Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. We may receive a commission when you click on them, but this is at no extra cost to you. Read our privacy policy for more information.
Table of Contents
Spare5 Review
Want to earn some extra cash on the go? The Spare5 app pays you to complete small and easy tasks directly from your smartphone. In this Spare5 review, we’re going to cover how much you can earn, how much time it takes and whether it’s scam or legit.
Registration with the Spare5 app is completely FREE, and they will never ask for your payment information.
With that said, let’s get started with the review.
Update: Spare5 is now available for your web browser, meaning you can now access it from your Desktop or Android devices.
What Is Spare5 And How Does It Work?
Spare5 is a free mobile app that’s currently only available for iOS devices and it’s now available for web browsers. This means that if you have a desktop computer or an Android device, you can access it from your device’s browser.
Although they’ve been out for a while now, they still haven’t come out with an Android app version. However, they are currently working on it. You can find out more details here.
Spare5 pays you for completing micro-tasks directly from your phone while on the go. Their main intention is that you can use the time waiting in line, riding the train or waiting for a friend to earn a bit of spare cash in your time.
Not only that, but the tasks will never use that much of your phone data. The great thing about Spare5 is that it’s considered an international money making app, meaning you can use it in other countries outside of the US.
When signing-up, I noticed they had a wide range of options to select which country you’re from. Registration is 100% free.
What Are The Pros And Cons?
Here’s a quick list of pros and cons with Spare5.
Pros:
- Minimum $1 to cash out
- Registration is 100% free (never pay for a rewards app or website)
- Cash outs to PayPal means you actually earn cash
- Earn at a rate of $8 – $12 per hour with up to $20 per hour (more information below)
- Refer friends for extra cash
- Not a scam – legit app that will pay you the right amount and on-time
- Earn XP points to increase earnings
Cons:
- No Android app available, but it’s in the works
- Only PayPal cash out option (contact Spare5 if you can’t do PayPal)
- Maximum of $20 to be earned through referrals
- Sometimes not very many tasks available
How Come Spare5 Is Able To Give Me Free Cash?
The reason Spare5 is able to pay you is because each time you complete a small task, they earn a bit of cash from advertisers and other companies. Companies use the answers that you provide to help improve their products and services.
Instead of them keeping all of this money to themselves, Spare5 gives a portion of it back to you for being an active participant. Not only are you earning a bit of cash, but you’re helping improve the products of everyday consumers.
How Much Can I Earn With The Spare5 App?
The amount you can earn with Spare5 is dependent on a few things:
- Location
- Demographics
- Time Spent on App
Location
As mentioned above, you can use Spare5 in more than just one country. However, if you’re from an English-speaking country, you’re more likely going to have more surveys than countries that don’t.
The reason for this is because the majority of companies that partner with Spare5 come from these countries.
Yet we don’t want to discourage you. Even if you’re not from one of these countries, we suggest you at least give Spare5 a try to find out if it’s worth it for you. For the purposes of this review, we’re going to state how much you can earn from a US perspective.
Demographics
Before you can complete any tasks with the Spare5 app, you’re required to fill out a quick 10-question introductory survey. The survey will reward you with $.10 cents, and will ask you questions regarding your current demographics.
We highly recommend being as honest as possible with these questions. Spare5 will determine what future surveys to give you based off of the answers you provide in this survey.
Not only that, but if Spare5 finds that you’re giving inconsistent answers from survey to survey, they may suspend your account or stop giving you surveys. Again, it’s important to be honest when completing tasks.
Time Spent on App
Obviously, the more time you spend completing tasks, the more money you’re going to earn. Yet this doesn’t mean you can consistently complete tasks with Spare5.
There’s only a limited amount of tasks available per user. From my personal experience, I usually log-in about once every few days to check for new tasks.
If I log-in every day, I often find that there aren’t any new tasks available. The amount of tasks they give you also depends on your demographics and location. Therefore, you’ll have to keep using the app to see how often they give you new tasks to complete.
So How Much Can I Earn With Spare5?
As mentioned above, we’re going to break down the earnings with the app from a US perspective. If you’re in another country, keep in mind your earnings may be different.
Most of the tasks on Spare5 are incredibly short. In other words, don’t expect to spend more than a few seconds on each one.
The reason for this is because Spare5 wants to gather information without you having to spend a lot of time or using a large amount of phone data.
I find that most tasks have a payout rate of anywhere between $.01 – $.20 cents. Every once in a while I’ll find a task that pays up to $.50 cents.
