In this Prolific survey review we’ll delve into Prolific and see if it’s worth your time and effort. Prolific is also sometimes known as Prolific Academic, so you may see those terms used interchangeably.
Prolific is similar to a survey platform, although the surveys are called ‘studies’. There are no gimmicks with the Prolific platform, you don’t earn points or prizes or go into draws – you participate in studies and get paid for your participation. Like other survey sites, Prolific is not intended to be a full-time job, but rather a platform for occasional, fun surveys that also have the added benefit of contributing to the body of knowledge.
People requesting the research may be academics and students, or companies. The studies are described as ‘academic’.
Doing surveys and studies from home is a legitimate way to earn income from the comfort of your own home, as long as you approach it knowing that you won’t get-rich-quick.
Let’s take a look at Prolific.
Some basic information about Prolific:
- Website: https://www.prolific.co
- Price to join: Free
- Users aged 18+ and from the following (OECD) countries should be able to participate: AT, AU, BE, CA, CH, CL, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HU, IE, IL, IS, IT, JP, KR, LU, LV, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PL, PT, SE, SI, and US.
- Recommended: Yes, if you enjoy participating in research studies and don’t mind the ad hoc nature the work
My Prolific review will take you through the following sections:
- What is Prolific and how does Prolific work?
- How do you get paid with Prolific?
- Is Prolific legit?
- My recommended way of making money online
What is Prolific and how does Prolific Work?
Prolific’s mission statement is:
“Prolific empowers great research. We enable fast, reliable, and high quality data collection by connecting diverse people around the world. Our mission is to make trustworthy data more accessible in order to help improve human knowledge and decision-making.”
They pay people like you and me to participate in research.
Prolific academic surveys have eligibility criteria. This means that sometimes only certain demographics are required for a study, and those demographics can be very targeted.
Whenever a study gets posted, a random subset of eligible participants is emailed. Many other platforms work on an open posting system, where it is a first come, first served situation. The emailing of a random subset means that it isn’t always the fastest responder who gets to participate. By ensuring that your demographic details are update, you will maximise the likelihood of being matched to appropriate studies.
When you are emailed about a new study, make sure you read the study description. Make sure you are happy to participate in the study, using the correct device, if a device has been specified. Every study has an estimated completion time so you’ll know roughly how long it should take you to complete.
When you agree to participate in a study, you will be taken to an external survey website of the researcher’s choice. That is where you will see the survey, and where you submit your answers. Once you complete the survey, you will be redirected back to Prolific.
In June 2020, Prolific introduced Prolific Assistant, an app that gives a desktop notification for every new study found. It displays how many studies are available, the last time studies were checked for, and the average reward per hour and average completion time for studies. The app is available in the Firefox and Chrome app store.
How Do You Get Paid With Prolific?
You will be paid in line with the Prolific minimum reward per hour reward policy. This means you should be paid at least £5 GBP or $6.50 USD/per hour. Prolific is a UK based company and they make payments to PayPal in £GBP (British Pounds). This can be converted to your local currency from within your PayPal account.
In order to get paid, you need to have a minimum of £5 in your available balance. Click on the ‘Cash out’ button on your account page. You need to have verified your cash out email address to make the ‘Cash out’ button available.
Payments are processed twice a week, so you’ll never need to wait long for your payment.
A researcher may reject your work if they believe that some answers you gave are wrong, the study was not completed correctly, or that the instructions were not followed. In order to reject your work, a researcher must go through a rejection justification process. This involves specifying exactly why a submission is being rejected in a message to the participant.
If a submission is not entirely satisfactory to the researcher, under certain circumstances they may still choose to pay you a partial compensation. If you are in the situation where you feel your submission was rejected in error or unfairly, you can communicate with the researcher directly to try to sort it out. If after 14 days, you haven’t been able to reach a satisfactory resolution, you can Prolific to investigate further.
Is Prolific A Scam or Legit? It’s LEGIT! 
Prolific is absolutely legitimate. I couldn’t find any negative sentiment regarding Prolific, and typically with this kind of site there are at least a few negative reviews going around. So that’s a good thing! They’ve been around since 2014, so they do have a track record.
For people like you and me, Prolific provides an opportunity to make a some extra income on the side.
The low minimum cash out requirement is also a bonus. Registering is easy and free. As far as payment for survey sites usually go, Prolific does seem to pay quite well. Depending on your demographics, such as your country and other profile information, you could make up to about $50 per month I would estimate. Of course, it all depends on the studies available and whether you are a match for those surveys.
It certainly won’t hurt to sign up! You won’t lose anything, and you make earn a bit of extra cash on the side.
Check out my list of ways to earn extra money from home. This includes other survey sites, cash back sites, ‘get paid to’ sites, using your skills sites and website testing.
How To Earn An Extra Income From Home
Whilst pocket money is awesome, you can earn more than pocket money. Affiliate marketing is an awesome way to build a second income. It involves building your own website (easier than you think!) that is uniquely yours that will grow with you. And you don’t need to stop at one website. The sky is the limit! To learn how, just click here:
To go straight to my recommended platform for a FREE account, just click here:
Feel free to leave me any questions or comments.