It’s a bold statement to make. But, we speak from our experience of using several online survey sites. We are confident that, on balance, this is the best paid survey site of all. In this ySense review we’ll explain why we think so.
ySense
Summary
Best features are the much-higher than average payment rates on surveys and offers, and an excellent referral program. Good availability of surveys. Cash-out options equal to or better than most peers but could benefit from some additions.
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What Is ySense?
ySense is a free website that lets you complete simple online surveys in return for cash or other rewards. Such websites are sometimes also called GPT (Get Paid To…) sites.
It is a survey aggregator, which means that it does not produce its own surveys. Instead, it locates paid surveys from several survey originators, and makes them all accessible to you in one place.
This lets you maximize your survey earnings without having to visit and manage multiple survey sites.
In addition to surveys you can also earn by taking up opportunities presented in offer walls, or with referrals.
So far, ySense is no different to many of the paid survey sites out there. So why do we believe that this is the top paid survey site?
Things We Like About ySense
ySense Pays Much Better Than Most Survey Sites
Survey sites are not created equal and they certainly don’t pay the same for the same surveys.
Paid survey sites are good for earning a little easy extra cash, but they are not a replacement for a job. Far from it. But this is all the more reason to get the highest reward possible when devoting your time to these activities.
How do we find out which sites pay the best?
Unfortunately, there is no standard way to measure the rates at which different survey sites pay rewards. So we developed a few basic techniques of our own.
Our methods assesses the general rate at which sites reward surveys. We can also identify specific surveys from the same originators at different sites. This allows us to compare the reward rates offered by each one.
We found that ySense stands head and shoulders above most other sites in this regard.
For example, ySense consistently pays around 20% more than some of the most popular sites for the same surveys. In some cases, they pay as much as 40% more. This is true even for competing sites that belong to the same parent company.
For these evaluations we compared only standalone surveys, and not surveys inside offer walls. These generally pay less than standalone surveys, even on the same site, and would have skewed results.
Incidentally, we compared the reward rates of offer wall content too – all content, not just surveys within offer walls. We found that ySense also generally rewarded this better than other sites did.
ySense Is a Legitimate Site – Not a Scam.
When you decide to allocate some of your time to take paid surveys online, you want to be sure that you will be paid for your efforts.
So, is ySense legit, or is it a fly by night website that will likely scam you?
The good news is that ySense is definitely a legitimate and trustworthy survey site. It has been operating and paying out reliably for many years.
In fact, we have used ySense ourselves several times. Our experience has always been hassle-free, and our payments are always reliable and on time.
ySense is a subsidiary company of Prodege. This is the same parent company that owns Swagbucks, InBox Dollars and several other popular rewards sites.
Prodege has been in existence since 2005 and has paid its users more that $700 million since its inception. It is therefore an established and reputable company.
It Has a Good Selection of Relevant Surveys
Some paid survey sites try to attract new users by creating the impression that they have a large number of surveys on offer. They do this by presenting you with numerous links to various survey routers.
In practice, few of these links will be relevant to you. This is partly because surveys target specific demographics.
If a site does not have your basic profile on record, it cannot match you to the personal characteristics that a survey requires. So it will screen you out of most of the surveys that you attempt. When a site presents you with such a high number of unfiltered surveys you will end up spending a lot of time, with very little reward to show for it.
ySense will compare available surveys to your basic profile and will only offer those that match well.
ySense can still screen you out of surveys though. It’s not possible to profile a user for every conceivable characteristic that a survey may require, but ySense does a good job of removing unrewarding clutter and only presenting you with surveys that you are most likely to succeed with.
In addition to paid surveys, if you also have an interest in offer walls then ySense has a comprehensive selection of those too.
ySense Offers Many Cash-out Options
ySense offers a wide range of different ways to withdraw your rewards. You will likely find an convenient option that works for you.
Some of the more common ones are:-
- PayPal cash ($10 minimum)
- Amazon gift cards ($5 minimum)
- Steam gift cards ($10 minimum)
- Payoneer cash ($52 minimum)
- Skrill ($5.05 minimum)
Each payment choice has a corresponding minimum balance that you must have in your account before you can use it. That’s because some cash-out types incur fees when a payment is made.
