Pros
- A lot of ways to make money — Swagbucks has a ton of different things you can do to earn money. You can take surveys, watch videos, play games, browse the internet, shop online, and a lot more.
- Clean and easy to use website and app — Swagbucks has a very clean and easy-to-use website. They’ve done a great job of organizing all the various tasks and activities into a meaningful design.
- Great payout options — Swagbucks offers dozens of great payout options. Anything from PayPal deposits and gift cards at popular retailers, to donations and even cruise lines.
- Earning Swagbucks isn’t too difficult — Compared to other rewards websites, it didn’t feel “impossible” to earn money using Swagbucks. The activities paid out reasonable SB points and weren’t too time-consuming.
Cons
- You may not always qualify for surveys — Some surveys will have you answer several pre-qualifying questions before the actual survey begins. This can take a few minutes of your time. And sometimes, you don’t even qualify for the survey, so you’ve wasted your time.
- Some offers require you to use a credit card — Not all, but many offers will require you to enter your credit or debit card number to start a free trial before you can earn your SB points. Sure, you could cancel the trial and still walk away with your SB points, but that’s not ideal.
- Most games require you to spend money to earn SB points — Swagbucks has a lot of popular games you can play such as Angry Birds, Wheel of Fortune, and Bejeweled. The downside is that you have to spend money on these games before you can earn SB points. There are some games that don’t require you to spend money. But they aren’t popular games.
Full Swagbucks Review
Swagbucks was founded in 2008 as a rewards website. Since then, Swagbucks has paid out over $437 million in cash and gift cards. That’s almost half a billion dollars in payouts.
Swagbucks’ parent company is Prodege, which has purchased many other popular rewards websites, including MyPoints.
I’ve used and reviewed many rewards websites, and so far, Swagbucks has been my favorite.
When you complete tasks and activities on Swagbucks such as surveys, videos, games, and web searches, you earn what’s called SB points. SB stands for Swagbucks and is the digital currency of the Swagbucks website. SB points can be redeemed for cash, gift cards, and other rewards.
Swagbucks has the most ways to earn money, but they also have the most features outside of what you would normally expect from a rewards website.
For example, most rewards websites allow you to make money doing normal online activities such as playing games, watching videos, and surfing the web.
Swagbucks does offer those things. However, they take it a step further by offering other unique ways to make money, such as the Swagstakes (get it, sweepstakes) and the Swagbucks Member Recognition Program. I go into detail about both those services in this review.
Both the Swagbucks website and mobile app are clean and easy to navigate, and the redemption options are great.
Overall, Swagbucks is one of the best rewards websites currently on the internet. I would highly recommend it to make some extra cash for yourself in your free time.
Swagbucks is best for you if
- You want to make money using the internet like you normally do — Swagbucks allows you to earn cash by watching videos, playing games, reading news articles, and browsing the web. These are all things you’d normally be doing anyway.
- You have extra time to take surveys, and complete offers — Swagbucks has a variety of offers and surveys that you can complete to earn SB points that can be redeemed for cash and gift cards.
- You spend a lot of time commuting or waiting around — If you live in a busy city and have long commutes, Swagbucks could be perfect for you. Instead of people watching on the subway or in your Uber, why not take time to earn additional income for yourself? It’s a better use of your time than surfing Facebook or Instagram.
Ways to earn with Swagbucks
There are 7 primary ways for you to earn money using Swagbucks.
Well, technically, there are over 15 ways. However, I go into detail about some of the other unique ways to make money in the “Swagbucks top features” section of this review.
But for now, let’s quickly discuss the 7 primary ways:
- Shopping — Shop online with Swagbucks and get cash back at over 1,500 retailers. You can earn cash back at places like Walmart, Target, Starbucks, and Amazon. Every dollar you spend earns you SB points that can be redeemed for cash and gift cards.
- Surveys — Take surveys and earn SB points. Share your opinion with real brands who use your feedback to make major product and service decisions.
- Watching videos — Watch curated video playlists put together by Swagbucks and earn SB points. Get paid for being entertained.
- Searching the internet — Use the Yahoo! powered Swagbucks search engine and earn SB points when you search the web like you usually do.
- Discover deals — Find exclusive deals and offers from popular brands. Earn SB points when you sign up for free trials, try free samples, and more!
- Playing games — Earn SB points for playing popular games like Angry Birds or Swagbucks original games.
- Mobile app — Download the Apple iOS or Android Swagbucks app and take surveys, shop, watch videos, and browse the web on the go.
Swagbucks alternatives
There are several alternatives to Swagbucks. Many of these similar services can be used to compliment Swagbucks.
