7 Best Money Making Apps To Make Quick Cash With Virtually No Effort

This blog post will show you exactly how to make additional side income fast and with little effort – using the best money making apps that have worked for myself and millions of others.

best money making apps

Who doesn’t love being able to make a little (or a lot of) extra money on the side? Especially for things you already do on a regular basis – like shopping online, clearing out your closet, or filling out a quick survey.

Through using these best money making apps, I was able to make over $2,000 in additional side income so far just this year!

Additionally, I was able to save thousands of dollars, with coupon suggestions and price tracking features which are also built into many of these apps.

What are the best money making apps?

The first four suggestions in this list of the best money making apps, all use a cashback model for shopping both online and in-store.

I have personally signed up for and use all of them.

But don’t you only need one cash back app? Aren’t they all the same?

By signing up for all of them, you are able to compare the cashback offers for the same stores across all the apps before making your final purchase.

This lets you be in control of choosing the app that gives you the highest cashback for that store at that time.

Over time, you’ll notice patterns about which apps gives you the best cashback for certain merchants.

For me, TopCashback is best for Lululemon, Drop is great for Sephora, Rakuten is wicked for ColourPop and Hudson’s Bay (where my Canadians at!?), and Honey gets me a bargain with coupons at every checkout.

Tips for making extra money with the best money making apps below

The awesome part about cash back apps is that your credit card probably already gives you cashback or points for your purchases.

Pro tip #1: If you frequently buy on behalf of others (for example my parents ask me to order stuff for them through my Amazon Prime account), you can even earn cashback on purchases that technically aren’t yours!

Pro tip #2: Be that person that offers to put a group gift on your credit card and then get everyone to send you the money for their portion.

Not only will you get credit card rewards, but you’ll also get major rewards through the best money making apps below!

You also get the added benefit of being a super helpful son/daughter and friend – so that’s a plus too!

In summary, using these best money making apps, you can double dip and get additional cashback on purchases your credit card already rewarded you for!

You can also stack coupons with these offers in most cases to save even more money!

Now that I’ve given away half of the list, let me tell you a little bit more about the best money making apps out there and where you can get started (plus read to the end to see how to get free money for just signing up!)

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read my disclosure policy for more information.

Best money making apps you need to download immediately:

1. Rakuten

I’m sure you’ve heard of Rakuten (formerly Ebates), but in case you haven’t – Rakuten allows you to get paid up to 30% cashback at over 750 stores for things you’re already buying.

This includes places like Sephora, Amazon Lululemon, H&M, Colourpop, Adidas & more!

That means if you spent $100 on shoes at a merchant that is listed at 30% cashback, Rakuten would give you $30 back!

So really, the shoes were only $70!

Please tell me I’m not the only person that thinks that way to justify their purchases haha?

You can click here to sign up, see a full list of merchants and start earning cashback NOW!

Other important stuff about Rakuten to keep in mind:

  • Free to join
  • Payment methods: PayPal, Amazon gift card or physical cheque
  • Paid out four times a year
  • Need a minimum balance of $5.01 to be paid out

The $5.01 payout minimum is super easy to achieve, I promise! In fact:

My experience with Rakuten

Below is a snapshot of my Rakuten account balance to show you that it is possible to make money with it:

You won’t get rich through this alone, but it definitely helps cover some expenses!

2. TopCashback

TopCashback is similar to Rakuten, since they pay you a commission for purchases you’re already making at over 4,400 stores.

This includes places like Sephora, Amazon, H&M, Lululemon, Adidas, MAC & more!

It’s free to join and payment methods include electronic bank payments, PayPal and gift cards.

What makes TopCashback different?

  • Get bonus payouts if you opt to get your cashback as Visa Prepaid cards, Amazon gift cards or Amex Rewards cards –> which are all basically money anyways!
  • No minimum payout balance
  • Get paid out whenever you choose

If all of that hasn’t already convinced you about the extra cash you’re missing out on, then I hope this special $15 cash bonus for signing up today will help you get started!

3. Drop

I was actually introduced to Drop by one of my old coworkers, who knew one of the original developers of the app.

How does it work?

Drop works a little differently than the two above, because it gives you points per dollar spent or a fixed amount of points for starting a new subscription service or membership.

You redeem your points for gift cards to popular merchants that are as good as cash in my opinion.

Amazon, Starbucks, Lululemon, and Sephora – for example – are all places I would have otherwise spent cash, but can claim gift cards for instead.

So while it isn’t straight cash, the giftcards are taking the place of cash for purchases you were going to make anyways.

Atleast that’s the way I see it!

This week I just reached enough points to get another $50 Lululemon gift card! Wooo!

To start earning now too, sign up for Drop here and get a $10 bonus – no strings attached!

Drop-ping you some helpful tips (pun intended lol)

Pro tip #3: Drop frequently has boosted points on certain merchants, so try to save your spending for those times to get even better rewards.

Pro tip #4: Signing up for new subscriptions or memberships (such as Costco, Instacart, Hellofresh or a new credit card) often give you $25-$70 from that one offer!

Just make sure to always follow the directions carefully to make sure there are no issues tracking your purchases.

Join the 3 million+ people already using Drop and start earning extra money today!

