Wouldn’t it be nice to make money without leaving the comfort of your home? And how about influencing the design of new brands, recipes or political opinions while you’re at it?
Filling out simple surveys online can be one of the easiest way of making money online, so we’ll be showing you the best options out there.
It requires patience, as it can take some time, but can often be a quick way of making some easy dollars whilst watching television or listening to music. Surveys are not a get rich scheme – hourly rates are never going to reach anything like a regular wage – but many people manage to turn idly filling in online forms into tidy sums to put towards holidays, home improvements or their new wardrobe!
If you sign up to several sites, then you’re increasing your chances of making real money. By being a member of more than one panel, you can expect a variety of work. Here are our favourite five survey websites for money making, followed by a full guide on the top 23 best free survey sites.
1. MySurvey
The number one reason why I liked MySurvey the best out of the 30-something sites I had the privilege or misfortune to try, was 
no doubt its versatility. This versatility is present not only in the reward system and the referral program – which are important aspects on their own – but clearly shows in their surveys too. Filling out boring surveys always feels like hard work, even though it’s really not if you think about it. With MySurvey, you will see a huge variety of different topics.
no doubt its versatility. This versatility is present not only in the reward system and the referral program – which are important aspects on their own – but clearly shows in their surveys too. Filling out boring surveys always feels like hard work, even though it’s really not if you think about it. With MySurvey, you will see a huge variety of different topics.
Depending on the length of these surveys, you will be able to earn anything from 10 to 500 points per, provided you’ve managed to qualify of course.
The cleanly designed website has a large number of surveys, so you’ll get a chance to fill out plenty, and they are usually matched to your profile and interests. And to encourage you to stay active, monthly sweepstakes are run which randomly select 10 people and award them with 1,000 points each ($100) for regularly filling out surveys.
As well as using your laptop, you can fill in MySurvey forms on the move by using their app available for both Apple and Android phones. This is perfect because surveys should really be about filling time, rather than dedicating particular time to them, so being able to pass time in queues or while commuting and simultaneously make money is very appealing.
While I was timed out a couple of times, I have managed to successfully complete the vast majority of my surveys, and for more points (and equivalently, money) than at any other sites that I have tried. 1200 points equals to about $10 and you can get as much as 500 points for a single survey. That’s pretty good.
The other thing is the reward system. There could be a service that offers even more options than MySurvey, but the sheer amount of possibilities that I’ve ran into here was simply astounding.
Amazon gift cards and PayPal are obviously popular choices, so naturally like most sites MySurvey had those. These guys did not stop there though. At the time of writing (I double checked) they also offer various sweepstakes, gift cards to restaurants, you can donate to charities like UNICEF through them, they have iTune gift cards, their very own merchandising products and also Starbucks, Walmart and Tango gift cards among many more options!
Summary: A real favourite, MySurvey is a popular panel allowing members to participate in market research surveys for money, covering topics like the media, tourism and products like electronics. It’s easy to set up an account on the site and begin earning points, which vary between 10 and 500 per survey, but are typically around the 100 mark for an average survey which would take 15 minutes to fill out.
To top it off, their minimum required balance for withdrawals currently stands at a measly $10 limit, which is once again something that is very good for us survey enthusiasts. We don’t like when we are limited regarding our withdrawal options. At MySurvey, there are no such limits.
2. Swagbucks
One of the most popular sites, and rightfully so, Swagbucks offers traditional surveys as well as a range of additional ways to make cash. Filling out surveys for money will reward you with points called Swagbucks which can be cashed out through PayPal, or redeemed as gift cards for shops including Amazon.com. As a sweetener, they’ll even give you $5 just for signing up.
Swagbucks remains popular as they are a reliable site, offering novel ways to earn rewards, including playing games and watching videos. Completing polls and surveys for money takes around 10 minutes each and can make up the bulk of your time on the site. You won’t always qualify, and getting to a late stage in a survey application process and then finding out you’re not qualified can be pretty galling. The slickly designed website is straightforward and pleasing to use and also allows you to make money on your shopping by offering a range of affiliate links. By simply clicking on the Swagbucks link and shopping at sites including Amazon, Walmart and Nike, you will earn points, as those companies are paying Swagbucks to link to them, and you get a share of their fee.
The site will even allow you to monetise your internet searches, if you swap from Google or Safari to their own search engine. The Swagbucks search engine, which is actually running Yahoo, will pay you Swagbucks every time you search. For games, there are options like Scrabble and Wheel of Fortune, which won’t pay you much, but could be worth a go if you fancied playing a game anyway! Swagbucks TV allows you to watch advertising videos on a range of topics, including news, fitness and entertainment. There’s a snag – your earnings are capped at 150 Swagbucks, but it is worth a look if you’re prone to wasting time watching viral clips.
