For the past 10+ years, Swagbucks has been one of the leading websites to pay you to make Internet searches. I've personally used them for over a decade now and have probably earned somewhere in the neighborhood of $1500 in Amazon giftcards.
Now before I go any further, let me just say one thing. There's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't be using one, if not both, of these sites. If you routinely search for things online via a typical search engine, then you're searching without the possibility of winning something. Any time you search on Google, your odds of winning a prize is 0%. Even if your odds of winning a prize on these two sites are 0.01%, that's better than nothing, no? Plus, given the facts that most people make multiple searches a day and that winning percentages are higher than that small number, you're essentially throwing away money if you're not using either one of these sites.
So what does Swagbucks have over Winzy? Well, as my chart below shows, pretty much everything. Swagbucks does whatever Winzy does, plus some. Actually, plus a lot. You can win Swagbucks by shopping online. Or by recycling your old cell phones with them. Or by reading their blog and following their Twitter account. Or by…well, you get the point.
| Swagbucks | Winzy | |
|---|---|---|
| Refer Friends | Yes | Yes |
| Win What Your Friends Win | Yes | Yes |
| Toolbar | Yes | Yes |
| Search Box Option for FF | Yes | Yes |
| Max Entries Per Day | No | Yes |
| Shopping Online Bonus | Yes | No |
| Changing Your Homepage Bonus | No | Yes |
| Newsletter Bonus | Yes | No |
| Recycling Bonus | Yes | No |
| Choose Your Own Prize | Yes | No |
| Following Blog / Twitter Bonus | Yes | No |
| Bonus Via Playing Games | No | Yes |
| Sponsored Ads In Results | Yes | No? |
| Widget For Your Blog | Yes | No |
It doesn't take a child prodigy to glance at the table above and quickly notice the significant larger amount of green on Swagbucks' side.
As a matter of fact, I wonder if Winzy is starting to lose it. Maybe they pull it out and hold steady in 2nd place or maybe they become another Blingo and crumble, but it's pretty hard to argue at this point that they're better than Swagbucks. My biggest complaint against Winzy is that they now take forever to deliver prizes. Despite their delivery promise of one month, I'm still waiting on two giftcards that I won near Halloween. In addition, I'm sick of winning thousands of “drawing entries.” They seem so pointless if everybody has tens of thousands of them! At the very least, winning a Swagbuck or two lets you know you're coming closer to a reward. If you're eying that Starbucks or Amazon giftcard, then you know you're already a few steps closer with the newly won Swagbucks. But with Winzy, who the heck knows when you're going to win something.
In addition, I could swear I win more often with Swagbucks. Of course this is highly unscientific and subjective, but while researching this article, I won $2 Swagbucks ($1 Swagbuck and then another 15 minutes later). Now while those can't be redeemed for anything worthwhile on their own, you only need 45 Swagbucks for a $5 Amazon giftcard. Given that you start out with $3 Swagbucks when you sign up, I'm already 11% of the way there after 1 day.
Now as the chart above shows, it's not all rainbows and gumdrops with Swagbucks. The biggest drawback is the sponsored ads mixed in with the search results. As some of you might remember, that's what killed Blingo a few years ago. (Who, as luck would have it, actually cut back on the ads mixed in with the search results. Guess they learned their lesson a bit too late when so many people jumped ship.) As it stands now, they've got 4 sponsored ads in the search results. That's kind of a pain, but as I type this, right hand to God, I just won another Swagbuck. It's not even noon and I've got $3 Swagbucks under my belt for the day. I can put up with clearly marked sponsored ads in my search results if my winning average stays this high.
So for now, I'm drinking the Swagbucks Flavor Aid. Are you going to make millions? No. Are you going to make hundreds? Doubtful. But is there the opportunity to win enough Swagbucks every month to snag a free giftcard or two? Heck yes. Can the same be said for using Google or Yahoo?
Exactly.
