Check out our list of the best passive income apps that pay!

Earn money while you are on a vacation! Does it sound like a dream? Irrespective of age and status, all of us want to earn some bucks passively. 

Well, this has become a reality in today’s time. With many passive income apps in the market, earning passive incomes has become an easy way to improve your finance. So, dream big cos you might be earning money even when you are sleeping.

Passive incomes are a great way to achieve financial freedom. Most of the money-making endeavors require investing a lot of time and resources into it. Whether you start a money-making blog or invest your money in some investment plans, all of them take months or years before you can reap their benefits. 

However, there are opportunities now to make money without having much to do. The investment in such passive income jobs can be in many forms like watching videos online, taking surveys, shopping, etc.

What is Passive Income

Passive income is a side hustle that can be set up once and then does not require much of your attention and time. All you need to do is look in the right places to find such passive income apps and you can make additional income every single month. 

How do Passive Income Apps work?

There are many different technologies like robo-investors and algorithms which are behind the workings of a passive income app. Some apps are free to use but might take a cut from the money you earn on their platform while some allow you to earn more money with their premium accounts.

There are different categories of money-making apps which can be broadly classified as:

• Data collection apps – With these apps you get paid for sharing your data with marketing companies
• Cashback apps – You earn cashback with such apps automatically when you shop at their various stores
• Video watching, surveys, and lock screen apps – You get paid for watching videos, taking surveys, and letting display of ads on your phone screen (while it is locked) with these kinds of apps.
• Investment apps – You invest some money initially and reap the rewards after that without lifting a finger.
• Real estate crowdfunding apps – You can get into the real estate business with many of the real estate crowdfunding hands without getting involved in the complex process. You invest and earn; it is that simple.
• Savings App – There are many micro-savings apps that can convert a non-saver into a saver.

With a plethora of passive income apps out there, you will be able to find one which meets your income-making ventures. But it can also get confusing as to which one to choose which fits your lifestyle as well as money needs. In this post, we will break it down for you so that you can pick the app your choice effortlessly.

Some of the apps listed are truly passive which means you either invest or make a product and the money keeps rolling thereafter, without anything required from your end. While others can be called semi-passive apps, which might need a lot of effort initially for setting it up but after that the cashflow is effortless.

Some of the best Passive income apps

Shopping or cashback apps

Regular activities like shopping can help you get a lot of rewards and cashback with some of these cashback apps. Since you would do the shopping anyway, the rewards you earn through shopping is a truly passive and easy thing to do. Some of the best cashback apps are:

• Rakuten (was Ebates formerly) – Ebates has been one of the most popular shopping rewards apps. It was acquired by Rakuten in 2014 and the name of the app changed after that to Rakuten. With more than 2000 online companies in its network, you have a lot of places to shop and get cashback. The rewards go to the company which divides it with the app user. 
• Birch Finance – This intelligent app does an analysis of your spending and suggests how you can maximize your rewards points. It could even recommend you what kind of credit cards you must get to gain more rewards, based on your spending pattern. Be cautious of the fact that cash rewards with credit cards are meaningful if you pay your whole balance by month-end else interests might dilute the cashbacks you earn.
• Drop – This app is available only in the US and Canada, but it is a great app for earning good cashback. You can choose 5 stores to earn cashback from, using this app. Some of the popular stores on this ap pare Uber, Walmart, Starbucks, and Target. You can get 0.1 to 1.5{536a4c555a7f2e45c227c27aaa353c302f43202159891754233440df1d77627d} cashback as drop points using this app.

Data collection Apps

In this genre, the best apps are:

• Embee Meter CX – This is one of the most consistent earners. This app runs in the background of your phone, collecting data with your phone connectivity to Wi-Fi. Users of this app can earn up to 0.1 to 0.3 USD every day.  It is paid through PayPal and payouts begin after you have earnt 5 USD. 
• MobileXpression – This works the same way as Embee Meter where you earn money for letting the app collect data from your mobile. Not all smartphones are included in this app’s service yet. If your phone is eligible then this app can give you 5 USD per month without any work. Every new user gets a 5 USD gift card on Amazon after 1 week of allowing the app to collect data on their phones. It tracks your mobile usage to uncover patterns in an individual’s online behavior. In case you are worried about the slowdown of your device’s performance then rest assured that this app will not do that. It also has sweepstakes where you can have a chance to win USD 100,000.

Real Estate Crowd Funding Apps

Many of us might want to invest in real estate but would not like to get our hands dirty in it. For such people, there are some easy to use app which needs low investments from your side.

• Fundrise – It is full of attractive real estate portfolios where you can invest your hard-earned money. You can invest in million-dollar investment plans with an affordable amount. You need a minimum investment of 500 USD to use this app for investing in one of its two real estate investment trusts (REITs). It has one eREIT which gives you income and the other one is eFund where you invest for growth. This is a perfect app for small investors for investing in commercial real estate.
• PeerStreet – This app has some high quality private real estate loans that can pay you high interests. But to be eligible to use this app you either must have a high income or a high net worth. It needs as little investment as 1000 USD.

Investment Apps

With these apps, you can invest a very small amount of money and earn income on that. This is one of the best kinds of passive income apps since you basically earn or your earnings and savings.

