Swagbucks Review (Scam or Side Hustle?)

Looking for a detailed review of Swagbucks?

Perfect, you’re in the right place!

swagbucks review is this company legit

In this guide you’ll learn:

  • What is “Swagbucks”?
  • Is Swagbucks a scam or legit company?
  • How does Swagbucks work?
  • How much money could you actually make?
  • Some hidden tips/tricks to make more money than most folks
  • And much more!

Let’s get into it!

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What's In This Guide?

Are you looking for a new way to make extra money just by using the internet? Do you want to maximize your personal finances through a quick and simple way to make money online that doesn’t take up too much of your valuable free time?

Well, if you want a new side hustle, getting started with an online survey site might just be a solid option for making extra cash. Unfortunately, with so many different options out there, it can be difficult to find just one.

One of the most popular survey sites out there today is Swagbucks, which offers plenty of ways to make money from the comfort of your own home. To help you understand if the site is for you, we’ve got the ultimate Swagbucks review right here to get you started.

Read Also: What are the best survey sites to make money?

What Is “Swagbucks”?

So, just what is “Swagbucks“? Basically, Swagbucks is a website that allows you to earn points, known as SB points, in exchange for online shopping, online surveys, and other activities. If you like to watch videos, play games, and do other fun activities online, all while earning Amazon gift cards or cash back on PayPal, then Swagbucks just might be your go-to side hustle.

Swagbucks is a California-based operation owned by Prodege, LLC which is an online marketing company that also operates other sites, such as MyPoints and ShopAtHome. Each of these sites offers a different way to make money online or on a mobile app by doing simple tasks in your free time.

What makes Swagbucks different from a lot of other websites is that not only can you make extra cash by filling out online surveys, but you can earn SB points by using the Swagbucks search engine instead of Google or Yahoo for your internet browsing. Essentially, swagbucks.com is like a one-stop-shop for anyone that wants a rewards program that will basically earn you free gift cards for doing things you already do on a daily basis.

How Does Swagbucks Work?

If you think all of this sounds too good to be true, then you’re not alone. Confused as to how Swagbucks works? Yeah, we would be too if someone told us you could basically use free money just by taking daily polls and Swagbucks surveys. So, here’s how it all works:

Swagbucks is a membership-based website that allows anyone with an account to earn points that can be redeemed for gift cards or PayPal cash. It’s quick and easy to join Swagbucks and you can make an account either on their website or on the Swagbucks app.

Once you have an account, you have various ways that you can go about earning those Swagbucks rewards. Here are some of your options:

  1. Online Surveys. First and foremost, Swagbucks is what’s known as a “survey aggregator” site, which means they find a whole lot of different online surveys that members can take in exchange for points.

Swagbucks essentially gets paid by a variety of different market research companies that need real people, like yourself, to take their survey and answer their questions honestly. Swagbucks’ job is then to match qualifying people to these surveys, which they do by advertising them on their platform.

At the end, Swagbucks gives you points (which can be redeemed for money) in exchange for your time and then they keep the rest of the fees that they charge to the market research companies. Pretty much all online survey sites use this method to make money while giving you, the survey taker, a reward in return for your efforts.

  1. Swagbucks Search Engine. Swagbucks members can earn money simply by using the Swagbucks search engine instead of Google or Yahoo. By using the search engine, which you can simply download as a browser extension called “Swagbutton” on Chrome or a few other programs, you earn points as you surf the web.
  2. Online Shopping. You can earn SB points by online shopping at some big-name stores, like Walmart and Target on the Swagbucks app. Shopping through Swagbucks earns you one SB point for every dollar you spend on your credit card at these participating online retailers. Sometimes, you can also save money on your online shopping by using special “swag codes” at checkout!
  3. Special Swagbucks Offers. Every day, Swagbucks has a whole host of special offers (called NOSO or No Obligation Special Offers) that can get you points by doing a simple task or signing up for a website.
  4. Watch Videos And Play Games. It’s possible to even make money on Swagbucks by testing out computer games or giving your feedback on different movie trailers, all from the comfort of your couch.
  5. Smartphone Trade-in Program. Swagbucks runs their own smartphone trade-in program where you can send your android or other cell phones to their warehouse in exchange for points.
  6. Daily Polls. Every day, Swagbucks will have a quick and easy daily poll that you can complete in just a few seconds for some instant SB points.
  7. Referral Program. If you think that you have other friends who might be interested in earning free money through Swagbucks, you can send them a link to join. If they do, you can earn up to 1000 SB points just for inviting a friend.
  8. Swagbucks App. While the Swagbucks app allows you to do most of the activities you can find on their website, it also gives you some special ways to earn points. For example, you can watch special movie trailers and answer fun trivia questions through the app that you just can’t find on swagbucks.com.

Just be sure you’re downloading the right before you start – there are a lot of fake Swagbucks apps on iTunes and the Google Play store that are just scams and won’t earn you any money.

Is Swagbucks Legit?

With so many quick and easy ways to make money, you might be wondering, is Swagbucks a scam? The good news is that no, Swagbucks isn’t trying to scam you out of your time. They are a real, reputable company that does give the payouts they promise in exchange for your time and effort on their website.

Want some more proof? You can easily check out Prodege, LLC’s (Swagbucks’ parent company) page on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) website. Prodege, LLC boats an A+ rating, which means they’ve proven themselves to be a trustworthy company.