Many survey sites deduct these fees from your reward when they pay you.
One of the nice things about ySense is that they do not charge these fees to you, nor do they deduct them from your earnings. What you see on your account balance is what you get paid. But, since these fees represent an expense to them, they use minimum balances as a way to limit their cost.
ySense handles cash-out requests promptly and usually processes them within 2-3 business days.
Your ySense Earnings Will Never Expire
We have seen some legitimate and trustworthy survey sites state in their Terms of Use (TOU), after a certain period of time has elapsed, you will forfeit any earnings that you have not yet claimed.
It could be that you have not yet reached the minimum balance required to withdraw, or that you’re just not that active as a user.
Whatever the reason, and even though the forfeit only applies after several months, or a year, we don’t see the justification for this. Your earnings compensate you for the work and time you have applied to the tasks you completed, and should never expire.
With ySense this is not a concern and you will not forfeit your earnings.
ySense Has Very Few Membership Restrictions
Some paid survey sites limit access to users from their own country, or a handful of regions. One of ySense’s sister sites, InboxDollars, is an example of this and is only open to US users.
ySense, on the other hand has no such restriction and membership is open to users from all countries.
You must be at least 13 years of age to join in the US, and at least 16 in other countries.
You may only have one account per user. This is standard in the paid survey industry and helps to eliminate fraud.
But, each qualifying member in your household can have an account, So both you and your partner or spouse can join, as can your kids of qualifying age; and you can all earn rewards on ySense.
ySense Has the Best Referral Program of Any Paid Survey Site
Participating in a site’s referral program offers you an opportunity to add to whatever you can earn from surveys and offers.
ySense’s referral program is excellent and is, without doubt, the best in the paid survey site industry.
While some survey sites have no referral program at all, some others have very basic schemes which only pay a small one-time reward of around $1 or so.
The better referral programs will pay you a commission based on the on-going earnings of your referrals, and will continue to do so for as long as they remain active.
A very small number of competing sites will match ySense’s generous compensation rate of 20% of your referrals’ qualifying earnings, but ySense will even go further and increase that to as much as 30% if you can maintain a certain number of active referrals.
ySense also pays additional one-time bonuses if your referrals are from specific countries, or when they reach certain milestones.
We’re not aware of another legitimate site that offers a referral program as attractive as this one.
The ySense Browser Addon is Useful
ySense offers a browser addon for your desktop or laptop.
When installed, it provides you with summary information about your account, and indicates the number of surveys that are available. Its main benefit is that it saves you time because you no longer need to login repeatedly to check for new surveys. ySense offers this browser addon for Chrome, Firefox and Edge.
We have it installed in our Chrome browser. We sometimes notice a small difference of a few minutes between the time that a new survey appears on ySense, and when it reflects in the addon. Other than that, we can attest that it functions well.
ySense Has Good Support Features
ySense has a functioning help desk to which users can submit problem tickets if they ever experience issues with the site. On the odd occasion when we’ve had to report a problem we found them to be responsive and helpful.
ySense also has an active user forum where users can communicate with other users and exchange information.
Finally, there is a blog which ySense uses to make general announcements and share helpful tips. ySense updates it regularly, although not too frequently.
Things We Don’t Like About ySense
Limited Gift Card Offerings for Non-US Users
If you prefer gift cards as rewards instead of cash, and you live outside the US, you have limited options. ySense offers very few gift card rewards from domestic retailers in those countries.
This is especially true if you are in a country where Amazon does not have a presence. You have no choice but to use one of ySense’s cash payment options instead.
To be fair, most survey sites suffer from this shortcoming, although there are a few that include localized offers. It would be nice, though, if the best paid survey site could be made even better in this way.
No Cryptocurrency Cash-out Options
One or two other survey sites already offer Bitcoin, or one of the other major cryptocurrencies, among their payout options. For many users, not having a crypto option is not a deal breaker. But in regions where PayPal or gift cards are not viable, this would be a useful alternative.
How Much Money Can You Make Doing Surveys?
This is a tough question to answer, and the reason is that it depends on a lot of things. Some of these things are under your control, so you can influence the amount you make. Others are beyond your control, and you can do little or nothing about them.