Free to join, the site runs a range of special offers, including awarding prizes at random, giving you daily targets to hit for which you receive bonus points, and posting deals on their social media feeds. They have a great new app and a strong referral scheme. However, like everything, it’s not perfect – it can start to suck up a lot of your time. Swagbucks runs on the premise of incentivising day to day internet use to make both you and them money, so it is worth being aware of this so it doesn’t end up seeping into too much of your life!
3. Vindale Research
One of the oldest and longest running survey sites, Vindale Research is a legitimate option for making some money from filling out surveys. Based in New York, the company offers both traditional surveys and evaluations, by testing products or online services. It’s free to sign up, and surveys pay between $1 and $5 each and product testing starts at $5 and moves up from there. The site claims significantly higher rates of pay, but as this involves slightly inflated pricing, for example discounting fees you may have to pay out to join subscription sites before receiving your end payout, they won’t be included here.
There’s lots of additional ways to boost your income on Vindale, including rewards for opening adverts sent to your email account, or small payments for watching advertising videos online. The site pays out in plain and simple cash, and doesn’t mess around with rewards or gift cards, which many people familiar with the survey landscape find a welcome relief. However, as with OnePoll, you’ll have to earn $50 before you can remove you money from the site, which may not be as tempting as some companies where the threshold is much lower.
Sometimes survey invitation links direct you to other survey companies, rather than keeping things in-house, which can feel a bit like spam. As is common in the industry, you can sometimes get stuck filling out lengthy qualifying questions which take up to 30 minutes just to see if you’re eligible for a survey. Needless to say if you find out you are not then this is extremely frustrating.
One nice feature is the ability to shop through Vindale, as they often have offers available through affiliate links. Before buying something new, like an appliance, it is worth signing into their easy to use website and checking if you can get it for less through Vindale. There’s also a popular daily consumer survey paying $1.50 which you can complete every day, for an easy and reliable boost.
4. Pinecone Research
Pinecone is a notoriously exclusive company offering surveys and product testing – by invite only! While you can’t just sign up like our other top nine websites, Pinecone still makes it to the top, because if you manage to get in, it can prove to be extremely lucrative with great paying deals.
Joining isn’t as straightforward as merely signing up, because you need an invite. However it’s not as tough as it sounds, as there are plenty of links doing the rounds online if you look hard enough, and Pinecone also advertises on websites, so you might get lucky by keeping an eye on banner adverts. Once you’ve signed up, you’ll be vetted to see if you qualify – based on whatever demographics their clients want at that point – and if so, the fun begins!
This site pays highly – at least $3 a survey and up to $6 for testing products. If you stay with them, the pay even increases by a few dollars, taking the wage far above the standard survey rate. Owned by the renowned New York market research company Nielson, Pinecone offers a variety of content and emails surveys to members as and when they are suited to you.
By only sending you questionnaires you are already qualified for, Pinecone wastes far less of your time than many sites which require you to fill our qualifying questions before starting each survey. However some users have said they don’t receive very many surveys, which could be a consequence of their careful filtering. Equally the site retains the right to remove you from their panel if you no longer fit their desired demographic, so make the most of your membership while you have it!
Rewards are paid in points, with 100 points totting up to $1. You only need 300 points, or $3, to claim your funds, which is a lot lower than many survey sites. Pinecone pays out cash via PayPal, or like many sites, offers Amazon vouchers, along with those for other stores, including Walmart.
Product testing can be a fun way to make some extra money and also get a chance to try something new before the general public. This should be treated as a bonus though, as you have no control over whether you’ll be chosen, as it is down to whether the company thinks you are the correct audience. The firm also runs lucky draws throughout the year, where you can win between $500 and $5,000, and you are entered into them as a reward each time you fill out a survey.
5. Opinion Outpost
Mainly conducting polls for governments, public bodies and the business world, Opinion Outpost is a popular survey site as unlike some sites, which require you to accrue a significant amount before you can claim your money, it has one of the lowest payout thresholds. You only need to fill out five surveys, earning a couple of dollars, before being able to claim pay, so you can redeem your money more quickly.
