Curious about Surveytime? Want to know whether it's a legit and reliable place to fill out paid surveys?
In this detailed Surveytime review, I'll break down how the site works, who can join, how much you can expect to earn, and more.
Key Points 🔑
- Legit or scam: Legit.
- Who can join: Anyone.
- Average earning potential: $1-$2/hour.
- Average work volume: 1-3 surveys a day (varies greatly based on demographics and other factors).
- Ways to earn: Paid surveys (mobile or desktop).
- Payout options: Amazon, Paypal, gift cards, and occasionally crypto (rewards change often and vary by country).
- Minimum payout: None.
- Payment speed: Instant.
- Sign up bonus: None.
Review Process
This Surveytime review was put together with help from Aggresive_Blaze, a Reddit user from India. They tested out Surveytime for a couple of weeks (earning a total of $5 in the process) and then summarized their experience and findings for me.
After that, I asked additional questions, did a bit of my own independent research, and edited everything together for this in-depth review. Enjoy!
What is Surveytime?
Surveytime is a survey site that was founded in 2018 by Persona.ly – a company that helps app developers monetize, market, and acquire users.
(Previously, Persona.ly ran a GPT reward site called Gifthulk, which started in 2011 and closed down in August of 2019.)
So what makes Surveytime different from other paid survey sites?
Well, it's one of the only survey panels with a $0 payment minimum (Qmee is the only other site I know of that offers this). Another unique thing about Surveytime is that they offer a flat payment of $0.50-$1.00 per completed survey.
Is Surveytime Legit or a Scam?
As far as I can tell, Surveytime is legit. Here are some points to back that verdict up:
- Parent company Persona.ly was established in 2011 and is well-known in the market research space (they even have their own offer wall on a lot of different GPT sites).
- Their privacy policy and terms are easy to find and understand.
- It's free to sign up and start earning.
- The Surveytime site is clean and well-made, with no obvious grammar mistakes, bugs, crazy earnings claims, or other red flags.
- They have a semi-active following on Facebook.
- There are plenty of positive reviews online confirming their legitimacy.
- They pay. Proof.
Of course, even though Surveytime isn't a scam, it's not perfect either. Here are some potential concerns:
- It's still pretty new. Will it stand the test of time?
- Persona.ly has a bit of a negative reputation due to their handling of the GiftHulk shut down (many users claim they were never paid). Hopefully, we don't see that repeat with Surveytime.
- They don't have the best customer support (more on this below).
- Some of the reviews on their Facebook page aren't even related to Surveytime. This could be Facebook's fault, but it's weird either way.
Who Can Join?
- Age requirement: None (those under 18 will need parental supervision).
- Country requirements: Worldwide (US residents are likely to get the most survey offers).
- Device requirements: Available on all devices.
- Payout requirements: Verified email, verified PayPal, and verified phone number.
Surveytime Safety Inspection
Is Surveytime safe? I inspected the site and read through their privacy policy to find out.
Here's a summary of the good stuff:
- They have a valid SSL certificate on their site.
- The privacy policy is relatively short, to the point, and easy to read (besides having a tiny font).
- They never share personally identifiable info with any third party companies. The only information they do share with third-party companies is demographic (they do this to match you with relevant surveys).
- You can opt-out and delete your Surveytime account by clicking “Opt Out” on Surveytime's TOS page, under “Market Research”
And here's the bad:
- In order to receive payment, you may need to provide a phone number to verify your identity. This should be safe to provide, and Surveytime will only ever actually contact you via phone if you intentionally turn on SMS notifications, but it's not ideal.
- They don't mention how they store information/what they do to protect it.
- Personally identifiable information may be transferred to another company in the case of a business transition like a merger or acquisition. This is pretty standard, but good to be aware of.
Final verdict? Surveytime's safety falls in line with most other survey sites and GPT sites. You'll need to give up a bit of privacy, but as long as you follow these basic paid survey safety tips, I'd say Surveytime is safe to use.
Support Check
One of the biggest downfalls of Surveytime is their lack of customer support. They don't even have a dedicated contact page!
However, after doing some digging, I found three possible ways to contact their admins:
- support@surveytime.io – This is one of the email addresses featured on their privacy policy for customer support. However, I tried to contact them through this email once and got no response.
