sure thing. Approximately 20,000 users of our site fit that demographic.
– Great. We’d like to ask them 10 questions each. How much would that cost?
– Let’s say $1 per completed survey, and we’ll split that 50-50 with the respondents. 38
– Awesome. Please send us a contract and we’ll get this rolling.
That’s pretty much it.
The company pays the survey site, the survey site pays you, and everybody goes home happy.
What kind of survey questions can you expect to answer?
When you first sign up for a survey site you’ll be asked a bunch of basic questions to figure out your demographics and establish your profile.
Stuff like:
- Date of birth
- Gender
- Level of education
- Zip code
Once you have your profile filled out, you’ll mostly be answering surveys related to various products and services, your daily routine, your habits and preferences, etc.
How much do online surveys pay?
Expect most to pay pennies.
QuickThoughts pays the highest per hour of all the survey sites we’ve researched and tested…
Quinn Thompson
- Online Survey Taker at QuickThoughts
- $5 – $10 per hour
Of course, you also need to take into account how long it takes to complete a survey.
Earning $1 for a 2-minute survey is better than earning $5 for a 2-hour survey.
We’ve gone to great lengths to give you realistic estimates of how much you can earn for each hour you spend answering surveys on a particular site.
After QuickThoughts, these sites are the best…
Rhonda Rebel
- Online Survey Taker at PrizeRebel
- $2 – $5 per hour
Pat du Pont
- Survey take at PaidViewpoint
- $4 average earnings per hour
Olga Opie
- Online Survey Taker at OneOpinion
- $2 – 3 per hour
Oh, and forget about earnings per survey and minutes to complete. Those metrics are meaningless since a survey can take anything from 2 minutes to an hour and the pay can vary greatly.
That’s why all our earnings estimates are per hour.
Which survey site pays the most?
Based on our experience and research, QuickThoughts pays the most of any survey website.
You’re likely to earn an average of $7.50 for every hour you spend answering surveys on that app.
The catch with QuickThoughts is that you can only get paid in gift vouchers (not cash), and you’re limited to only 5 surveys per day, so there’s a hard cap on your earnings.
How do survey sites pay you?
It depends on the site, but most pay by PayPal and/or gift cards from the likes of Amazon, Target, Apple, etc.
Note that most sites require you to earn a minimum amount before you can cash out, and it might take 7-10 days for your payment to be processed.
Which survey sites are legit?
Here are the best we’ve found:
🏆 Best Survey Sites 🏆
| Best Overall | |
|---|---|
| Dollars Per Hour | |
| Survey Quantity | |
| Payment Options | |
| Quick Payout | |
| Mobile App | |
| Outside USA | |
| Referral Program | |
| Sign-Up Bonus |
Which survey sites are scams?
Survey sites that are outright scams don’t last very long.
Companies and users alike figure it out pretty fast and cease using the site.
Here are three ways you can usually tell if a survey site is a scam…
- They ask you to pay to join
You should never have to do this. There are plenty of legit survey sites out there that pay you to join (Survey Junkie is a prime example). You shouldn’t have to pay anything. - They ask you to enter your bank information or social security number
Never share your bank account details or other sensitive private information with any survey site. If a particular survey requests this info, close out of it. - The surveys dry up as you get close to payout
This may not be a scam but we’ve seen it a lot and it’s something to be wary of. If in doubt about a particular site, check our review (full list here) to see if it has a reputation for this kind of thing.
Are surveys just a big gigantic waste of time?
They can be.
When doing any kind of work online, you want to be doing one of two things, ideally both:
- You want to be EARNING
- And you want to be LEARNING
We’ve yet to find any survey site through which you can earn more than a little extra pocket money each month.
Which would be fine if the work was actually a valuable learning experience.
But it’s not.
Given that:
- Survey sites ARE a big gigantic waste of time if you let them take you away from the many other types of online work where you can earn good money and/or develop some solid skills that will serve you well in future.
- Survey sites are NOT a waste of time if you use them while chilling out watching Netflix or listening to a podcast, and you reserve your full attention for more demanding/rewarding kinds of online work.
Can you automate the work?
Somewhat.
If you use survey sites a lot you might find yourself answering the same basic questions over and over, such as age, sex, address, race, income, etc.
Instead of typing out the same answers to these questions each time, use software like aText (Mac only) or RoboForm to speed up the process.
- That said, be careful not to go too fast through each survey, as this appears spammy and may result in your account being blocked. Slow down and carefully consider your response to each novel question, and make sure to answer everything as honestly as possible.
I got scammed by a survey site. What should I do?
That sucks ☹️
Please share your experience in the comments below and we’ll try our best to help you.
Which sites have you reviewed at eBiz Facts?