The free site screens you when you sign up, asking a range of questions so you can be sent the surveys which will be suitable for you. You can also join up with a social media account like Facebook or LinkedIn instead of using your email address. Filling out surveys for money with Opinion Outpost will first give you Opinion Points – with 10 points worth $1. Most surveys will take between 10 and 30 minutes and are worth anything from $1 to $5. Typical survey time is around 15 minutes, and participants are also entered into quarterly prize draws, touted to be for $10,000! However some people think their surveys don’t come around often enough, and completing some surveys will enter you into prize draws rather than paying out cash.
With one of the lowest cash limits in the industry, you can get $10 out when you have accrued just 100 points. If you want to take your earnings in the form of a giftcard, the threshold is even lower, as you just need 50 points, equivalent to $5. Many other survey sites will only pay out after you earn much more, like $50. As with all good survey sites, Opinion Outpost allows you to take your earnings away in vouchers for big firms like Amazon or iTunes, or if you prefer money, to do so through Paypal. As well as paying out early Opinion Outpost also pays extremely quickly, often the same day or in some cases, immediately.
Keeping on top of your emails is key so you don’t miss good deals, as they are emailed out at different times in the day. And while it is always frustrating to be disqualified from a survey, this website will try and offset this by entering you into their quarterly cash prize draw.
6. Toluna
A popular and free survey site, Toluna boats more than nine million users across the globe and is well known in the industry, having been running for 17 years. Offering questionnaires for you to fill in to provide leading companies with your opinions, Toluna also runs a range of internal games and schemes, as well as offering product testing to some lucky users who can bag free products.
Like many survey sites, Toluna rewards you with points, which you can then cash out for vouchers for the usual suspects like Amazon and iTunes, or money through PayPal. A slightly novel element of the site’s payment plan is to offer the chance to take your points out early if you gamble them for prizes. While you have to store up a grand total of 60,000 points before you can claim vouchers for around $12 – something some people find to be a downside of the site – if you are willing to settle for a prize, you can play with just 500 points. You can decide to try your luck with a “giftie”, a kind of scratch card game. By gambling some points, you can see if you have won the gift or lost your points – so it is not one for the faint hearted!
While product testing is offered, you’ll only get sent items if you qualify, and then it will only be a couple over the space of several months, so think of this as a bonus, rather than a regular part of your work. Some users get frustrated at the length of time they have to wait for vouchers to arrive after they order them – especially when somewhere like Opinion Outpost will pay out straight away. However it is unfortunately quite standard to have to wait weeks for payment from survey sites. Surveys range in duration from about 15 to 30 minutes and there are mini polls on the website which can help you tot up small amounts of extra points. Points do sometimes take days or even weeks to appear in Toluna accounts, which is worth noting.
By filling out your user profile thoroughly, you’ll be able to make sure you get invites to surveys which are actually suitable for you. There are basic qualification questions at the start of each questionnaire too, to ensure you are suited to filling it out before you get going. And you can make the most of the huge Toluna community yourself too – if you want, you can create your own polls on the site to ask people about anything and everything! It’s a nice addition to be able to get involved and have in-depth conversations with fellow users.
7. Cashcrate
CashCrate is a great site pairing traditional surveys with a range of unique deals that can help you make money online. After signing up with a few details and filling in a brief survey for your profile, so CashCrate can identify some basic demographics, you’ll be awarded your first 25 cents and be on your way to greater riches! The best deals and offers are available for US users, and the minimum earnings to have a payout from CashCrate is $20 – which they pay you and their six million users as cash.
There’s a decent rate of surveys pinged your way as you can expect two or three emails a day inviting you to fill in particular questionnaires. In addition to this, there are freely offered surveys on their cleanly designed website each day which you can look through and decide if they take your fancy. Surveys on CashCrate are often outsourced to third parties though, so you can make more money on the survey side from other websites. Similarly they are known for passing your information on to other people, so to avoid the irritations of endless spam, make sure you set up a dedicated email address for your CashCrate account.
As well as filling in the familiar surveys, you can sign up to complete free and paid offers, which is how many users say they make the bulk of their CashCrate money. In these cases companies will pay you to sign up to their website, or to try out the service they offer, such as a financial credit check. These are often quick, straightforward ways to earn a few bucks. As the name suggests, paid offers require you to pay out to claim the offer or to sign up for the service, but what you get back will cover this and add a small profit on top. If you’re signing up for a monthly service though, make sure to note in your calendar when to cancel it or you might find yourself out of pocket as they auto-renew each month.