- tommy@surveytime.io – This is an email listed on Surveytime's terms page. Some of my friends have managed to get in touch with them through it, but with delayed responses still.
- Facebook – I haven't tried it, but you can also try to reach them through their Facebook page.
How Surveytime Works
Surveytime, like most survey sites, basically acts as the middleman between paid surveys and survey takers. They help brands conduct market research and they help people like us make money by sharing our opinions.
Here's a quick breakdown of how Surveytime works as a survey taker:
- Sign up
- Answer a short list of questions for your profile so they can match you with suitable surveys.
- Check your Surveytime dashboard for available surveys or receive notifications of new surveys via email or text.
- Attempt available surveys through desktop or mobile.
- Get $1 or $0.50 cents (via Paypal, gift card, or other options) immediately after fully completing a survey.
Keep in mind, you won't qualify for every survey you take and you may not always have paid surveys available.
How Much You Can Expect to Earn (on Average)
As mentioned above, Surveytime pays $0.50-$1.00 per survey, no matter the length. But what does this really equal out to in terms of an hourly rate?
Well, in my personal experience, it takes ~12-15 mins to complete a survey and I qualify for about 1/4 of the surveys I attempt. Averaging things out, I earn around $1-$2/hour.
You might be able to earn more or less depending on your demographics, qualification rate, and the surveys available on any given day.
Are you a Surveytime user? Leave a comment below with your average hourly earnings.
Payment Proof
Here’s the payment I received to my PayPal account after completing my first survey on Surveytime:
Surveytime Review at a Glance
- Earning Potential
- Work Volume
- Payout Options
- Payout Minimum
- Payout Speed
- Accessibility
- Support
- Usability
Overall
Summary
SurveyTime, despite its flaws, is a legit survey site that's great for earning extra money from home. The instant payout feature is what really sets it apart from others. However, as with most paid surveys, don't expect to earn any more than $1-$2/hour on average.
Ways to Earn on Surveytime
There are two ways to earn money on Surveytime:
1. Surveys
The paid surveys on Surveytime are pretty standard. They'll usually ask about things like your favorite brands and products, what you do online, where you shop, etc.
As you can see from the image above, Surveytime will tell you how many people have completed a survey, and the average time it takes. Most surveys take around 10-15 minutes.
Tips:
- Make sure you enable email and push notifications on your profile. That way you’ll be notified immediately when a new survey opportunity comes up.
- Join surveys fast – The sooner you join, the better chance you have of qualifying.
- Avoid choosing ambiguous answers like “I don’t know/No Opinion/I don’t work/Other” etc. It’s always better to be a part of a certain group rather than no group at all.
- Don't rush answers or answer dishonestly – This is an easy way to get your account flagged or banned.
2. Ambassador Program
The ambassador program is Surveytime's exclusive affiliate/referral program. Unlike most survey site referral programs, you have to apply first in order to join it.
While anyone can apply, Surveytime is mostly looking for those who have an active following on a blog, Youtube channel, social platforms, or something else. If you're planning on just referring a couple of friends, you probably won't have much luck getting accepted.
Once you're in, you can earn $1 for every new user you successfully refer to Surveytime. To count as a referral, they'll need to sign up with your unique referral link and complete at least one paid survey.
Referral payments are sent monthly via PayPal, Payoneer, or Amazon gift card.
How to Withdraw Your Survey Earnings
Once you successfully complete a survey, you’ll be taken to a payment page like this:
Depending on your location and the day, Surveytime will give you a selection of different payment methods. These could include:
- PayPal (most common)
- Amazon gift card
- Other gift cards
- Bitcoin (via Coinbase)
- and more
After you choose your payment method, Surveytime will send you a confirmation email with instructions on how to redeem your reward.
For me, I receive most of my PayPal payments within minutes, but sometimes they take a few hours.
Surveytime Pros and Cons
Pros
- Email and text notifications for surveys – You can choose which notifications to receive, but make sure to at least choose one. They're the best way to know about new surveys as soon as they become available.
- Simple to use – Surveytime has a simple dashboard/user interface and no confusing point system.
- Mobile friendly – There's no dedicated Surveytime app, but their site and surveys works well on mobile.
