Top 5 MTurk Survey Participant Recruitment Alternatives

Recruiting participants for consumer or market research can be challenging. Crowdsourcing platforms like Amazon MTurk make it easier to find survey respondents and get quick results. However, potential drawbacks, such as response reliability and data quality, can impact the results.

Explore challenges of using MTurk and the top 5 alternatives to MTurk in recruiting participants for surveys:

Top 5 alternatives to Amazon MTurk survey participants recruitment service

We conducted a research on the available survey participants recruitment services on the market. Here you can see the results of our study for market as well as academic researchers:

* Reviews are derived from B2B software review platforms

** Based on LinkedIn

If interested, you can also check out our data-driven list of survey participant recruitment services and survey tools.

Resonio

Resonio by Clickworker serves as an effective alternative for academic researchers seeking to recruit survey participants, particularly in light of the challenges associated with Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). It helps solve some of the common problems found on platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), such as low attention from respondents and concerns about data quality.

Resonio has a large and diverse group of over 6 million verified participants worldwide. Researchers can choose participants more effectively by using tools that filter and segment respondents based on specific needs.

Moreover, Resonio enhances the reliability of survey responses by implementing strict identity verification measures, including two-factor authentication and the blocking of duplicate accounts. These features, along with options for setting distribution quotas and creating custom panels, position Resonio as a robust platform for obtaining high-quality data in social science research.

Choose Resonio by Clickworker for global reach, advanced segmentation, and data reliability.

Qualtrics CoreXM

Qualtrics CoreXM is another option for researchers who need survey participants. It helps address some common problems found on Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), where people may rush through surveys without paying attention.

Qualtrics uses tools like responsive intercepts and page-level feedback. These features help keep participants more engaged while answering questions.

To reduce fake or repeated responses, Qualtrics uses identity checks and targeted outreach. This helps researchers—especially in psychology—gather more accurate and trustworthy data.

By lowering the risk of poor-quality responses, the platform supports better data collection and stronger research findings.

User Interviews

User Interviews offers an alternative to Amazon MTurk, especially for researchers doing exploratory studies. It focuses on recruiting participants for interviews and surveys who are more likely to provide careful and accurate responses.

While MTurk can face issues like bots and repeated entries, User Interviews uses automated tools to screen participants and manage scheduling. This helps reduce low-quality or duplicate data.

Researchers can also target people based on job roles or behaviors. This makes it easier to reach the right group and collect useful feedback more quickly.

Pollfish

Pollfish offers an alternative to Amazon MTurk by addressing common issues with data quality. MTurk often struggles with inattentive responses, while Pollfish uses quality checks to filter out bots and unreliable answers. This helps ensure that participants are actively engaged.

Pollfish has access to over 250 million people around the world. Researchers can target respondents based on age, location, interests, and other traits. This reduces the chance of getting false or misleading responses.

The platform is designed for mobile use, which allows for quick survey launch and fast data collection. Researchers can gather insights in real time, without the problems of duplicate or automated entries.

SurveyMonkey Audience

SurveyMonkey Audience is another option for researchers looking beyond Amazon MTurk. It helps address common problems like low engagement and poor data quality.

The platform uses AI tools to help create clear and focused surveys. This can lead to more thoughtful responses from participants.

SurveyMonkey Audience has a global panel of over 335 million people. Researchers can choose from over 200 targeting options to reach specific groups. This helps reduce false responses or location misrepresentation.

Built-in analysis tools and customizable dashboards make it easier to review results. These features also help prevent duplicate participation and improve the overall quality of the data.

Amazon Mechnical Turk

Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is an online platform widely used by academic researchers, particularly psychological researchers, to collect data for survey-based research.

Figure 1. Summary of how Amazon mechanical Turk works

Much research has been conducted on the reliability of MTurk survey responses, and a study claims that 10% of respondents are responsible for 40% of the responses on the platform.¹ It has also been shown that the data quality of respondents has significantly decreased since 2018.²

Here, we review the challenges of Amazon MTurk and propose some solutions:

1- Speeders

Some respondents typically do not read the questions carefully and expend little effort to provide proper answers. Recent research reveals that among MTurk workers with a 98% approval rate, nearly 25% failed at least one attentional check question in surveys.³ Investigations into the reasons for this inattentiveness show that prior experience with the technology significantly diminishes attention..

Solution/recommendation: Implement attentional check questions and remove those who fail to pass. Conducting post-hoc statistical analysis can also help detect fraudulent respondents.

2- Cheaters

A study showed that 5% to 7% of participants intentionally provide wrong or misleading responses.⁴ Some respondents also claim to be in another country while, in reality, they are not. Studies also show that this may take up to 10% percent of respondents, and the same study showed that they change their locations using a VPN to meet the survey requirements.⁵

Solution/recommendation: Track the response time in seconds per item (SPI) as an important validity indicator and integrate tools to detect suspected VPN IP addresses to prevent participation from those addresses. ⁶

3- Bot accounts

Contrary to MTurk’s mission and business model, which relies on human intelligence in solving tasks, sometimes bots are used to complete the surveys automatically, and creating distortions in the results. 

Solution/recommendation: Utilize reCAPTCHA at the beginning or at the end of the survey to detect bot accounts.

4- Participants who take the survey multiple times

Research on Amazon MTurk survey showed that almost 20% of respondents take the surveys multiple times, decreasing the reliability of the survey responses.

Solution/recommendation: Disable the same IP addresses filling the survey more than once by implementing third-party tools.

FAQ

Further Reading

• 4 SurveyMonkey Audience Alternatives
• Top 4 Qualtrics Competitors
• Top 5 Pollfish Alternatives
• Market Survey Research: Benefits, 3 Use Cases & Tips
• Online Survey Analytics: How It Works & 5 Essential Tips

Here is also our data-driven list of market research tools.

Please contact us if you have any additional questions about conducting surveys.

External Links

• 1. Mechanical Turk: Potential Concerns and Their Solutions.
• 2. Chmielewski, M., & Kucker, S. C. (2020). An MTurk crisis? Shifts in data quality and the impact on study results. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 11(4), 464-473. Accessed: 10/May/2024.
• 3. Saravanos, A., Zervoudakis, S., Zheng, D., Stott, N., Hawryluk, B., & Delfino, D. (2021). The hidden cost of using Amazon Mechanical Turk for research. In HCI International 2021-Late Breaking Papers: Design and User Experience: 23rd HCI International Conference, HCII 2021, Virtual Event, July 24–29, 2021, Proceedings 23 (pp. 147-164). Springer International Publishing. Accessed: 10/May/2024.
• 4. Ahler, D. J., Roush, C. E., & Sood, G. (2019). The micro-task market for lemons: Data quality on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Political Science Research and Methods, 1-20. Accessed: 10/May/2024.
• 5. Cobanoglu, C., Cavusoglu, M., & Turktarhan, G. (2021). A beginner’s guide and best practices for using crowdsourcing platforms for survey research: The case of Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Journal of Global Business Insights, 6(1), 92-97. Accessed: 10/May/2024.
• 6. Chmielewski, M., & Kucker, S. C. (2020). An MTurk crisis? Shifts in data quality and the impact on study results. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 11(4), 464-473.Accessed: 10/May/2024.