CashCrate gives you the opportunity to make extra money by watching advertising videos and you can win prizes by playing games and contest on the site. A particularly good feature is its generous referral program, which is head and shoulders above much of the industry. If you refer your friend, you’ll get 20 percent of their earnings! If that referred friend refers someone else, you will also earn another 10 percent of what that person earns. It’s in your interest then to sign up, sign your friends up and get them to work to make you some extra money from surveys.
8. Valued Opinions
A well known survey panel, Valued Opinions is owned by leading market research company ResearchNow and is open to people in more than 20 countries around the world, including the USA, UK and Australia. The site uses a range of different languages and has around three million members busily filling in surveys and questionnaires. Most surveys taken will reward you between $1 and $5 and take up to around 20 minutes to complete, asking you about marketing, brands and products and even news events. There is a steady rate of invites to surveys, but you won’t always be qualified for them, which can become tiresome.
Unlike many sites, Valued Opinions doesn’t offer you the chance to take cash rewards, at the moment limiting users to retail vouchers and gift cards. Electronic vouchers are usually with you within 24 hours but gift cards can take four to six weeks to arrive in the post. Once $10 has been earned, you can claim Amazon vouchers, Macy’s gift cards and Visa promo codes, among many other reward options dependant on your location. Surveys are said to be varied, but the gift card options less so, so check they are for stores you’ll want to shop in before you tot up lots of points.
There have been some reports of technical glitches on the site preventing users from receiving their earnings, but customers services are contactable and said to clear up most issues for workers. Valued Opinions has a unique “badge” program, allowing its most active members to work up five levels of achievement from bronze through silver, gold and platinum to the top tier of diamond, by carrying out extra mini tasks.
A small processing fee is charged when withdrawing earnings, which the site says is essentially their paperwork fee, so you’ll have to factor in a loss of a couple of dollars here and there. For example, if you want to redeem an Amazon gift card for $20, you’ll have to pay $22 from your account.
9. Onepoll
Renowned for its short and sweet surveys, OnePoll is a great site for dipping in and out of, without having to dedicate loads of time to. As one of the earliest survey sites to be set up, OnePoll certainly has longevity. Founded in the UK, it is open to US users and those further afield and runs polls for the press and leading brands. This means the content is more engaging than it can be elsewhere and you can find yourself answering questions about celebrities or gossip. Many users praise their surveys for being quick, and even better – fun! Topics are not as dry as they can be on other websites, and by keeping the surveys brief, OnePoll is less likely to leave you bored or frustrated.
Short and simple surveys are added on a daily basis, so there should be plenty on offer too. Unlike some online survey sites, OnePoll doesn’t email you out surveys or invites to complete them, so you need to get into the habit of checking your account on their website daily, or you’ll miss out.
Rewards are paid out in cash and PayPal, but the catch of having short surveys is reflected in the pay, which can be miniscule per survey. As you need to earn $50 before you can withdraw anything, that’s a lot of low-paying surveys before you’ve made your money! Some people have complained online that once you get close to the withdrawal amount, the surveys dry up. One way around this is to refer a friend as you’ll receive a bonus when they sign up and you’ll hit your target to withdraw your funds. It’s a bit of a downside, but there are hundreds of very happy consumers who love the site, so it’s worth a shot, especially if you get fed up with the boring or repetitive nature of some of the quizzes elsewhere.
10. Crowdology
This site offers surveys for money, paying out cash rather than points and allowing immediate rewards. Crowdology is a pretty popular website with a decent reputation which works with big brands and television shows, so can have some interesting content to keep you interested while you’re filling in forms. You could be answering questions about everyday topics or issues, such as saving money or online shopping, as well as your opinions about various products.
Surveys can be super quick and take just a few minutes to fill out, or require around 15 minutes of your time. Five minute surveys pay $0.50 and surveys range from $0.40 up to the higher – and rarer – ones at $10.Paying out by the usual methods, Crowdology does PayPal and also vouchers. Most importantly, the minimum reward threshold is low so when you’ve earned $8, you can cash it out, unlike other sites which make you wait until you have earned much more money. The site offers prize draws from time to time for things like cinema tickets and surveys can be expected weekly.
Some users have complained online that there can be glitches with the payment system, so make sure to keep an eye on this and raise it if you have a problem. This doesn’t cause us to discount the site though, as problems appear to be resolved, especially if you raise them on Facebook, and money always appears in the end, making the site legit.
11. Opinion Plus
Everyone has an opinion, well now Opinion Plus will convert your opinion into cash in your pocket thanks to its intuitive and easy to use paid survey site. It scores highly because the surveys are tailored to each individual user, and yet they still send regular invites so you won’t be waiting around for something to do or, even worse, filling in surveys that you aren’t eligible for and won’t get paid for. They send payments via PayPal only, but their payout rate is among the best that we’ve seen.