With our best estimation, we find that you can earn at a rate of anywhere between $8 – $12/hour. Keep in mind that this amount is our best guess and may not be completely accurate. Furthermore, if you’re from another country, it may be different.
For those who are extremely active and have earned a lot of experience points or XP (more information on this below), we’ve heard that it’s not difficult to make at a rate of around $15 per hour. Again, this is for more active users.
Earnings are paid out automatically every Friday to your PayPal account. When you first sign-up, you’ll be required to enter your PayPal address.
The best part about this app? There’s no minimum payout. This means with as little as $.01 cent they will deposit money into your account.
Does This Mean I Can Use Spare5 As A Full-Time Job?
Absolutely not. The reason? There aren’t enough tasks to go around.
However, Spare5 is a great way to earn some extra cash as a side hustle. Although it can’t replace your full-time job, we find that it’s worth it for those who need extra money and can spare 5 minutes or less (hence the name Spare5).
Refer A Friend For Extra Cash
Want to earn even more money with Spare5? Then refer your friends.
When your friend signs-up uses your link and earns their first $10, you get a bonus of $2 and your friend receives a bonus of $1. This continues until your friend reaches $100 in earnings or their first 180 days using the app – whatever comes first.
If you don’t have a share link in the Spare5 app, this means that you haven’t used the app for long enough. Keep using the app to receive the capability of referring friends. Unfortunately, there’s a maximum referral bonus of $20.
If you’d like to support FFL, you can use our referral link here. We’d greatly appreciate it!
What Type Of Tasks Do I Have To Complete With The Spare5 App?
As mentioned above, most of the tasks with Spare5 are incredibly short and simple. The very first task requires you to fill out your profile information and will give you a bonus of $.10 cents for doing so.
Other tasks may include listening to audio, describing a movie scene or captioning a funny image.
Most of the time, the tasks will be completely random. The more tasks you complete, the quicker the app will give you new tasks to complete.
The very first task for example consists of a short survey regarding some details about your life. The payout is $.20 cents. This task has to be completed in order for more tasks to appear. Most of the tasks that you complete will consist of short surveys on your phone, but sometimes you’ll need to take a phone survey also.
The tasks are limited, but pay quite well given the amount of time they take to complete. A survey can only take 1 – 2 minutes but still pays you $.20 cents. At this rate you could be making up to a maximum of $12 per hour, which isn’t a bad rate at all.
Spare5 sends out earnings automatically every Friday using your PayPal address, so be sure to type it in when you first register. If you happen to forget, you can always go into their settings tab and change it.
My favorite thing about this app is that there’s only a $1 minimum payout.
Spare5 Now Has A Web Browser Version!
Don’t want to use Spare5 from your phone? Spare5 now has a web version that can be accessed from your browser.
Sometimes the tasks will be a bit different, and I often find the tasks on my browser are more abundant than from my phone.
How Do I Get Started With Spare5?
Getting started with Spare5 is incredibly simple. However, in order to make sure you don’t miss any details, we’re going to walk you through the process step-by-step.
1. Register.
You can download the Spare5 app for free by clicking this link here. You can register using Facebook, Google, LinkedIn or email. Right now the app is currently only available for iOS devices.
2. Complete your welcome survey.
When you first log-in, the only task you’ll be able to complete is your welcome survey. This will pay you $.10 cents and will ask you questions about your demographics.
Be sure to be as honest as possible when filling this out. Not only will Spare5 use this information to determine which tasks are suitable for you, but if they find you giving inconsistent answers it could lead to a suspension of your account.
3. Complete tasks.
Once you’ve finished your welcome survey, Spare5 will provide you with a list of tasks to complete. Tasks typically take under a minute to complete and pay you anywhere between $.01 – $.50 cents.
4. Receive cash automatically.
When you sign-up, be sure to enter in your PayPal information. You can always enter in this information later on if you happened to forget. Payouts are made once a week automatically on Fridays.
You can also choose to donate your earnings to charity. For more information, check out the Spare5 FAQ.
5. Refer a friend.
Earn even more cash by referring a friend. When you refer a friend and they earn their first $10, you receive a bonus of $2 and your friend a bonus of $1. This goes on until they earn $100 or have used the app for 180 days.
You can earn a maximum referral bonus of $20.
The Spare5 XP Program
When you complete tasks with Spare5, you’re given experience points (XP). The more tasks you complete, the more points you’re given.
