The idea that SurveySay allows users to sign up for free appealed to you. Although you want to try out the platform, you still have doubts about whether answering paid surveys is worth your time or not.
You already know that SurveySay pays users for answering surveys. However, you probably haven’t found enough reviews explaining its payout system, and you don’t want to waste weeks learning a platform for just a couple of bucks.
Don’t worry if you find yourself in a similar predicament—we can help. Our team understands that new users might find negative comments and remarks discouraging, so we went the extra mile to verify them through official sources and independent review sites.
This article gives you first-hand insights into SurveySay’s average payouts and typical tasks—ensuring you make informed, objective decisions.
Don’t sign up until you’ve read the entire piece. Otherwise, you might end up wasting your time on SurveySay when you could’ve made more money on alternative platforms.
Let’s start our SurveySay review!
How does SurveySay work?
SurveySay.com is not a survey-taking website, but rather it’s a survey aggregator. It serves as the middleman between you and paid survey companies.
Generally, SurveySay collects specific demographic information like your age, gender, religion, race, and nationality. It classifies each user based on consumer type.
Next, it will connect you to companies and websites that pay users in the same demographic as you to take their surveys. SurveySay often sources its tasks from the following:
Note that the site might sometimes direct you to tasks outside your profile demographic. Unfortunately, the first-party partner involved will have to disqualify you from the said task, although you won’t receive negative remarks for these mix-ups.
You’ll submit all accomplished tasks to SurveySay, regardless of whether it indicated the company where the survey originated.
Again, it aggregates and assigns orders. Technically, the first-party survey website has no obligation toward you.
Moreover, your payment will come from SurveySay. It commissions you a percentage of the amount it receives from the paid survey’s originating website. Unfortunately, the SurveySay team doesn’t indicate how much it cuts from payouts.
Is SurveySay legit?
The short answer is yes.
Based on SurveySay reviews, the platform compensates its users for taking aggregated surveys. You’ll make a few pennies per survey.
Overall, you’ll receive your payments if you accomplish all the surveys you claim and meet the payout thresholds.
Why do people have doubts about SurveySay?
Since SurveySay pays its users accordingly and sends payouts timely, you might wonder why there are hundreds of negative SurveySay reviews online. Many Sitejabber and Reddit users advise against SurveySay.
Although the platform’s money-making experience varies from user to user, most complaints revolve around the following issues:
Aggregated surveys
Many users dislike that SurveySay isn’t upfront about its business model. It claims to pay users directly for answering surveys, but it doesn’t since it only aggregates surveys.
Its orders come from various market research companies. As such, it only serves as a middleman platform that connects survey takers (you) to first-party survey websites.
There’s generally nothing wrong with aggregating paid surveys. However, users would appreciate it if the platform were more honest.
Industry-low rates
Admittedly, SurveySay offers low payout rates compared to other sites. You can’t make a living answering paid surveys, but at least other platforms give you a couple of bucks per day.
On the contrary, no SurveySay task exceeds $1. Considering its low payouts and lack of available surveys, it’ll take you months to reach a $25 payout threshold.
Lack of company details
SurveySay was established in 2008 and currently operates under Varsityplaza, LLC. Sadly, that’s about everything the company discloses about its platform’s founding, and you won’t find any details about the original founders.
Spam emails
Although SurveySay doesn’t indicate it in its terms and conditions, it likely sells your email address to marketers notorious for sending mass amounts of junk emails. You can expect spam emails to flood your email account.
Some might argue that many money-making platforms share their users’ information. However, the junk emails from SurveySay consist of sleazy sales pitches, malware-infected files, and even phishing scams.
Privacy issues
Many users claim that SurveySay’s terms and conditions agreement serves no purpose. Apart from the fact that it contains minimal user protection clauses, it contradicts itself by saying it doesn’t sell user information to third-party sources.
Again, SurveySay is a survey aggregator. Regardless of whether the site deliberately shares your data with spam email marketers or not, the company’s business model already requires it to collaborate with third-party research companies.