4. Honey

I know I’m not supposed to pick favourties, but Honey has a special place in my heart.

This one isn’t really an “app”, but it functions through a chrome extension so I’ve included it in this list of best money making apps.

I originally began using Honey as a chrome extension that would scour the internet for coupon codes and offer them up when you were at the checkout page of an online store.

THIS APP HAS SAVED ME SO MUCH MONEY GUYS!

Save with coupons

You sign up and download it to your chrome browser and when you’re at any checkout page that it has coupons for, it will pop up and you click “apply coupons”.

Honey then auto types all the codes it found into the coupon code section and selects the one that gives you the biggest savings.

Get rewarded with Honey Gold

Now if that’s not awesome enough, when you shop at one of Honey’s 30,000+ participating merchants, you get a percentage of that spending back in Honey Gold.

Honey Gold can be redeemed for free gift cards and racks up pretty fast as far as cashback apps go.

For just my past couple eligible purchases, I’m already close to getting another $10 gift card:

That’s on top of the hundreds you save on those purchases from the coupons Honey suggests!

Monitor price fluctuations

This feature is the newest, even to me (and I’ve had Honey for a while!)

One day I noticed Honey started showing stats on the price increases or decreases for the Amazon items I was browsing.

This included a graph of the 30 day price fluctuation of the item and how much the current price varied to the 30 day average.

You can also add these items to your Honey “droplist” and it will notify you when the price drops.

A summary of Honey benefits

In case you didn’t want to read my ramble above (sorry I really love Honey!):

  • Don’t search for coupons all over the internet ever again!
  • Pay less for things you’re already going to buy online
  • Get Honey Gold and cash it in for free gift cards
  • Know if you’re paying too much and get notified when prices drop

I even got my boyfriend on board with Honey and he’s loving it!

So what are you waiting for!?

Sign up with Honey now to start saving (and earning) while spending!

5. Poshmark

I’m really bad about hoarding clothes.

This year, I finally decided to let go of some of the clothes I don’t wear any more, but that I know someone else will love and wear more.

Although donating clothes is quick, easy, and an all around awesome thing to do – before bringing them all down to the donation box, try listing some on Poshmark first.

I started listing my clothes a few months ago and I’ve already made around $500!

Sell clothes easily

All you do is create some listings and share them once in a while to make some extra cash!

Poshmark takes care of creating and paying for the shipping label (for a small commission of your sale).

So all you do is print off the label, pack the item (I reuse my mailers from packages I receive) and mail it off!

Give yourself a timeline and whatever you don’t sell then donate.

In the end, even if you don’t sell everything, you were going to donate it anyways right?

Get clothes at a discount

If you’re on a budget, Poshmark is also a great place to find brand name clothes for up to 70% off.

You’ll also find a lot of limited edition or discontinued items and colours.

This is especially popular among Lululemon lovers trying to track down old favourites or popular colours from past seasons.

Do you have clothes to sell??

For a limited time, get a bonus by signing up for Poshmark here ($15 CAD or $10 USD)!

6. Swagbucks

This one is pretty simple.

You sign up for Swagbucks, take some surveys, earn some SB currency and cash those out through PayPal or free gift cards!

Have you ever been stuck waiting around for someone or something?

What if you could turn that wait into cash?

Use those moments to fill out some surveys and even if it’s only an extra couple hundred dollars a year – that’s a couple hundred more than you had before!

To date, Swagbucks has paid its members over $452,000,000 and gives out 7,000 free gift cards every day!

Now I’m not saying spend all of your time filling out surveys, because this app isn’t a sustainable way to get rich quick by any means.

But use it once in a while and it’s definitely possible to earn some additional cash on the side!

Join now and start earning cash for your survey answers!!

7. Ibotta

Ibotta is another one of the best money making apps that partners with more than 1,500 retailers and brands.

There are multiple ways to earn: shop with a stored debit or credit card, link your loyalty accounts, or submit a picture of your receipt.

What makes Ibotta unique is that you earn cashback on your groceries, wine and beer purchases, in addition to the usual cash back offered by most companies on clothing and electronic purchases.

So even if you don’t splurge on clothing or electronics for yourself often, Ibotta presents a great opportunity to make some money back on your groceries and alcohol shopping.

To date, Ibotta has paid out over $600,000,000 cash to its 35+ million users.

Become one of those earners today by signing up here!

Best money making apps: how to get $45 right now!!

Thanks for sticking around to the end of this blog post and I hope you found the information helpful!

Technically from reading this blog post alone, you can make $45 right now by signing up through the bonus offers in this post:

While the above are some of the best money making apps on the market right now for some extra cash, I want to again be transparent about the fact that they aren’t going to be able to take the place of your regular income stream.

However, an extra couple hundred or a thousand dollars a year can still have a big impact.

Whether you’re trying to pay for school, buy your first home, support your family, or simply get some additional funds to cover your bills – I wish you the best of luck in reaching your financial goals!

And I hope these apps help you get even the smallest step closer to them 🙂

Please leave a comment below about your financial goals and if there are any things you’d love to learn about with respect to your finances.

My primary objective is to create useful and educational content for personal finances in this section of my blog, so any blog topic suggestions are welcome!

I hope you enjoyed this list of the best money making apps!