Qmee Review: Is Qmee a Scam or a Money Maker?

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Qmee was a site that I started out quite sceptical about – even though it was originally recommended to me by a family member. However, several years have passed since my first Qmee review, and over time I’ve become rather more positive.

You will find out why in this detailed write up.

Before We Begin

If you’re looking for easy online earning sites, also check out:

• PrizeRebel (review here)
• Swagbucks (review here)
• Our guide to online side jobs.

(These links are set to open in a new tab, so you don’t lose your place!)

What IS Qmee?

Qmee is an online service that allows you to earn a modest amount of money online from a combination of searching the web, shopping, taking surveys and participating in offers. It falls into the category of “reward sites,” and it’s something you may wish to consider as a “side gig” if you want to earn some extra cash.

To be completely honest, I set myself up to dislike Qmee, and I do still dislike some elements of it, which I discuss below.

However, once I had it installed, it slowly started to charm me. I originally intended to remove it from my computer as soon as I’d finished my first Qmee review. Suffice to say it’s still installed years later, and gradually making me a bit of side income.

Is Qmee Legit?

Qmee is a legit company with a sold online reputation. The Qmee TrustPilot rating stands at an average of 4.5 stars from 2,360 reviews (at the time of writing). Payments are fast and reliable, and Qmee payment proofs are easy to find.

As with anything online, there are some negative reviews. These primarily relate to people being “screened out” of surveys – something that’s unavoidable across all popular survey sites. Also, some people complain that surveys take considerably longer than the quoted time – a problem that has come up on several of the sites we’ve reviewed.

How Can You Make Money on Qmee?

There are several different ways to earn from Qmee:

• Taking surveys.
• Participating in cashback offers (similar to those found on sites like Topcashback and 20Cogs).
• Earning cashback from playing mobile games.
• Searching the web using Qmee’s browser extension.

The Qmee site also has a “deals” area, where you can get discounts from various websites.

Where is Qmee Available?

We researched where Qmee is available as part of this Qmee review, and found a tweet from 2021 explaining that you can only use the site in the US, UK, Australia and Canada.

How does Qmee work?

Since we first produced a review of Qmee, the service has evolved somewhat. It used to be that the core of Qmee was a browser extension – but that is now only a small part of the service. Regardless, let’s start off by showing you how that works.

The Qmee browser extension augments your web browsing experience by looking at where you go online and what you search for, and lets you earn a small amount of money from your searches.

As a simple example, with Qmee installed, this happens if I search Google for “dining chairs.”

As you can see, I have an additional set of suggested results from Qmee on the left of the screen. 

If I click through from those results and / or go on to buy something, I may earn some easy money, or could perhaps just see a voucher code to save some money. The Qmee results don’t show on every search – usually just when you search for terms that suggest you might buy something.

Going back to the above example, if I click the “Great Furniture Trading Company” Qmee link, I immediately receive 6 pence (8 cents) in my Qmee “piggy bank” – simply for clicking the link.

Yes – it’s incredibly effortless money – but you’re not going to retire on it – we’re talking about a slow drip of extra income.

Income from searching and shopping is only half of what you get with Qmee, the second is access to surveys and cashback deals. Let’s look at those next.

Qmee Surveys Review

One of the best things about the surveys on Qmee is that there always seems to be some there to do

This isn’t the case on many other platforms. Much as I’m a fan of both IPSOS Isay and PanelBase, for example, there are often lulls where no surveys come through, and occasional busy periods where you can’t keep up.

(If you are keen to find other platforms where there’s almost always something to do, I’d be inclined to point you in the direction of PrizeRebel and SwagBucks).

The reason for Qmee being so well stocked for surveys is that it partners up with all kinds of different third-party survey companies (I’ve even seen a couple of IPSOS surveys pop up on the platform). This wide variety is both a blessing and a curse.

It’s a blessing because it means there’s usually an opportunity to earn some change from a survey at any point you fancy doing one; It’s also a blessing because the surveys are varied and in different formats, so they don’t always feel like a grind.

However, it’s a curse because some of the surveys are much better than others, and some are flaky and unreliable – resulting in you wasting time; And it’s also a bit of a curse because payment for the surveys is incredibly variable.

While some rates are fair, others are less compelling. 39 pence for 20 minutes on a survey is a fraction of minimum wage! Companies like Populus Live do their surveys to work out to a return of around £1 ($1.32) for every five minutes you spend on them – a WAY more respectable £12 ($15) per hour. That said, days can pass without a single Populus Live survey coming through.

At least, with Qmee, you can see how much time a survey is expected to take, and make your own call on how worthwhile it is to take a specific survey. While there are some online Qmee complaints about surveys taking longer than quoted, we didn’t experience this problem when we tried a couple during this review update.

The final curse relates to privacy (and we have more on that below). As Qmee’s surveys are done in partnership with other companies, you sometimes have to “sign your privacy away” just to take an individual survey. As an example, for one I had to tick everything shown below just to participate:

I was not willing to give away all that privacy, let alone read pages of terms and conditions, just for the sake of earning some pocket change whilst completing my Qmee review.

It’s only fair to point out that there are plenty of surveys on Qmee which don’t require you to sacrifice too much privacy, but you don’t know until you begin each one. PanelBase suffers from the same affliction to a lesser extent, but it’s irritating all the same.

It all comes down to your own attitude to privacy – if you don’t care who sees what you do online, you have nothing to concern yourself with. However, if you’d rather defend your privacy a little more, you will probably find yourself backing out of certain surveys when you see what’s being asked of you.