Lesley says
January 28, 2009 at 12:36 pmOkay, you convinced me. I am transcriptionist working from home, and I can’t tell you the number of times a day I use Google to search for info. I did sign up for Winzy, but all I ever win are points. I’m trying out Swagbucks right now. Thanks!
Goob says
January 28, 2009 at 12:42 pmLesley, let us know how you like it after a few days!
I’m with you on the “winning nothing but points from Winzy” shenanigans. It just gets a bit discouraging after a while, especially when all those points vanish every month, you know?
Shoyz says
January 28, 2009 at 01:01 pmThere’s also what I think is called ‘Windows Live Search’, where you get a point per search, 25 being the max per day, worth aprox 25 cents.
About 2 dollars a week, 8 a month basically. Redeemable for prizes.
Personally, I’d never use one of these unless it used a Google Search Engine with their Ads or something. I can’t stand using anything but google (Yahoo tends to give me completely inaccurate results).
AJ says
January 28, 2009 at 01:50 pmI just won 2 swagbucks on my first search! I like that you can just add it to your toolbar search on Firefox. I basically just added it and changed my searcher to swagbucks, because I search from the browser most often. Easy peasy.
And to whomever asked, it pulls from Google and Ask.com search engines.
Lesley says
January 28, 2009 at 01:57 pmYes, the above is true. I found Winzy gave often incomplete results as well, but this does pull from Google, and so far I’ve found all the things I’ve searched for. I only one 1 swagbuck so far. I also like that I can see what I’m working for. Cool.
Lesley says
January 28, 2009 at 01:57 pmHow embarassing. I only won 1 swagbuck is what I meant to say.
Julie says
January 28, 2009 at 03:23 pmin for the swagbucks, Im online enuf to make use of this.
Thanks!
mm says
January 28, 2009 at 04:00 pmyou should get points now from us registering from your links goob, yeah i also won 2 swagbucks with the first search entered the same search info on both and got alot of useless crap with the winzy one but winzy is good for the compulsive gambler who doesnt mind losing all thier points to the games, this way they dont lose real money
mm says
January 28, 2009 at 04:20 pmwoohoo won more points great i think ill go out and and and umm nothing i guess
fanniefarkle says
January 28, 2009 at 04:38 pmI’m giving it a try.
Mubina says
January 28, 2009 at 06:17 pmIf I were you, I’d post a referral link or banner up! You’ll earn points too when we win.
Shannon says
January 28, 2009 at 07:04 pmit said i could not sign up at this time, no idea. maybe cause i use a mac? someone help!
kelly says
January 28, 2009 at 07:44 pmi won 2 swagbucks on my first search! this is much better than winzy.
Goob says
January 28, 2009 at 10:28 pmShannon, that’s odd. I’m on a Mac myself and it let me sign up just fine. What browser are you using? FF here.
Chrissy says
January 28, 2009 at 10:44 pmCheck out goodsearch.com, your searching and shopping will give $’s to a designated school or non profit of your choice!
Krista says
January 29, 2009 at 12:43 amI’ve been using Swagbucks for quite some time now. First off, I’m really happy that Swagbucks is now handing out a LOT more SB. When I first started using them, I’m pretty sure it had a 1 SB/day limit because that’s all I ever saw and I searched a LOT! Now they have bigger denominations and more prizes to choose from. I decided the other day to use some of them to buy basketball cards. It was super easy to place the order and I got the cards only 5 days after ordering them – including a weekend!!! I was ecstatic! The only downfall was that I could only order 2 prizes per day, so it took me 4 days to order all 8 cards I wanted.
Christina says
January 29, 2009 at 01:08 amI am totally excited to try this out.
Here’s a tip – see if you feel like linking co.cc in your free stuff – I got a free domain name there last night!
John says
January 29, 2009 at 01:45 amI have been using Swagbucks for about 4 months now and absolutely LOVE IT! What I like the most about them is that the site is dynamic and continually improving. The are very engaged with “Swag Nation” and I have found that many suggestions their users put up as comments in their blog and facebook etc. end up being implemented. The best addition I have found so far is “SwagCodes,” where they put codes up in random places on their sute that are good for free Swag Bucks if you find them.
