Prolific Review: Is it the best survey site?

Prolific is hands down the best survey site I have ever used! Forget earning pennies for half an hour of your time, studies on Prolific pay on average £7.50/hour – most of the time more! This is more than the current minimum wage for my age group! 

The site is very easy to navigate and refreshes itself so you don’t need to be on it at all times. Unfortunately because the site is so popular some of the studies fill their quotas very quickly, which can be annoying and feel like a missed opportunity. Yet there is always more studies on the way.

PERKS OF PROLIFIC?

You will hardly ever get screened out

Screening out on a survey is where you no longer qualify for the survey or they have had enough responses from your demographic. This is my biggest pet peeve about taking surveys! Especially if I’ve spent 10 minutes answering general questions, only to get screened out and earn nothing – complete waste of time. Prolific is different! You only get offered studies that you fit the demographic for. Moreover, when you are offered a study, they come with a description, so you can often tell from this whether you qualify for the study. 

The studies are actually interesting

The studies on prolific are mostly research projects, commonly from Universities, so they are usually very interesting and engaging. Prolific feels different from usual survey site because the studies are actually engaging. Not just the general questions about yourself. I’ve taken part in a wide range of studies through Prolific, we’re talking surveys on my political views, activities where I had to press certain keys to identify the colour on the screen and a study in which I had to say whether two pictures were of the same person or not. So much more interesting than a survey where I’m only asked about my age, location and income etc.

The surveys actually pay decent money

I have been using Prolific since the end of June (around 4 months) and have so far completed 77 studies, earning £116. For some context, I don’t check the site daily, maybe a few nights a week. This includes a range of studies taking different amounts of time and effort. For instance, a 4 minute survey that paid £0.96 and the colour study mentioned above which took around 40 minutes and paid £12.86. That’s an hourly average of £16.85. So so much better than your average survey site! Further, the cash out minimum is only £5, which can be reached very quickly. Sometimes all it takes is one study!

Instant cash outs

Once you have reached the £5 minimum you can get an instant cash out which means the money will be in your Paypal account within seconds. This is a great feature which makes Prolific a great site to make money easy and quickly. 

Looking for ways to make easy money online? Check out my review of 20 Cogs

DOWNSIDES OF PROLIFIC?

Lack of studies

The biggest downside of prolific is the lack of studies. Some days I will be offered 5 studies and sometimes it can go an entire week without any offers. This is probably down to the high calibre of the studies. Plus the fact that you are only offered the studies you qualify for, rather than every study on Prolific. Hence, maybe someone else in a different demographic will fit the brief for more studies each week than I do. 

Most of the studies need to be completed on a laptop

This is a pain if you would rather use mobile survey apps and it makes it harder to complete surveys on the go. Especially if you’re like me and try to use any commuting time to be productive and make some money. Whilst this isn’t conclusive and you can answer some of the studies on the mobile site it may still limit the amount of studies you can accept and complete. Hence, your earnings will be lower than if you have access to a laptop to complete surveys.

Overall, Prolific is a great survey site which I would 100% recommend. Its high pay rates makes taking surveys worth your time. Great way to earn a little extra money each month. Gone are the days of answering questions for an hour to only earn 20p!

Have you tried Prolific? If so, how did you find it?

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