All in all, however, Qmee surveys are actually pretty cool, primarily because there are almost always some available to do. If you’re waiting for a call or for something to download, it’s tempting to click into Qmee, find something paying a decent fee for five minutes of answering questions, and see a satisfying increase to your Qmee piggy bank.

There’s are also a basic “gamification” feature, where completing more than five surveys in a row gives you a small reward and increases your survey earnings.

Despite myself, I still like Qmee surveys more than I thought I would.

Qmee Cashback

Qmee cashback deals give you another way to earn money from the platform – but they’re probably not worth getting too excited about.

There’s a wide selection of deals – from everything from financial institutions and supermarkets – and if you make a habit of scanning through before buying something, you’ll undoubtedly be able to add to your cashback earnings.

The reason for my lack of enthusiasm is that most people already have accounts with one or two cashback sites, and it’s inevitable that you’ll see the same offers pop up. As I explain in my tips for cashback sites article, the best thing to do is to look on all the sites you can before buying anything, to get the best possible deal. As such, Qmee is well worth adding to that list – even if, alone, it’s perhaps not a compelling enough reason to sign up.

Gaming on Qmee

If you’re a mobile gamer, it’s definitely worth checking out the cashback offers for iOS and Android titles.

These allow you to do something like get £8 cashback for playing a specific game and reaching a specific level within a fixed time period.

While these offers are enticing, it’s perhaps only worth getting excited if you love playing these games anyway. While the rewards are pretty decent, they do require you to “grind” at the games for a prolonged period. It’s not a case of download game > have a quick play > get free money.

Even so, they’re a cool extra Qmee feature.

More on Qmee and Privacy

Now’s as good a time as any to explain why I had misgivings about Qmee when I first started using it.

My original decision to produce a Qmee review was prompted by my nephew, who had been using it to earn some extra money online as a student. He spoke very highly of Qmee, having made a decent amount of pocket money from it, and recommended it to me for this site.

When I started using it, I was very much on my guard. As someone who worked in the IT security and privacy sector for many years, I’m deeply suspicious of anything that gives you “money for nothing” in return for access to your browsing data.

I believe there’s a lot of truth in the saying that “if you’re not the customer, you’re the product.”

The papers are permanently full of privacy scandals, and while I’m no “tinfoil hat” conspiracy theorist, I’m not really a fan of the “nothing to hide, nothing to fear” argument.

I don’t have anything I feel I need to hide, and have made my peace with the fact the likes of Google, Facebook and Apple know an awful lot about my life. However, I don’t believe in making it easy for more and more companies to have free access to that information.

The privacy considerations on Qmee split into two halfs:

• The information the company can collect if you use the browser extension to earn from searches (as per the screenshot above).
• The data you will give away voluntarily if you decide to complete surveys.

In the case of surveys, they’re not something you should do if you’re hugely concerned about privacy anyway – you’re literally telling companies about you! The browser extension thing is something else entirely.

Over time, I’m become more resigned to the fact that lots of companies are tracking my online movements. I’m not fussed who knows I’m looking for dining chairs, so I may as well make a little side income in the process.

But it all comes down to your personal views on data security. Ultimately, if you want to keep your privacy locked right down, you’ll want to choose a very different side gig that has nothing to do with surveys or online browsing!

Qmee Review: Day-to-day usage

Qmee is slick and minimalist – both the website and the browser extension. I installed it as a Chrome extension on my Mac, and it works seamlessly. The extension allows you to have a quick glance at your account balance, but for anything beyond that, you go to the dashboard area on the Qmee website.

The main Qmee interface includes access to a detailed earnings history, a refer a friend scheme, and a link to the list of available surveys and offers.

Qmee: Getting Paid

Qmee really excels when it comes to getting paid. You are paid to a linked PayPal account, and you can request payment at any time, with no minimum payout or restrictions. There are also gift card and charity donation options.

This payment policy really boosts the trust factor, and somehow serves to make Qmee feel way more compelling.

With many of these sites, I suspect plenty of people put work into their new side gig but then abandon it before ever hitting the minimum cashout level. The fact there isn’t any minimum limit makes Qmee more appealing.

Here’s a screenshot showing a recent Qmee cashout:

Tips for Using Qmee

• Use the browser extension (if you’re happy with the privacy implications) – it will only earn you change, but you don’t have to do anything for it.

• Don’t use VPNs and other ways to cheat the system if you’re not eligible to join. You risk being found out and losing anything you’ve earned.

• Be discerning when selecting surveys – both in terms of privacy, and in the payment for the amount of time involved.

Qmee Review Conclusion

I started my first review of Qmee feeling certain I’d dislike it, but – as I said – I continue to have it installed years later.

The privacy thing is the key issue here. I’m personally a little put off some of the surveys due to how quickly all manner of third parties could land up with the rights to track me online. But Qmee itself is well presented, quite fun to use, and does give you the potential to earn small yet easy and consistent side income.

If you can access Qmee and you’re not bothered by the privacy implications, I think using it is a “no brainer.”

It won’t make you rich, but you’ll be able to pay for some treats just from your day-to-day browsing, and by answering some surveys when you have a little downtime. If the privacy issue DOES bother you, then you face a harder decision.

What’s more important, the privacy or the pocket money? Armed with the information in this Qmee review, only you can answer that!

Qmee Pros and Cons

The Good:

• Simple to set up and use.
• Usually some surveys available.
• Fast payouts with no minimum.

The Bad:

• Privacy compromises.
• Some surveys pay low rates.

Qmee Alternatives

If you want to make some more side income while you’re sitting at your computer. Why not try:

• PrizeRebel – a huge money-making site with lots of options.
• SwagBucks – a popular survey site with surveys and much more.
• UserCrowd – a great way to earn change from giving your opinion on new websites and apps.

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