If you want to see the best survey apps in one place, you’ll love this guide.
I dug through the iOS and Android ratings for over 40 different apps and listed them in order from best to worst. (Some had such bad ratings that they weren’t even worth mentioning.)
The amount you’re able to earn with each varies based on your demographic and available time, so if you’re looking to earn real money, it makes sense to give three to five of these survey apps a shot.
The 15 Best Survey Apps
#1. Survey Junkie
Payment methods: Earn points to exchange for cash via PayPal and gift cards.
Quick summary: Survey Junkie tops this list for its extremely low minimum payout ($5), the ability to exchange points for cash via PayPal, and it’s good standing with the BBB and TrustPilot.
When you sign up for Survey Junkie, make sure to complete the profile survey and interest survey. Not only does Survey Junkie offer a decent incentive for doing so, but you’ll be more likely to receive better survey offers down the road.
Survey Junkie
One of the most well-known and highest-rated online survey sites, Survey Junkie lets you redeem your points for gift cards or PayPal cash starting at just $5.
#2. National Consumer Panel
Payment methods: Gifts and sweepstakes entries.
Quick summary: If you become a panel member, you’ll receive a handheld scanner or be given access to the NCPMobile app. After you go shopping, you’ll use the scanner or app to scan the barcodes of everything you bought. It’s one of the great cash-back apps for groceries.
What happens if a product doesn’t have a barcode, like gas, fruits, vegetables and baked goods? Then you’ll manually provide information about those items. You’ll also need to provide other information about your shopping trip, including things like the name of the store you went to and the prices of the items you purchased.
You’ll earn rewards for sending in this information, and you’ll sometimes be asked to fill out surveys or participate in special studies that can earn you even more rewards.
Sign up for National Consumer Panel here.
#3. SurveyMonkey Rewards
Payment methods: Amazon gift card or charity donation.
Quick summary: Owned and operated by one of the most well-known market research companies in the world, this app offers short surveys (usually less than five minutes), a best-in-class user interface and a low $5 minimum cash-out.
Even better is that during the testing period for our SurveyMonkey Rewards review, we earned $13.56 per hour — among the best pay rates of any of the survey apps we’ve tried.
The one big downside is that there aren’t many surveys available. You have to wait until you’re invited to survey, and we only received a couple of invitations (which are sent via push notification) per week.
Download SurveyMonkey Rewards.
#4. Surveys On The Go
Payment methods: PayPal.
Quick summary: With this app, you’ll be paid to share your opinions on a variety of topics including media, sports, technology, news, business, politics and entertainment.
You’ll be invited to fill out surveys on these and other subjects. But the first thing you should do is complete the demographic survey, because that will save you time by weeding out surveys you might not qualify for.
#5. Swagbucks
Payment methods: Gift cards (Walmart, iTunes, Amazon and more) or PayPal cash.
Quick summary: There are so many ways to earn money with Swagbucks. There’s something for everyone, which makes it one of the best money-making apps, hands-down. You’ll never get bored with it.
You can fill out surveys, watch videos, shop online, and play games to earn SBs. Plus, if you like to surf the web, this is a great option because you can get paid just for using the Swagbucks search engine.
Sometimes, with some survey sites, you get started on a survey and it takes much longer than you anticipated. But with Swagbucks, you can see up-front how long a survey is expected to take. That can help you budget your time better and see if you think the reward will be worth the effort.
Swagbucks is one of the rockstars of the survey world, having paid out over $400 million to its members. It’s a legitimate site that you can trust and has a proven track record.
Put cash back in your wallet
Get paid to shop online, watch videos, take surveys and play games with this all-in-one rewards site. Redeem your points for gift cards and PayPal cash starting at just $3.
Check out my Swagbucks review to learn more about how it works.
#6. InboxDollars
Payment methods: Get paid in gift cards, a prepaid Visa card, or a Tango card.