Here’s our full list:
| Survey Site | Rating | Review |
|---|---|---|
| 1. PrizeRebel | 3.9/5 | PrizeRebel review |
| 2. Survey Junkie | 3.6/5 | Survey Junkie review |
| 3. QuickThoughts | 3.1/5 | QuickThoughts review |
| 4. Vindale Research | 3/5 | Vindale Research review |
| 5. OneOpinion | 2.9/5 | OneOpinion review |
| 6. Swagbucks | 2.5/5 | Swagbucks review |
| 7. MyPoints | 2.3/5 | MyPoints review |
| 8. PaidViewpoint | 2/5 | PaidViewpoint review |
| 9. Qmee | 2/5 | Qmee review |
| 10. Tellwut | 1.9/5 | Tellwut review |
| 11. Opinion Outpost | 1.8/5 | Opinion Outpost review |
| 12. Pinecone Research | 1.8/5 | Pinecone Research review |
| 13. InboxDollars | 1.5/5 | InboxDollars review |
| 14. NeoBux | 0.5/5 | NeoBux review |
Why haven’t you reviewed [insert name of survey site here]?
We’re on a mission to review ALL the survey sites online, so we can point you towards the absolute best and help you avoid the rest.
If there’s a particular survey site you’d like us to review ASAP, let us know via the comments below.
🏆 Best Survey Sites 🏆
| Best Overall | |
|---|---|
| Dollars Per Hour | |
| Survey Quantity | |
| Payment Options | |
| Quick Payout | |
| Mobile App | |
| Outside USA | |
| Referral Program | |
| Sign-Up Bonus |
Your Survey Site Review
- Which is the best survey site you’ve used?
- Which is the worst?
Please consider leaving a review below – good or bad – doesn’t matter so long as it’s helpful to our visitors. Thanks for your support!
It is not true that PrizeRebel is available ‘anywhere in the world’. As soon as I tried to sign up with their site, the message propped up saying it was not available in my location (Pakistan). In fact most other sites for online earning are not available here. Many of the sites available in my country/region are not first class and use PayPal for payment. Again PayPal is not available, at least in my country. Unfortunate!
If any reasonably good site is available in my region, kindly do let me know. Thanks
( sorry for the long message keep up the good work )
Have you tried or heard of prolific? I think they might be the best out there. They don’t really deny you for surveys just pay attention to the attention checks I feel mostly. Also they pay out instantly and you don’t have to wait when you reach $5 I believe. Their is a decent amount of surveys available I feel. Other reasons I think they are the best out there.
I used to sign up for so many survey sites maybe like 60+ at one time. Then I went through them and tried to delete them and get rid of my account on like all of them. Except prolific which is the only I use as of now once a week I go on their and do my surveys and it’s nice extra money.
Also I have used Qmee and it is really good for instant payout I believe at any point it seems like you can cash out with only like 50 cents in your account I believe so that’s nice. Their also seems to be a nice amount of surveys and that but they can take awhile I feel maybe for only 50 cents or a dollar or so. Also they might reject you at the start of a survey which is annoying especially if it pays more. But yeah I have used qmee but yeah that’s kinda annoying and takes awhile to do some of them for minimal payment. You might also get rejected and it’s not that reliable I feel sometimes.
I feel but the feature that they had when I tried it atleast where you did one of their daily surveys or poll I believe and if you did that I believe 5 days in a row you get like %10 more I believe. Then which is nice but yeah qmee is good at somethings and not others but overall it’s ok for a survey site.
Also I think this app called cash camel is really good to I feel. Since they have instant cash outs but you have to a $10 minimum to cash out. They also say they pay out more then %30 then other survey apps and they use artificial intelligence to pre select surveys. Then give them to you so you don’t get disqualified and those are ones I guess your guaranteed to get money for. Also they seem to have so much surveys constantly available I feel. It also seems like you can just keep on doing them and maybe make $10 an hour using the app. But yeah it seems like a good app you just got to want do them it seems.
Also their is probably more I can say and all but this message is long enough sorry for that.
Hope this message is good and keep up the good work. Wish you all the best and have a great blessed day and life. GOD bless.
Hi Niall Doherty,actually your research on survey programs running worldwide specially in USA, will helpful for new commers to take proper decision in this sector.
I’d like to know about usarewards endless research items
Thanks, Sherri. I’ll add that to our list of sites to investigate. Have you tried it already yourself? If so, what has your experience been like?
I am actually really impressed with your work and honesty. Thanks so much for the info.
Would love to have follow up like watching tv and or ads etc,and paid to click etc.I have found your video and site to be the most honest and straight forward. I never leave likes,shares,subscribe or do anything after hours and days of researching ways to make money at home online from websites. Only because most people are full of BS on the matter. Thanks have a Blessed Day 🙂
Thanks, Crystal. Glad to hear you’re finding the content here helpful ☺️