For example, Rakuten doesn’t have to replace Swagbucks, it can be used to find more cash back deals than what Swagbucks has to offer. Here are all of the Swagbucks alternatives:
- MyPoints (See full review here) — Best alternative to Swagbucks
- Rakuten (See full review here) — Best for cash back deals
- Honey (See full review here) — Best for finding coupons and promo codes
- Ibotta (See full review here) — Best for cash back deals on groceries and common items
- Survey Junkie (See full review here) — Best for surveys
- PrizeRebel (See full review here) — Best for even more surveys
Swagbucks top features
Swagbucks has many ways to earn money, such as completing surveys, watching videos, playing games, shopping, and surfing the web.
In addition to all the usual ways you can earn money, Swagbucks also has several other great features that make their service shine above the rest.
Let’s talk about each one in-depth.
Swag Ups
Swag Ups are an amazing way to boost your SB points earnings. Swag Ups are essentially point multipliers. They’re bonuses that are applied to your Swagbucks account that power up your earning potential when you complete certain tasks.
For example, with Swag Ups, you can earn double the SB points for completing surveys, double SB points for shopping, and more. You can also earn flat-rate bonuses such as 50 SB points on top of what you normally earn for the task or activity.
You can get a Swag Up for participating in Team Challenges, Swago Boards, or as random prizes from the Spin & Win Wheel.
Swagstakes
Swagstakes are exactly what they sound like, sweepstakes, except on Swagbucks.
Like sweepstakes where you purchase tickets to be entered to win an item, with Swagstakes, you use your SB points to purchase entries to win specific prizes.
For example, instead of using your 500 SB points to purchase a $5 Amazon gift card, you might try your luck and purchase 10 Swagstakes entries for 250 SB points at a chance to win a Macbook Air valued at $999.
It’s risky, but if you want to try your luck, it can be a fun way to spend your SB points.
SwagButton
The SwagButton is Swagbucks’ browser extension that you can install and get 25 SB points.
The SwagButton allows you to earn cash back while shopping online. It will also notify you when you’re on a site with sales and automatically find coupon codes.
This can be a lot more convenient than having to search for coupon codes manually.
Additionally, since it automatically applies discounts and cash back offers, you never have to think about missing out on a money-making opportunity. Just shop online like you usually would, and SwagButton works in the background.
On top of finding deals while you shop, SwagButton can also be used to watch videos and search the web. This means even more ways to earn SB points that can be redeemed for cash and gift cards.
Swagbucks Member Recognition Program
The Swagbucks Member Recognition Program is a unique incentive program that pays you for using Swagbucks consistently. No other rewards website has anything like this.
The program aims to celebrate member’s loyalty to Swagbucks by giving rewards based on lifetime SB points earned.
There are 10 levels of rewards, ranging from Pearl to Diamond. As you move up the rewards ladder, you will receive unique account benefits and rewards on that rewards level.
Benefits and rewards include gift card rebates, survey completion bonuses, same-day gift card fulfillment, and more.
It’s a cool feature that rewards you for using Swagbucks frequently. The more you use Swagbucks, the more rewards you will receive.
Daily Goal
Swagbucks Daily Goal is a feature that helps to make earning SB points feel more like a game.
Daily Goal gives you the motivation to earn more SB points, by rewarding you with bonus SB points for completing each Daily Goal.
Each day you have a new Daily Goal that has to be met to win the bonus SB points for that day. The more you consistently meet Daily Goals, the more bonus SB points you receive.
For example, if you meet your Daily Goal every day for an entire month, you’ll earn 300 bonus SB points on top of the SB points you earned from the task you completed for the Daily Goals.
It’s a great incentive to stay consistent and earn more SB points to redeem for cash and gift cards.
Refer & Earn
Swagbucks will pay you to refer friends and family.
When you refer someone who signs up, both you and your referral will get a 300 SB points bonus when your referral earns 300 SB points in their first 30 days.
On top of the SB points bonus, you’ll also receive 10% of their SB points earnings for life. If your friend earns $500 over a year, you will earn $50 of that without having to do any work.
Additionally, you can get a 100 bonus SB points for referring someone who adds the SwagButton on their computer.
How you get paid
Swagbucks offers a wide variety of ways for you to redeem your SB points and get paid. Let’s go over each one.
PayPal
Although you cannot redeem your SB points for cash directly into your bank account, you can redeem it for a PayPal deposit. A PayPal deposit is essentially the same as cash being directly deposited into your bank account.
With PayPal, you can do an instant transfer from your PayPal account to your bank account, as long as you already have your bank account connected to your PayPal.
You can do PayPal deposits for as little as 500 SB points, equal to $5.
Gift cards
Swagbucks has a variety of gift cards from just about every major retailer, brand, and restaurant you can think of.