How to make money on SurveySay?
Since SurveySay aggregates paid surveys, your earnings will depend on what the first-party marketing research company pays SurveySay—minus platform fees.
SurveySay doesn’t disclose how much it gets for paid surveys. To estimate the site’s earning potential, we checked the platform ourselves and scoured the net for SurveySay reviews regarding survey:
- Frequency: Unfortunately, most users only get one to two survey notifications per week, but you could get more depending on your demographic.
- Duration: The paid surveys are relatively easy. Most users finish tasks in 10 to 15 minutes, so you won’t have to set aside much time for your SurveySay side hustle.
- Payout: SurveySay states that users receive $0.30 to $2 per survey, although expect 90% of your survey notification to lean toward the lower end of the payout spectrum.
How to cash out your SurveySay earnings
You can withdraw your earnings via PayPal or gift cards (i.e., Amazon, Starbucks, Visa), and the minimum cashout is just $5.
You can expect the funds to reflect in your account or email in one to three business days.
The Pros and Cons of SurveySay
Here’s a brief list weighing the platform’s advantages and disadvantages.
Pros
- Free registration; no sign-up fees
- Straightforward sign-up process
- Easy cashouts via PayPal or gift cards
- Brief, easy surveys spanning 10 to 15 minutes
- Free-to-use platform
Cons
- Notorious for sending spam emails
- Multiple cases involving privacy issues
- Only aggregates paid surveys
- Industry-low payout rates
- Undisclosed founders
How to sign up for a SurveySay account
Did you decide to push through with SurveySay? You won’t feel bad about doing a quick dry run since the platform has a straightforward, hassle-free sign-up process.
- Step 1: Head over to SurveySay.com, then input your birthdate and gender in the Get Started section.
- Step 2: The website will load several panels based on your location.
- Step 3: Choose a panel, then fill out your profile demographic survey. Please answer truthfully. SurveySay will heavily rely on this information when connecting you to its partner survey companies.
- Step 4: Enter your email address.
- Step 5: Finish the sign-up process and for the confirmation email.
What are the top SurveySay alternatives?
You can check out these paid survey websites if you don’t like SurveySay’s payout system, rates, or earning potential:
- iSay: SurveySay aggregates thousands of paid surveys from iSay, so you’ll make slightly more per survey if you go straight to the source.
- Survey Junkie: Survey Junkie pays most users $1 to $3 per survey. Although its rates don’t differ much from SurveySay, it offers several other exclusive money-making tasks.
- LifePoints: Users who can’t access SurveySay because of geo-restrictions can try LifePoints. The platform’s available in 40+ countries. Also, LifePoints typically sends more survey notifications than SurveySay, and most active users receive around $20 per month.
- Swagbucks: Swagbucks ranks among the most widely known and trusted online money-making apps. It offers a diverse range of ways to make extra cash, such as watching videos, playing mobile games, answering polls, and taking surveys.
- Branded Surveys: Unlike SurveySay, Branded Surveys provides its own paid surveys. Users can enjoy higher payouts—capping at around $5 for 15-minute surveys.
Final verdict: Is SurveySay worth it?
Overall, SurveySay.com doesn’t provide paid surveys, but rather it connects you to companies and platforms that do. It’s a paid survey aggregator.
Considering its industry-low earning potential, supposed privacy issues, and limited paid survey opportunities, we can’t recommend the platform 100%. Several other survey sites follow higher payouts.
You can even go straight to the first-party survey platforms in the SurveySay database and cut out its middleman earnings. Some users claim that the website takes about 5% to 10%.
Of course, you can still push through with your SurveySay application if you want. It doesn’t take much time to explore its offers and tasks, so you probably won’t waste much time.w
However, we suggest using a dummy email account. SurveySay sends dozens of spam and promotional emails, which you definitely won’t want in your banking and social media accounts.
Aidan has been writing about personal finance for over 6 years. Prior to this, he worked as a Corporate Finance Analyst where he specialized in Due Diligence, Company Valuations and more. He is a CFA charterholder.