Quick summary: With InboxDollars, you’ll complete easy tasks to earn rewards. If you like filling out surveys, watching videos for money, playing online games, and reading emails, this is a good app for you. You can also print free coupons to help save money at the grocery store.
It’s one of the best and most reputable survey apps around, having paid out millions of dollars to its users since its inception.
It’s also easy to use, and you’ll get a $5 sign-up bonus just for joining the service. That’s free money you’ll get for about one minute of your time.
Sign up for InboxDollars here.
#7. Google Opinion Rewards
Payment methods: Google Play credit or PayPal cash.
Quick summary: This survey site provides all the expected features, like filling out surveys and being rewarded for the everyday things you do online, such as searching or opening emails. But you’ll also get rewards for sharing information about your television usage. That makes it stand out a bit.
The nice thing about Google Opinion Rewards is that you can cash out at just $2. That can be appealing to people who don’t want to invest a lot of time before learning how seamlessly the payout process works.
Learn more in our Google Opinion Rewards review.
#8. Qmee
Payment methods: PayPal.
Quick summary: This mobile app can also be added to your computer as a browser extension. If you’re shopping online and you type in what you’re looking for, it will give you deals and you can shop through Qmee for that item.
You can also take Qmee surveys. The nice thing about these surveys is that there are a lot of them, and there’s no cap to how many you can complete each day.
Learn more in our Qmee review.
#9. QuickThoughts
Payment methods: Amazon and iTunes gift cards.
Quick summary: This app isn’t as established as some of the heavy-hitters like Swagbucks, but it’s a decent app that launched way back in 2013.
With this one, you can make money online by filling out surveys and completing location-dependent activities. You’re only allowed to complete five surveys per day, so if you have more time on your hands than that, you should sign up for more than one site.
Another thing to keep in mind with QuickThoughts is that you’ll need at least $10 stored up in your account before you can redeem it for an Amazon or iTunes gift card.
#10. Zap Surveys
Payment methods: PayPal or Amazon gift card.
Quick summary: Want some side income? Zap Surveys can pay off quickly – if you qualify for the right surveys. The online surveys range from a mere 30 cents all the way up to $100. But you might find that you don’t qualify for many of the more lucrative ones, which often have very specific demographic (or other) requirements.
But you’ll know ahead of time how much an online survey will pay, and that will help you decide if it’s worth your time.
One thing Zap does is give you $6 for your first survey. It can be a good feeling to get that easy money in the beginning. But keep in mind that you have to get your balance up to $25 before you can cash out, which can take a while if you don’t land the higher-paying surveys.
#11. Ipsos I-Say
Payment methods: Gift cards, prepaid Visa card, or PayPal.
Quick summary: Another one of the online rewards survey companies, the Ipsos i-Say app will give you instant survey notifications. That will help you claim and complete surveys before they’ve met their participant caps. If you don’t want that many notifications, you can change your settings to alert you on a daily or weekly basis instead.
Unlike some other service, I-Say doesn’t let you earn points in other ways, like watching videos or playing games.
#12. iPoll
Payment methods: PayPal, gift cards, and airline credits.
Quick summary: With the iPoll app, you’ll answer questions about the places you go and the services you use. The surveys will allow you to earn points, and you’ll be given opportunities to win a quarterly prize drawing.
The average iPoll survey takes about 10 to 15 minutes to complete.
#13. Toluna
Payment methods: PayPal and bank transfers.
Quick summary: With Toluna, you’ll reap rewards just for sharing your opinions. It’s often as simple as saying how you enjoyed your dinner at a restaurant, or answering a few easy questions about your exercise habits.
Something to be aware of with this app is that your points expire 12 months after you’ve earned them. That means you have to earn enough to cash out before then.
One feature that makes this one of the best survey apps is the sweepstakes opportunity. Every day, one active member wins 1 million points through the Toluna Millionaire Sweepstakes.