While you can certainly find unhappy people out there that have had a negative experience with the company, Swagbucks is generally easy to use and offers a simple way to have an online side hustle to earn extra cash in your free time.

How Much Money Can You Make With Swagbucks?

While Swagbucks is a reputable company, though, you shouldn’t expect to turn into a millionaire overnight just by using the site. Like most other online survey sites, Swagbucks doesn’t offer huge amounts of money for your time, so we wouldn’t go and quit your day job.

Is Swagbucks worth it? Well, if you consider that one SB point is worth more or less $0.01, then it really depends on how much you’re willing to commit to the program. If you exclusively use their search engine and online shopping portal in your regular life and take advantage of all of their daily polls and special Swagbucks offers, it’s certainly possible to rack up a whole lot of points.

Read Also: Is Survey Club a scam? Here’s our review of Survey Club.

That being said, if you’re just looking for something to do infrequently while you’re watching TV or just relaxing at home, it’s going to take quite a while to build up to anything substantial. However, this is true of pretty much every survey site out there, so it’s not really a demerit on Swagbucks’ record.

In reality, sites like Swagbucks are not supposed to be a way to make it rich. Really, they’re just great for making a little extra PayPal cash so you can pay for your Hulu subscription or for getting some nice gift cards to places like Starbucks.

How To Sign Up And Get Started?

Thankfully, getting started with Swagbucks is pretty simple. Here’s how to do it:

1. Create an account.

To join Swagbucks, all you have to do is go to swagbucks.com and sign up. You can do so by entering your email address and creating a password, or you can simply create an account through Facebook. This whole process takes less than 30 seconds and you can start earning right away.

swagbucks sign up

2. Complete your account.

To maximize your earnings potential on Swagbucks, you’ll want to do things like add the SwagButton browser extension to Google Chrome or whatever else you use to surf the web. You’ll also need to verify your email to ensure you’re getting access to all of Swagbucks’ offers.

swagbucks sign up started

3. Start earning.

You can earn SB points through a variety of different activities. The good news is you can get started right away! There’s no verification process when you sign up with Swagbucks.

swagbucks start earning

4. Redeem your points.

Once you have at least 300 SB points, you can start redeeming them for your payout. Choose from a whole host of different gift cards or you can simply get cash back on PayPal.

swagbucks redeem your points

What Are The Pros And Cons Of Swagbucks?

Not sure if Swagbucks is worth it to you? Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of using the site to make some extra money on the side:

Pros:

  • Lots of ways to earn points. Unlike most other survey sites, Swagbucks makes it easy for people to earn points through more than just taking online surveys. With Swagbucks, you have 9+ ways to earn SB points, including online shopping, playing games, watching videos, and surfing the web.
  • Smartphone app. Swagbucks’ smartphone app is convenient to use when you’re on the go. Since you can use the app anywhere you have an internet connection, you can earn points while waiting for an appointment or while taking the train to work. Or, if apps aren’t your thing, you can always just stick to swagbucks.com to maximize your rewards.
  • Multiple payout options. While some survey platforms will only let you receive your payout as an Amazon gift card, Swagbucks lets you choose how you want to get paid. You can choose from an Amazon or Walmart gift card, among others, or you can even just get cash through PayPal.
  • Lots of surveys. Swagbucks is a survey aggregator site, so it collects surveys from lots of different companies. This means you have many more chances to earn points than if you only used one survey site.

Cons:

  • Low earnings. Like most survey sites, you’re not going to make it rich just by using Swagbucks. In fact, if you only occasionally take a survey on the website, you’re probably not going to earn very much. But, if you utilize everything Swagbucks has to offer, you can make it worth your while.
  • High minimum payout. While you only need 300 points (about $3) to get a Walmart or Amazon gift card, you need at least 2500 SB points to get cash back from PayPal. Since you don’t earn that many points from using the website, it can take a while to actually make that extra cash.
  • Residency restrictions. If you want to use Swagbucks, you must be a resident of either the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, or Australia. Thus, it’s not a great website for people living outside these countries.

What Are The Alternatives To Swagbucks?

Looking for a Swagbucks alternative? Here are some of your options:

Survey Junkie

One of the most popular survey sites out there, Survey Junkie is an intuitive platform for making money solely by taking online surveys. While they don’t offer alternative activities like web browsing and online shopping, Survey Junkie makes it easy to find and take surveys that are applicable to you. Plus, even if you don’t qualify for a survey, they’ll give you points just for answering some basic questions.

MyPoints

Also owned by Prodege, LLC, MyPoints allows you to earn points from completing surveys, online shopping, and watching videos. They’re often a fan-favorite because they give out free points just for signing up, but many people get frustrated with the platform because they often bring you to other sites in order to take a survey.

Survey Club

Survey Club is what’s known as a “survey aggregator” site, which means they don’t actually create any of the surveys that you can answer. Instead, they’re like a middleman that rewards you for taking surveys from one of their market research partners. While this can be annoying for some, Survey Club does allow you to take a wide array of different surveys, which can maximize your earnings potential.

Pinecone Research

Pinecone Research is considered the gold standard in online survey sites because they pay top-dollar for some easy-to-complete tasks. The site is run by Nielsen (the company that does TV ratings), however, they are not always accepting new members, so you have to get lucky to be able to get in on their surveys.