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 (119)

5 Star Reviews (73) 61.3
61.3
4 Star Reviews (6) 5.0
5.0
3 Star Reviews (6) 5.0
5.0
2 Star Reviews (9) 7.6
7.6
1 Star Reviews (25) 21.0
21.0

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My Absolute Favourite

January 7, 2022 by Anatolia from South Africa

Prolific has the highest-paid studies of all considering the few minutes it takes to complete them. I just love the site.

Love this site

November 2, 2021 by Oliver from United Kingdom

Their academic studies are far more varied and more interesting than the usual surveys, and they pay a lot better than almost all survey sites. The only survey sites I've used that pay at a similar rate are PopulusLive and Pinecone.
Some days you'll get several studies offered, and others almost none. Also, some of them require a lot of attention and at the very least average intelligence, as they're fairly cerebral.

Currently one of the best

October 7, 2021 by Doug from United Kingdom

Great as if a survey is shown and you get accepted you WILL BE ALLOWED TO COMPLETE. Not like the increasingly common being bombed out at the end of the survey that most companies subscribe to!
Problem is that it's become more popular so many surveys are already fully subscribed before you even get notified, but at least you do get told it's full before you try to start survey.
Like the sensible format, unusual surveys, pretty instant rewards (well in a couple of days is longest wait yet). Payout is prompt, seems made up on Tuesdays & Thursdays and now NO PayPal charge, so is a a good payout
Only issue is that you do need to keep a check on their desktop (submissions) otherwise you'll miss several good payers

Changed

October 3, 2021 by Marie from United States

First this panel is superior to most of the survey panels that I use. Most of the ratings I see about certain survey sites (I won't mention names) that have several 5 star ratings seem trumped up (like ratings that are one sentence long, no insights into the panel, or how it works which leave you scratching your head wondering how in #$%* did this panel deserve a rating that high :0).
But this company is one of the rare ones that really impress me. The pay out is instant. As soon as you reach the threshold of $5 you can cash out instantly. There is no waiting 30-40 days, a week, or even 72 hours to receive your reward.
Most of the time you will find the surveys/studies they provide are questionnaires that Universities are doing for research purposes. Most of the studies are really interesting, and fun to do so time flies.
The reward varies depending on how much Universities/Companies are willing to pay you per hour. Just like any other survey site they have 'ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION', traps so be sure to read each question carefully. Prolific is one of my go-to panels I check it everyday just like clock work..

UPDATE: I'm not sure what going on with Prolific but suddenly I'm not receiving any studies. I guess I made the mistake of allowing them to use some program that watches how you use their site. I updated my profile and I check in constantly...nothing. The other issue is I'm offered low paying studies that aren't worth the time. So in about a month they went from a 5 star rating to a 3.5 star rating.

Dishonest, despicable & Vile site

September 30, 2021 by Christopher from United States

I have been a participant on Prolific for well over 2 years now. They were a good site - lots of interesting surveys and always paid reasonably and fairly quickly. I never had anyone expressing any problems with my work and my surveys were always approved by the people giving them.

But since July 2021 I stopped receiving any survey invites and no surveys were showing up on the site itself. I checked my profile status and there appeared to be no problems so I followed the advice on their FAQ and didn't contact them until 2 months had passed with no surveys whatsoever. When I did contact Prolific, it took them over a week to answer me and then I was told this:
'I'm afraid you won't be able to take part in further studies on Prolific because your account has failed one or more of our automated checks, as well as our manual review. Unfortunately, I can't give you any further information about the specifics of these checks and won't be able to reverse the decision.'

Unbelievable treatment from this site after several years of diligent and honest work. I've done nothing wrong whatsoever and now I'm suddenly banned without any warning or even the decency to let me know what's happened? Truly a despicable and vile site. Like all survey sites, they will ban you as soon as you start doing well without any explanation. Oh yeah, and they'll slander you as well without providing any proof of wrongdoing. Avoid this site at all costs unless you like being ripped off and insulted.