Here are some of the factors that affect how much you can earn on ySense:
Your personal demographic
This is the most important factor, and the surveys that will and will not be offered to you will mostly depend on this.
Researchers target their surveys at specific groups represented by age, gender, country, employment status, and a bunch of other traits. Let us say, for example, that you are responsible for doing the household shopping. You are then much more likely to get surveys relating to different grocery products than someone who is not.
The amount of time you spend on surveys
The more time you dedicate, the more surveys you are likely to complete. You are also more likely to access surveys before their quotas are reached since researchers only pay for a certain number of responses.
Your willingness to complete very long surveys
A survey will usually give an indication of the time it will take you to complete it. Most surveys are shorter than 20 minutes, but some can be as long as 45 minutes or more. Are you prepared to do such long surveys?
Your willingness to attempt low-paying surveys
Some surveys pay less than you may be prepared to work for. For example, you may be happy to attempt surveys that pay $0.03 or more per minute, but would you be prepared to do surveys that pay only $0.02 a minute?
The general availability of surveys
The survey pool is not bottomless and will sometimes dry up. When this happens, you must wait until new surveys are released.
Given these variables, and depending on your personal choices, you could realistically make between $1.25 and $2.50 an hour, or more.
Paid Survey Tips – Ways to Maximize Your Earnings
Here is how you can get the best possible return on the time you spend taking surveys:
Choose The Best-paying Survey Site
It need not necessarily be the absolute best paid survey site as far as this goes. There are other things to consider when choosing a site, but it should certainly be near the top.
Earlier in this review we showed why ySense is one of the best-paying survey sites of all.
Stick to One Survey Site
Joining multiple sites will let you access a larger pool of paid surveys and let you earn more. Right?
I’m afraid not.
Most survey aggregators, like ySense, source their surveys from the same survey originators. These originators will see that you are accessing a survey that you attempted previously and will almost certainly reject your attempt. So, while you may be gaining access to a few more surveys, you will also be repeat-attempting many of them.
This will result in a lot of wasted time and frustration for you, for what will ultimately be a very small added benefit.
Do the Stand-alone Surveys First
Survey sites tend to present paid surveys in different ways. There are stand-alone surveys, survey routers and surveys within offer walls.
Stand-alone surveys are usually listed individually. You can see their approximate length and associated reward. These are single surveys that actually exist. Stand-alone surveys are usually among the highest-paying on a paid survey site.
Survey routers are devices that, when you click on them, go off and interrogate their sources to see if any paid surveys are available. A survey router can offer multiple surveys. For that reason, it will indicate a reward, but not a time, as the length of each survey can differ.
The downside of routers is that the interrogation process is time-consuming and often does not always result in success. If you choose to use them, do so only after you have exhausted all the stand-alone ones.
Survey routers within offer walls are just like stand-alone survey routers. Any survey that you complete through these routers will generally reward at a lower rate than the stand-alone surveys and routers. That’s because the offer walls represent additional middlemen who deplete the available rewards by taking their cut.
If you decide to attempt these surveys, we recommend that you do them last.
Get The Daily Checklist Bonuses
You can earn a bonus of up to 16% of your earnings every day by completing the daily checklist.
Complete at least 2 surveys or offers to get the basic bonus. This will earn you 12% of your total survey and offer activity for the day.
If you complete the basic checklist and run the browser addon for at least an hour on the day that you complete the checklist you will earn an extra 2% bonus.
Complete the checklist for 3 days running and you will get an additional 2% Extra Activity Bonus on the third day. This bonus will be maintained for every day that you continue to complete the checklist thereafter.
Summary And Final Thoughts
Compared to other sites ySense scores very well in almost every feature area. It may not be the outright best paid survey site on every count, but it is the best on many.
If we had to choose only one site to earn money with paid surveys, we would choose ySense.
Is ySense worth it?
If you are considering ySense as a way of providing you with a full-time income then the answer is no. There is no way that you will earn anywhere near enough to satisfy that need.
But, the money is very easy to make and could help you to pay some small bills. If you have some free time on your hands it could be just right for you.
If you are looking to make more than just enough to cover your next Starbucks fix, maybe even provide you with a full-time income, then I think I can help you. Best of all, it’s not hard to do.
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