• Stash – With this micro-investing app you can invest without any minimum deposits. You have templates like ETFs (exchange-traded funds) and individual stocks to invest your money in. They give you an opportunity to get started with investment schemes, but they do not manage your funds
• Betterment – It is commonly called as Robo-advisor. It is an automated online investment platform where you can open your account without any money, to begin with. You can give funds to betterment which will come out with your investment portfolio and manage it. You need to pay a small fee in return. 
• Ally Invest – This app is about diversified investment brokerage. It allows you to self-direct your investments. They also have their own Robo-advisor which you can choose to have all your money managed by professionals. You could also opt for individual investments with this app. Some of this app’s beneficial features are:
  • It has low advisory fees of 0.00{536a4c555a7f2e45c227c27aaa353c302f43202159891754233440df1d77627d}
  • A low minimum investment of only 100 USD is required
  • It has a 24/7 customer support service. If you have doubts, you can call up any of the Ally advisories at any time of the day.
  • Ally investments help you in rebalancing your investments. It keeps an eye on your portfolio and if required would rebalance your asset allocation mix.

Video watching, surveys, and Lock screen apps

There are many apps where all you have to do is watch videos or take surveys or display ads when your screen is locked. Some of the front runners in this category are:

• S’mores – It is one of the best apps in this category which is very stable and boasts of great performance. It is an android based app where the screensaver changes to display an ad in the background when your phone is locked. It does not force you to click on anything and you can completely ignore the ads and unlock your phone as you would usually do. U.S users get paid 0.1 USD per day for unlocking their phones and once you accumulate 1 USD, you can cash out to get Amazon gift cards.
• Swagbucks – This is a survey site plus video watching site with 20 legit ways to earn money available on this platform. Swagbucks is a research-based firm based out of the US. The many ways you can earn money on this app are:
  • Answer surveys
  • Book travels
  • Answer daily polls
  • Complete microtasks 
  • Buy gift cards
  • Donate to charity
  • Find hidden codes on the site
  • Take part in team challenges
  • Play online live trivia against other people
  • Print and use paper coupons
  • Provide more demographic details
  • Search the web
  • Shop in stores
  • Shop online
  • Refer this app to friends and family
  • Play games on smartphones and achieve the goals of the gameplay
  • Watch videos
  • Sign up for trial offers
  • Upload receipts
  • Play computer games and make in-game purchases
  • Get Paid to Chat Online

Swagbucks has the reputation of one of the best survey sites for passive income. You should use Swagbucks local to get the most out of it. With Swagbucks local, you can link your card with it and then earn SBs (i.e. Swagbucks points) at all the participating local stores.

If you let Swagbucks as your default search engine on your PC or mobile, you can earn rewards each time you search something on the web.

• SavvyConnect – You can earn up to 5 USD a month with this app. This app can be installed on various devices such as phones, laptops, and tablets. So, if you install this app on all the 3 devices then you can have a passive income of 180 USD annually. This app accumulates data of all your activities and then sends you surveys that suit you, based on your activities. The activities could be shopping online, apps downloaded, entertainment channels you watch, etc. You could also refer this app to friends and family to increase your earnings. If the friend you referred, installs, and completes a task on this app you get a bonus between 5 to 15 USD.
• Grindabuck – This app will allow you to earn some extra bucks with your tablet or laptop. It simply requires you to watch some videos in the passive earning sections of its website and you get paid for that. One caveat here is only users from select countries are accepted on this website, they are United States, Canada, Germany, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
• Grabpoints – Another great site for making easy money, Grabpoints allows users to earn points by completing small tasks. Some of the ways users can earn rewards here are:
  • Answer surveys
  • Download apps
  • Watch videos
  • Complete offers

The video section of this app makes it a true passive earner and it allows you to cash out at as low as 3 USD. You can earn PayPal cash or gift cards from many shopping sites with the points earnt on this app. 

• CashMagnet – This app would take control of your phone and acts as an auto-surfing device. It would surf articles on the internet. You can install CashMagnet on up to 4 phones with your account so you could utilize your old phones for this purpose. If you can optimize how to use this app you can earn up to 20 USD in a month with this. That would require a passive runtime of 24 hours. 
• Nielson Computer and Mobil Panel – This app can give you up to 50 USD a year and all you need to do is download the app. It also has sweepstakes where you can get an opportunity to take part in its drawings if you live in the United States. The company selects 400 winners to give away an amount of 10,000 USD which is big money if you get that.

Saving Apps – You can set aside a portion of your regular earnings to invest in these saving apps which can give you more money at the end of every month. Though a word of caution here; there is some amount of risk involved in such investments in some of these apps. To avoid the risk, it is best to diversify your investment in multiple apps. We will take you through some of the best apps in this category so that you can create a fully diversified portfolio where you have one for bank savings, one for stocks, etc.

• Acorns – It is a combination of micro-saving and micro-investment features. It works by rounding up your spending to the next dollar amount. You link your debit or credit card with your Acorn account and each time you spend using that card, the amount is rounded up. For example, if you spend 5.25 USD to purchase something, Acorn rounds up the amount to 6 USD. It pays 5.25 USD to the merchant and the remaining 0.75 USD is transferred to your Acorn account. Once your savings reach an amount of 5 USD, it gets transferred to the Acorn’s Robo-advisor who would then invest and manage your money. Acorn is not totally free as it charges 1 USD per month if you have less than 5000 USD in your account. But it is a good app which helps you in saving and investing your money for better yields.
• Digit – Digit works by evaluating your linked account’s spending habits. It would transfer a minimal amount from your bank account to Digit account which would passively build up your savings. It does not involve any action from you.

Conclusion: Best Passive Incomes Apps that Pay

From watching videos to renting a room to micro-investments, there is a suitable app out there for you to earn money passively. Though the money earnt is not huge, but these apps are an effortless way of earning money which anyone can do. If you can have a combination of such apps running on multiple devices, you could probably earn between 300 to 500 USD in a year, which is a good enough amount considering you practically do not have to fret much to earn it.