Swagbucks Review: Pros, Cons, And Alternatives

Swagbucks is an online survey and rewards site that allows to earn rewards in a variety of ways.

A lot of people aspire to earn money online. Without starting a full-blown business, there are a few legitimate ways to earn money online. But don’t go in expecting to quit your day job. It requires a lot of time for little pay. But if you are up for it, you can definitely earn some side money online.

Swagbucks is one way to earn money online. By participating in any number of money-making activities, you can earn points toward a gift card or cash.

In this review, we’ll tell you how. You can skip the review and get $5 free for signing up >>

Who Is Swagbucks?

Swagbucks is a website that lets you earn points (a form of points called SB), which can be converted into gift cards and cash for doing various online activities such as taking surveys, watching videos, playing games, and searching.

Swagbucks has been around since 2008fff and are a subsidiary of Prodege, LLC. Prodege has a few other brands that you’ll probably be familiar with, including MyPoints, Upromise, and ShopAtHome.

As of December 2023, Swagbucks has paid out $562,700,000 in cash and free gift cards. Swagbucks is based in El Segundo, California.

Is It Legit?

Yes, Swagbucks is legitimate. Some people claim they are a scam, but these claims seem to get confused with survey disqualifications and low payouts, explained later.

With over 37,000 reviews, it has earned a 4.0 out of 5 on Trustpilot. The app also earned 4.2 out of 5 stars in the Google Play Store. While the Apple App Store reviews are even higher, at 4.4 out of 5 stars, the reviews suggest you should expect a generally positive experience from the platform.

While Swagbucks is a brand of Prodege, they don’t have a Better Business Bureau rating. However, Prodege does have a BBB rating of A−. They have 551 complaints and a low 5-star rating out of 5 with 519 customer reviews.

How Much Will I Earn?

You aren’t going to get rich or even make enough money to live off by using Swagbucks. Think of it as something better than pocket change.

To give you an idea on earnings, most surveys take around 20 minutes. But you also have to qualify for each survey. Depending on the site, it can take a few minutes to fill out a form only to be disqualified, which eats into the number of surveys you can take within an hour. Roughly, expect to earn a little less than a dollar per hour.

At the end of the month, this means a few dollars. For the aggressive and those who have a lot of time, hitting double-digit earnings consistently is certainly realistic.

Swagbucks also has other methods of earning besides those mentioned above. The following are all ways to earn SB points:

• Cashback Shopping
• Complete Paid Surveys
  
• Watch Video Clips
• Special offers
• Print Grocery Coupons

If you’re not at your computer, don’t worry — you can still use their mobile app. When you’re standing in line or just have time to kill, pull out the mobile app and earn a little cash. You’ll need to make sure you have around 20 minutes to spare, depending on the activity.

Survey tip: When you’re looking through surveys, the best earnings are those that pay the most and take the least amount of time. You can also sort surveys, which makes it easy to find the best value.

Video tip: When watching a video, you can kill two birds with one stone. Watch the video in the background and continue searching or taking a survey in the foreground. This lets you earn points in two different ways at the same time.

How Does It Work?

To get started, sign up for free at swagbucks.com. You’ll get a $5 bonus just for joining.

As a side note, if a website is asking for your payment information, don’t sign up. You shouldn’t have to enter in a credit card. After all, they are paying you. Not the other way around. Swagbucks doesn’t ask for your credit card.

As mentioned earlier, there are many ways to earn money. Surveys are very popular, but it’s easy to get burned out on them. Shopping is another popular way to earn points. Many of your favorite stores will be featured on Swagbucks.

Points on Swagbucks are called SB points. SB points can be redeemed for popular gift cards for companies such as Amazon, Target, and iTunes. You can also elect to redeem the same value as a payout to your PayPal account.

Searching the web can also earn you money. First install their browser extension. You might receive SB points just for installing the button. You’ll receive one SB point for each day you use the button. The Swagbucks button will display if SB points are available for the site you’re searching on. If you’re going to spend money at a specific retailer, you might as well earn SB points for it.

Popular Alternatives

Swagbucks isn't the only online survey and rewards site out there. While it was one of the first (and probably one of the most popular), there are a lot of competitors.

Some of the most popular competitors include Survey Junkie and Branded Surveys.

You also have more niche alternatives like Upromise that allows you to earn rewards that you can use to save for your children's college.

Why Should You Trust Us?

I have been testing and trying Swagbucks since 2009. It was one of the very first side hustles that I tried, and I've been testing features over the years as they've rolled out.

Furthermore, we stay up to date on what is happening in the Swagbucks community on Reddit, to make sure that we don't miss anything.

Who Is Swagbucks For?

College and high school students and those with time to spare are great candidates for Swagbucks.

It's great for earning while you're doing something else - like watching TV. 

You’ll need a decent amount of time to earn only a few dollars within a given month. If you make less than a dollar per hour and spend three hours per week on Swagbucks, that’s around 12 hours per month and maybe around $10 in earnings. Any bonuses or special offers can boost earnings higher.