This age of the app that we find ourselves living in is filled with wonder and promise. Apps can do help us do anything from traveling to the places we’ve always dreamt of, losing weight and living a healthy lifestyle, connect with our friends, work from home, and talk with friends and relatives all over the world for free. What’s even more impressive is that the apps we download on our phone can even help us make some extra money. Yep, apps on your phone can help you pay the bills.

You might not believe this but there are, in fact, lots of different money-making apps. There are apps that will save you cash on your shopping, pay you to fill out surveys, help you invest your cash, and even pay you to walk more. Let’s go through them now. The best apps to help you make money online.

How to make money with apps

Sweatcoin

We’re starting today’s list with what just might be the most interesting free app we’ve ever featured. Billed as a new type of crypto coin, you can generate your own coins by getting outside and being more active. The way it works is you download the Sweatcoin app, which then tracks all the steps you take during the day. For every 1,000 steps you take in the real world, you will generate 0.95 Sweatcoins. You can then use these Sweatcoins, just like real money, to buy things online.

Sweatcoin is available for iOS iPhones and Android smartphones but don’t think this is going to be a get rich quick scheme. Essentially, this is money for free but its more of a passive balance that keeps building up in the background rather than something that will help you pay off your mortgage. You’re looking at paying around 20,000 Sweatcoins for most items, which means at 10,000 steps a day you’re looking at more than five years to be able to buy something with your steps.

Google Opinion Rewards

There are two ways you can look at this paid survey app from Google. One is to worry about the very direct manner that Google is trying to harvest the data off you that it can’t elsewhere. Yes, Google knows a lot about you and is basically trying to learn everything it doesn’t already know. If you want to know how to block Google doing so, read this guide to delete everything Google knows about you . It works with Apple and Android phones alike to, which is great for all you Apple fanboys out there.

If you’re happy for Google to know about you and, in fact, would rather like to make some extra cash out of it all, then the Google Opinion Rewards app is for you. Google is willing to pay you between 10 cents and a dollar in Google Play Store credit to fill out various surveys on all sorts of diverse subjects. These surveys don’t take long to fill out so you can do them anywhere from waiting in line at the bank to taking the bus to work.

Ibotta

This cool little mobile app makes it possible for you to recoup some of the money you’ve spent on your groceries. You can even treat a bit like a game. Ibotta works with both iOS iPhones and iPads and Android smartphones and tablets.

Ibotta works with PayPal and put actual cash money into your account within 48 hours of activating your rebates. All you have to do to get your money is search for all your groceries in the app and then find any available coupons or rebates linked to the products. After that, you simply scan your barcode and then wait for the cash rewards to land in your PayPal account.

Shopkick

Shopkick is a very interesting voucher indeed. It’s interesting because Android and iPhone users who have it don’t even need to buy anything to make money. The app has eight different money-making activities that users can do to boost their balance and some of these don’t require making any purchases at all. With Shopkick you can earn money just by walking into a shop or by simply scanning the barcodes of certain items and not even buying them. There are, of course, bigger payouts available for making actual purchases but it is good to know you can earn money for nothing with this one. The only catch with Shopkick though is that your earning gift cards for the likes of Amazon rather than actual cashback.

Acorns

The final app in our best apps to help you make money is Acorns, which is trying to help you build up your investment portfolio and boost your personal finance credentials. Acorns works by taking your spare change and investing it into diversified funds that are spread across thousands of different stocks and bonds. As well as the spare change option, Acorns also has a recurring investment platform, which will automatically invest a set amount each month. Out of all the apps featured today, Acorns is the most likely to make you decent money.

Acorns is available for both iOS and Android phones. To use the spare change option you need to link your bank account to the app and then every time you make a purchase, Acorns will round up the amount to the nearest dollar, and then take the difference and invest it into the Acorns funds. This might just be the easiest way to set yourself up with an investment portfolio.

Wrapping up

We’ve walked you through five of the best money making apps out there. The likes of Sweatcoin could work nicely if used in conjunction with Shopkick. as a way to boost your earnings in your free time by performing simple tasks. You earn credits as you walk to different shops and then also earn credits performing certain Shopkick actions. As you’d expect though, these free money apps aren’t going to start easing the financial strain of modern life but if used properly could see you getting yourself free stuff.

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