BTW You MUST refer friends – it is by far the best way to rack up fast bucks. Like I said I’ve been on it for 4 months but already have totaled $35 in Amazon cards, a band t-shirt, and a $5 gift card to their video game partner – all from referral bucks from my friends!
Drink the Swagbucks Flavor Aid my friends haha
Jackie says
January 29, 2009 at 01:54 amI LOVE SWAGBUCKS! I have already received $10 or $15 in Amazon Money, I can cash out for $10 now but I am holding off. Good Article!
Jackie
Jordan says
January 29, 2009 at 11:05 amYou convinced me to sign up for an account with Swagbucks. It looks like a great way to get an Amazon gift card (or something else) every couple of months. Thanks for the information you provided in this post and great job with your blog, I visit it regularly!
Jacob says
January 29, 2009 at 01:06 pmW0W! This site SEEMS 10,000 times better then winnzy! Thanks very much!
leslie says
January 29, 2009 at 01:59 pmSWAGBUCKS IS GREAT. Better than any search and win site. Plus they give out swagcodes where you can get extra money.
(Goob: Please stop making multiple posts.)
DeLena says
January 29, 2009 at 04:11 pmI have been using Swagbucks for quite some time now and already earned $50 in Amazon gift cards. I never heard of Winzy or any other search and win sites. First my son hooked me up with Swagbucks so he could win some Pantera swag, then I switched to my name and took it from there. SWAG BUCKS RULE!!!!
Kevin says
January 31, 2009 at 08:36 pmIn the table, you say swagbucks has a bonus for changing it to your homepage? How is that?
Debbie says
February 2, 2009 at 09:02 amI can honestly say I was a big winner on Winzy. I won last Aprils $1000.00 grand prize. It took about 3 weeks longer to get the money than they said, but I got it. I only had a little over 13,000 points that went in for this drawing when I won. But since then they have cut way back on their prizes.
Carol says
March 30, 2009 at 05:23 pmSorry – didn’t try the swagbucks website after I read the terms they wanted me to agree too. I am not ok with giving them access to use my name, picture, etc as they want in advertisement etc, and I have to recourse to stop them from using it. Not worth it. Especially if for for a $5 gift card to Starbucks!.
Lisa says
March 31, 2009 at 08:21 amHey! I just tried 2-3x to sign up for Swagbucks and each time I got a msg: error…wrong page..(thinking back to the robot saying: ‘watch out, will robinson!’!
I don’t know if the site is too busy, or if I am just another dummy~LOL!
Thanx
Lisa
Jill says
May 28, 2009 at 12:58 amFyi this is 1 of those companies that only allow 1 member per household. I joined swagbucks 6 months ago and finally earned points to redeem only $15 worth of prizes. However 1 of my housemates joined a couple months ago and has been using the website also. What sucks is swagbucks could have sent me an email or dropped my account earlier saying they had a problem but instead they waited until I finally redeemed a prize. Then instead of the prize, my account got deactivated and so did my housemate’s account. So to all you college students with roommates or housemates, that’s what’s in the fine print. I don’t consider my housemate part of my household since we’re totally financially independent and unrelated but rent rooms in the same home. However we have the same IP address and that’s enough to get us banned according to swagbucks terms. Anyway no big loss. This company hasn’t proven to be anything special and in the 6months I was with them I noticed that they’ve recently gotten extremely stingy with handing out swagbucks.
virginia says
June 16, 2009 at 03:24 pmI don’t know what this is but I willing to give it a try
makeabuck says
October 5, 2009 at 07:19 amNice review. I didn’t know about Winzy. I am definitely a fan of Swagbucks!
swaggy mcdoo says
June 18, 2011 at 11:10 pmYou REALLY ned to update a lot of your descriptions here, for beginners, you can play games now, just for starters. And you do not mention anything about the swidget at all, just sayin.