More XP points means you’ll be given earlier access to tasks, will be given more tasks with the chance to earn more rewards and higher payouts.
Spare5 currently comes with 6 different XP skills:
- Annotation
- Categorization
- Phone Survey
- Rating
- Research
- Writing
If you earn enough XP in a certain task, you can “level up.” When you level up, you’re more likely to receive a task in that category along with a higher payout rate.
Keep in mind that not every task leads to earning XP. The amount of XP you earn per task depends on the task and your current XP level. The higher level you are, the more XP you’re likely to earn.
We’ve heard that those with extremely high experience levels can easily earn at a rate of $15 per hour or more. For more information, checkout the Spare5 FAQ.
Is The Spare5 App A Scam?
This is one of the more common questions we receive about the Spare5 app: Is Spare5 a scam or legit?
Based on my personal experience, Spare5 is not a scam. I’ve always been paid the right amount and on time – every Friday funds are automatically sent to my PayPal account if I have a balance of $1 or more.
However, don’t take our word for it. Here are other reviews and what they have to say about the Spare5 app:
- The Wise Half states that Spare5 actually pays with the ability to earn up to $12 or more per hour with the app. The also state that the biggest downside with the app is that it’s only available for iOS users. Fortunately, with their new desktop version, you can easily access it from your Android device’s web browser.
- Katy Kicker wrote a full review on Spare5 and states that she’s earned over $70. At times, she even states that she’s earned $.45 cents per minute from England, meaning she’s earning at a rate of $27/hour! Keep in mind that these sort of tasks aren’t very common.
- Ordinary Reviews gives payment proof of the app and states that they typically earn anywhere from $.01 – $.05 cents per task. Furthermore, they’ve always been paid on Fridays and find that the tasks are quite simple to complete.
What Are Some Other Great Rewards Programs?
Just because you’ve started earning with Spare5 doesn’t mean your money making adventures have to stop there. Here are 3 of our other favorite rewards programs on the web.
1. Survey Junkie
- Registration Bonus: 250 points
- Join Survey Junkie
Survey Junkie is by far one of the best Survey Sites out there. Although they have a small sign-up bonus, they have quite high-paying surveys – just be sure to pick to the higher-paying ones.
As long as you avoid the low-paying surveys, you can make anywhere between $10 – $15 per hour, and sometimes more.
The great thing about Survey Junkie is that even if you don’t qualify for a survey, they’ll still give you a few points for participating, and they usually tell you within the first few questions to save you time.
Once you reach a minimum amount of points, you can cash out to Target or Amazon gift cards or direct deposits to PayPal.
2. Vindale Research
- Registration Bonus: $2
- Join Vindale Research
Vindale Research is one of the more popular and higher-paying survey sites. Expect to earn at a rate of around $12/hour, and sometimes they even have surveys that pay up to $50 (these are more uncommon).
The great thing about Vindale Research is that sometimes you can take the same survey multiple times per day. You even get a $2 bonus just for signing-up as a new user.
While you do need a minimum of $50 to cash out, I usually find that I can reach this amount quite quickly. If you’re going to choose a survey site, let this one be it.
Read our full Vindale Research Review
3. Swagbucks
- Registration Bonus: $5
- Join Swagbucks
Swagbucks is one of the most popular rewards sites and rewards apps out there. Earn free cash playing games, shopping online, clipping coupons, filling out surveys, participating in polls and more.
I usually find that I can earn a quick $5 just for completing a 30-minute survey. This program has a desktop version as well as an Android and iOS version.
Right now they’re currently giving a registration bonus of $5 just for signing-up as a new user, but keep in mind that this amount changes frequently. I’ve seen it as high as $10 and as little as $0.
You can cash out once you reach a minimum earned balance of $5 for a gift card of your choosing or directly to your PayPal account.
Read our full Swagbucks Review
Final Thoughts
Spare5 is a great mobile app for those who want to earn some cash on the go without using any intensive data. While they currently don’t have an Android version of the app.
Recently came out with a browser version. This means you can access it from your desktop computer or Android device.
Although the tasks payout a very little amount (typically between $.01 and $.20 cents), the amount of time they take to complete is very minimal. On average, we expect you to earn at a rate of $8 – $12 per hour, and sometimes even at a rate of up to $20 per hour!
If you’ve tried Spare5, we’d love to hear about what type of tasks that you’ve completed. Thanks for reading and happy frugaling!