To give you an idea of how far that goes in redemption value, a $10 gift card costs 30,000 points, so winning is worth over $300. While the name “millionaire” might be a bit misleading in this case, it’s still a nice windfall for those who receive it.
You won’t get rich with this app, but it’s a great opportunity to earn some extra cash.
Learn more in our Toluna review.
#14. Daily Scoop (MyPoints)
Payment methods: PayPal, Amazon gift cards, and airline miles.
Quick summary: Do you like watching movie clips? Then you might love Daily Scoop. You’ll get paid to watch videos, and your MyPoints meter keeps a tally of your earnings.
If you want to be paid for watching ads, you’ll want to check this one out.
#15. YouGov
Payment methods: Prepaid Visa cards and gift cards.
Quick summary: YouGov is a public opinion and data company with more than 6 million members worldwide. You’ll earn money for filling out short surveys and sharing your opinions about topics you care about.
You never know what you might be asked, because YouGov covers a wide array of topics. They could ask you questions about your opinion on newsworthy events, or they could gear their questions toward what you watch on television.
If you love the idea of making a difference, you’ll like that YouGov’s compiled information is used often throughout the press and on social media. The results of some of the surveys you participate in might be shared in mainstream media sources.
To make it even better, you won’t have to play detective to find out if you helped shape a story. YouGov will email you when a story appears.
Also, the points you earn never expire.
Check out our YouGov review for more info.
Best Survey Apps FAQ
Expect to make between $2 to $4 an hour for the time you spend completing surveys. Often, the highest-earning hours are right after you download the app, where you can complete profile surveys, and therefore, get better-targeted surveys down the line.
There is no single app that consistently pays the most. To maximize your earnings, the general best practices are to test out three to five apps, complete the profile surveys on those apps, and get a feel for how much they pay.
The easiest way to tell if a survey app is legit is to look at user reviews. Stay away from companies that have less than 100. Also, never pay to join a survey panel. These offers tend to be scams.
Final Thoughts on Survey Apps
Survey apps are an easy way to bring in some extra cash. Investing a few hours a week can easily earn you a gift card or spending money here and there. This can be a fun way to treat yourself.
Looking for more options? Check out our list of the best-paying survey sites — not all of them have dedicated apps, but a handful have very solid per-hour pay rates.
Your wrong you can complete more than 5 surveys a day on Quickthoughts. With Quickthoughts if you start a survey but your not qualified to complete the survey they pay you $0.10, you can get paid 5 times q day this way but you can complete more than 5 surveys a day. Most surveys pay $2.00 for completing them, there are some that pay $4.00 or even $6.00. It’s a good app but make sure to pay attention when using it. If your answers aren’t consistent they ban you quite easily compared to other apps, if banned you won’t ve able to redeem any points you may have so when you reach that $10 min pay out, do it.
Thanks Kevin for insight and feedback! Just took a second look at their FAQ. It does say:
How can I find more surveys to participate in?
By clicking the “Find me a survey” button in the app, you have access to all of the surveys we think you will qualify for based on the information you’ve entered at sign up. If there are no surveys available at this time, please try back later. Also, please remember you can only complete 5 surveys a day.
What you say makes sense though. I’ll have to confirm with them.
The Google Opinion Rewards App is really awesome! I’ve been using the App for about 4 years now and so far have been rewarded $324.58, however, they only reward Google Play credit and no option for PayPal. Please though, do not let that stop you from using this app. I’ve bought premium versions of apps (AccuWeather premium), used my rewards for YouTube Music, when I’ve wanted to rent a movie to watch with the family, and best of all: When my 8 year old daughter finds that perfect outfit for one of her characters in Roblox that she can’t play without…what’s that you say Google? Another survey you say? I’ll get right to it! Gotta keep that wardrobe in check so my little girl will be the talk of Meep City, lol!
Haha. Thanks for the feedback Brian. Have you been getting surveys as of late. When we tried to test it out, didn’t get many opportunities.