12. Prize Rebel
Prize Rebel has been operating for nine years, and has paid out more than nine million dollars in its time. On its home screen it also tells you exactly how much it has paid to its users in the last 24 hours. That’s really reassuring, particularly to those people new to paid survey sites and who worry that they might be a scam. This is certainly no scam, and by offering daily challenges, with extra points as rewards, they really encourage you to clock up your points. A hundred points is the equivalent of one dollar, and they can pay out in gift cards, via Paypal, and even in Bitcoins.
13. Cash Crate
Cash Crate looks good from the moment you look on it with its cool graphics and green and white color scheme. That’s always a positive sign, because it shows that money has been spent on the site which means that there’s money to be paid to consumers like us. I’ve heard tales of people making regular daily incomes with Cash Crate, although as with all our top twenty sites it can take time whether you’re filling in surveys or making money through their social interaction section. What I particularly liked about it is that you can download it directly onto an Android phone, and earn money on the move. Read more about this site in our Cash Crate review.
14. Survey Savy
One of the great things about Survey Savvy is that they really do offer a great variety of surveys to choose from, so you won’t simply be talking about the consumer goods that you buy on a day to day basis. They have surveys on topical issues and about politics in general, but don’t worry you don’t have to be a political animal to be able to complete the survey – you just need to have an opinion. Another thing I really appreciated about survey savvy is that their surveys are short and snappy, and you can complete them within ten minutes or even less. That means you can quickly earn the points that can then be exchanged into folding cash.
15. Zoombucks
If longevity is a sign of quality, and let’s face it in the world of business it usually is, then there’s no doubt about Zoombucks deserving to be inside out 2018 paid survey sites top 20. This company has been carrying out paid survey panels since 1946, so just think how many consumers they’ve helped since then. Things have changed since the forties, so you won’t have to sit in a draughty hall, you can answer all the surveys over the internet. There’s lots of surveys to choose from as well, and they promise quick pay outs.
16. Survey Club
Survey Club has been offering online paid surveys since 2005, and in the fast paced every changing world of the web that’s a reassuringly long amount of time. They are a bit of an acquired taste, in that they specialise in long, detailed surveys for high end clients rather than the quick and cheerful consumer surveys that you may be more familiar with. Whilst this does mean that you may have to commit a bit more time, it does mean that if you have the patience to persevere with them they pay more money than most survey and reward sites. They also offer local taste tests (see what I said about ‘an acquired taste’?), and secret shopper opportunities.
17. Ipsos
Ipsos are a globally respected name when it comes to opinion polls and market research, and by taking part in their surveys you can help them gain the vital information that helps them make business, consumer and political predictions. Unlike many of the other sites to feature in our Survey Cool 2018 top twenty it focuses solely and purely on offering surveys. It also means you won’t be distracted by video watching and game playing that typically pays a lot less.
18. Panel Place
Congratulations go to Panel Place, which gets 2nd place on the Survey Cool list of the best paid survey sites for 2018, but just what makes it so good? Above all else is the fact that it has a very large number of surveys to choose from, so there really is something for everyone. It does this because it includes surveys available from a variety of other top survey providers, including Toluna and Valued Opinions. It’s available to users across the world as well, and payment can be made by way of a gift card or sent securely to a PayPal account. It’s a deserving number one.
19. Global Test Market
Global Test Market’s tagline is that they are ‘a rewarding experience’, and their position inside our paid survey sites top 20 shows that’s pretty much the truth. From the moment you click on the site you’re greeted by a video showing you how it works, and how you can earn. It’s a nice, reassuring touch, so you won’t have to worry whether this is a legit site or not. Surveys available cover a broad spectrum, from household shopping, to restaurants and motor cars, so you’ll be able to find something you want to fill in, and something you’re eligible for. In 2014 they paid out around thirty million dollars, and it’s easy to gain a share of that money.
20. iPoll
Hop onto the iPoll survey site, and you’ll see a cheerful cartoon of a man walking his dog while thinking about products. Their boast is that thanks to its web, iPhone and Android platforms, you can complete surveys at home, in the office, at the beach, or on a walk. I put that to the test. This is one of the easiest to use survey sites on a mobile phone, and that’s because the surveys offered are sharp and quick, and the site itself is easy to navigate and use, whatever platform you’re using it on. This is a good choice for people whose online time is mainly spent on their cell phone.