Choose from a variety of categories including gaming, gas cards, apparel, department stores, food and beverage, and more.
To help give you an idea of the gift card options available to you, here are a few:
- Amazon
- Target
- Walmart
- Dunkin’ Donuts
- Starbucks
- Lowes
- The Home Depot
- Sam’s Club
- Taco Bell
And the list goes on. Most gift cards can be redeemed for as little as 500 SB points, equal to a $5 gift card.
Donations
If you’re feeling charitable, Swagbucks has several options for you to donate to a charity. Here are a few charities from the list of about 16:
- The Breast Cancer Research Foundation
- The Humane Society
- The American Red Cross
- Save The Children
- ALS Charity
There are several other charities that you have the option to donate to as well. You can donate as little as 5 SB points to any of these charities at any time. 5 SB points are equal to $0.05.
Cruises, Hotels, & Airfare
Swagbucks will even allow you to redeem your SB points for vacation and travel services. Feeling like taking a weekend vacation? Why not redeem your SB points for a Hotels.com gift card.
You can also redeem your SB points for gift cards at Carnival Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, Southwest Airlines, Delta, American Airlines, and Uber.
How to get started using Swagbucks
Let’s walk through step-by-step on how to sign up for Swagbucks and start using it to earn money.
Signing up
To sign up for Swagbucks, enter your email address and a new password. You can also sign up with Facebook if you prefer.
The signup process should take you less than 30 seconds. After you complete the registration, you’ll receive a confirmation email from Swagbucks that you’ll need to confirm.
After you sign up
After your register, you’ll be taken to the Swagbucks homepage. You’ll see all the various activities that you can complete to earn “SB points”. SB stands for Swagbucks and is the digital currency of the Swagbucks website. SB points can be redeemed for cash and gift cards.
You’ll want to take a few minutes and familiarize yourself with the Swagbucks website. The more familiar you are with it, the faster you can navigate and earn SB points.
You can navigate through the website by using the left sidebar. You’ll see a section titled “Earn Your SB points.” This section contains all the primary ways you can earn SB points, such as answering surveys, shopping, watching videos, and playing games.
Below that, there are a few more sections titled Gift Cards, Promotions, To Do List, Personalize, and Socialize. All these sections are relevant to your progress on Swagbucks and earning SB points to redeem for rewards.
The top right corner of the website is where you can view your current SB points count and edit your account settings.
Start making money with Swagbucks
Now that you’re comfortable with how to navigate Swagbucks, it’s time to start making money.
The best thing to start with if this is your first time using Swagbucks is your To Do List. The To Do List is a daily list of tasks and activities that you can complete on Swagbucks to earn bonus SB points.
Throughout the week, your To Do List will feature a mix of items including:
- Daily Poll
- Daily Search
- Deal Of The Day
- Daily Activity
- Daily Discover
- Daily Watch
- Attempt a Gold Survey
- Complete a Gold Survey
- In-Store Deals Activity
- In-Store Cash Back Activity
Whenever you complete a task or activity on your To Do List, a blue checkmark will appear next to the item.
You have two opportunities to earn bonus SB points. First, when you complete 6 out of 8 items on your daily To Do List. And second, when you complete 8 out of 8 items on your To Do List.
You’ll receive the bonus SB points on top of the SB points you’ll get for completing the items on the To Do List. So you’re literally doubling how much you earn.
Once you’ve completed your To Do List, it’s up to you to decide what you want to do to earn SB points.
You’ve got a variety of options. You can answer survey questions, shop online, watch videos, search the web, play games, complete deals, and more.
You’ll want to pay special attention to deals that have the potential of earning a lot of SB points.
Many of these deals can be found under the “Featured Ways To Earn” page.
For example, you can earn 3000 SB points for installing the Stash app and depositing $5 to be invested.
To help put this into perspective, 1 SB points is worth 1 penny. So 3000 SB points is equal to $30.
The $5 that you are depositing into Stash is being invested for you, so that money will grow. This is a fantastic opportunity to make easy money, and these opportunities are everywhere on Swagbucks.
Is Swagbucks worth it?
Yes, Swagbucks is definitely worth it.
It should go without saying, but Swagbucks will not make you rich. However, if you are spending your free time playing games, watching videos, and surfing the web, you might as well be paid to do those things.
Some users have earned as much as $300 per month using Swagbucks. These are called power users. They spend a few hours each day on Swagbucks, knocking out surveys, completing offers, watching videos, and playing games.
If you are not a power user, you can still use Swagbucks and expect to make enough to pay for groceries and perhaps a bill each month.
Overall, Swagbucks is a great service, and if you want to make some extra money using it, you can definitely do that.
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