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 (119)

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August 24, 2020 by Jennifer from United Kingdom

My completed survey was turned down because I completed it too quickly! This is very poor practice.

August 24, 2020 by Matt from United States

These guys are the best in the biz for fair and honest work. You won't be dq'd, you will get paid a fair minimum, they cover ALL paypal fees when changing currencies for your country. You're gonna need to keep an eye on your prolific dashboard since surveys are sent as invitations and get filled up.

August 22, 2020 by Cheryl from United States

Prolific is by far one of the best and fastest paying survey sites that I have joined in the last year. They do mostly research surveys but they are uniquely designed and different each time, never the same layout and they pay on time. You can cash out at $5!!!

August 22, 2020 by Milo from United States

I never get screened out. I cash out at least once a week and so does my mom.

August 19, 2020 by Katherine from United Kingdom

I have no complaints with Prolific. It boasts itself as being a survey site but focused more on the academic side of things. The surveys which appear are more studies, from legit researchers, typically those in universities, asking to gain feedback and data for their research.

Everything is marked clearly, with expectations, any risks etc. Their in-built chat lets you connect directly to the researchers and you are able to discuss any issues you may face, including being able to retake surveys if they accidentally bugged out.
Everything pays decently and well for your time.

The only down side might be the sudden popularity of the website, especially since quarantine has hit most of the world. Due to this when a survey opens up with 300 places, it is almost always completely full within a minute. You can get notified once a minute with an auto refresh and add-on to help, but even then you will find a vast majority and surveys are filled up before you can even accept the idea.
I do not blame Prolific for this itself, just the sheer amount of people now using their platform.

The main times you will ever see a decline, is when you fail an attention check, almost every survey you see will be suitable to you already - and in rare cases they might be looking for a sub-category even further which will be stated in the description of the survey before you accept it.

All in all, I very much enjoy Prolific, and it is one of the websites I will suggest without fail to anyone wanting to give it a try. It is very professional and clear in their intentions from researchers and they (and researchers) value your time, and pay out accordingly.