- Interesting variety of topics in surveys.
- Instant payouts.
- Good choice of payout options.
- Worldwide availability.
Cons
- Frequent disqualifications.
- Not all surveys pay $1 – Surveytime advertises itself with “earn $1 for every survey” but some surveys only pay $0.50. You're not forced to do these, but it's still a bit misleading.
- No saving up your earnings – Instant payment is nice, but sometimes it's also nice to be able to save up and cash out more at a time.
- No compensation for disqualified surveys.
- Lack of customer support.
- Exclusive referral program.
- Lack of surveys – Many Surveytime users (including myself) have seen our number of available surveys go down over time. This could just be a coincidence, but it's worth noting.
Surveytime Reviews From the Web
I looked around the web for recent reviews from other Surveytime users to get a feel for what people like and don't like about the site.
Positive Reviews
- Fast payment – This is the #1 thing people praised Surveytime for.
- Quick surveys – People like the easy and quick survey questions on Surveytime.
- Reputable site.
- High qualification rate – While some users found disqualifications to be super common, others found the opposite. Two users in this thread on Reddit reported qualifying for 6-8/10 surveys.
Negative Reviews
- Inaccurate survey time estimates – One user said Surveytime told them a survey would take 5 minutes when it really took 20.
- Disqualifications – Some users complained about getting disqualified after already answering a bunch of survey questions. Keep in mind, this could be due to them answering attention checks wrong. Remember to read survey questions carefully! Lying or speeding through surveys will get you booted and potentially flagged.
- Low payment – Recently, people have been complaining about the abundance of $0.50 surveys, with some saying $1/survey was already low enough.
- Bad support – This was an easy one to see coming.
- Invalid gift card – This user reported receiving an Amazon code from Surveytime that had already been redeemed.
Summary
Overall, experiences on Surveytime seem mixed, with some users finding it great and others not having as much luck. Still, the majority of Surveytime reviews seem positive. Here are the total ratings across three popular review sites:
- Trustpilot – 4.5/5 with 4,915 reviews.
- Sitejabber – 3.5/5 with 11 reviews.
- SurveyPolice – 3/5 with 74 reviews.
- Average rating: 3.6/5
Want to leave your own short Surveytime review? Click here!
How to Get Started on Surveytime
First, head over to the Surveytime sign up page by clicking this link.
You can create an account by linking your Facebook, Google, or Twitter account, but I'd recommend just going with email and password for privacy purposes.
Once you’ve created an account, fill out your survey profile just like you'd do on any other survey site. After that, you should see some available surveys on your dashboard:
If you don't see any surveys available, don't worry. Just enable survey notifications and give it time.
Similar Opportunities
If you're looking for other paid survey sites, here are a few of the most popular ones:
- Survey Junkie – Earn up to $50 per survey.
- PaidViewPoint – Inconsistent but quick and easy surveys (plus, no disqualifications).
- Pinecone Research – No minimum payout requirements and $3 per survey.
- Lifepoints – Huge survey site that's available in many countries.
- YouGov – Worldwide availability with good surveys and a $15 minimum payout.
For more ideas, check out these articles:
Final Thoughts
Survey Time isn't perfect, and it might not work for everyone, but it is a legit provider of paid surveys. Plus, being able to earn an instant $0.50-$1.00 per completed survey is a pretty cool and unique offer.
It's not a ton of money, and it's not always consistent, but it is quick and easy cash.
That being said, if you're looking to earn an actual living online, take a pass on Surveytime (and paid surveys in general) and read this guide on how to start working from home instead.
Have you used Surveytime before? Please click here to leave your own short Surveytime review in the comments! Thanks – it helps a lot.
I would say it is barely legit. Yes, sometimes you get the winning combo and bag yourself a $1. But very often you get passed over, usually not before answering a lot of questions (many the same and seeming to pass across a variety of websites which is concerning). There have been many times I’ve completed a survey only to be disqualified or encounter mysterious errors resulting in a complete waste of 20 or 30 minutes. Any attempts to contact survey time or the parent company have been met with radio silence.
No customer service – got paid out once – now, when I complete surveys I get 90% done and am told “I no longer qualify” TIME WASTERS