Since 1998, Japanese internet marketing company Rakuten has dominated the affiliate marketing and digital space, and with good reason. Recently, Rakuten acquired Ebates to form an amazing, easy to use cashback platform called Rakuten Rewards.
Apart from its impressive two-decade track record, customers can now enjoy savings from over 2,000 online stores.
Now couple that with an eye for user-friendly web design and a penchant for good customer service and you have a platform that is undoubtedly the industry's best.
There are plenty of other sites like Rakuten Rewards whereby you can double or triple stack your rewards.
With more than 10 million members worldwide, this affiliate marketing business, and now rewards platform with Rakuten Rewards, has offered an innovative way for online shoppers to save while allowing retail companies to reel in more customers.
This has been a win-win situation for both sellers and consumers.
If you're an online shopper looking to save more, chances are, you've been looking for sites like Rakuten Rewards (Ebates) to widen your shopping choices.
Or perhaps you're looking for sites similar to Rakuten Rewards (Formerly Ebates) with a higher cash-back percentage or with fewer restrictions on types of store departments you can shop at.
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Top Sites & Apps Similar to Rakuten Rewards
Since Ebate's inception, hundreds of other cashback sites rode the wave, eliciting confusion from shoppers aiming to separate legitimate businesses from shady scams.
We've gathered a list of sites similar to Ebates and scoured hundreds of online reviews, weeding out sites with bad feedback to help you save more on your shopping.
1. Fetch Rewards
Fetch Rewards is a grocery cashback platform that offers rewards to shoppers when they snap photos of their receipt. The company is based in Madison, Wisconsin, and has 2.5 million active monthly users. This is a great Rakuten Rewards (Ebates) alternative.
Fetch Rewards can be used in any grocery store, convenience store, drugstore, or club store unlike it's more popular competitor, Ibotta, which can only be used in specific grocery stores.
Each time you upload your receipt in Fetch Rewards, it offers you a number of points depending on how many required “offers” or products are in your receipt.
The more “offers” you have in your receipt, the more cashback points you'll earn.
The good thing is, it doesn’t matter what you purchase. As long as you have a receipt in hand, you can snap a photo of it and earn a minimum of 25 points for each, even if you just bought one item.
Shoppers can earn as much as 250 to 2,500 points for each offer. Earning 1,000 points will you around $1. While other rebate apps reward you with real money, Fetch Rewards only allows users to convert their points into gift cards for retailers such as Amazon, CVS, or Target.
You may also opt to donate your earnings to the Red Cross once you have a minimum of $3 in earnings.
Like what you hear? Read more in our full Fetch Rewards review.
2. TopCashBack
Currently, TopCashBack is among the best sites in the US for earning cashback on purchases. Once you’ve signed up for the platform, you get a chance to explore through thousands of stores for better prices.
Whenever you shop through the platform or their affiliate links, they get a commission from the stores. On the other hand, you receive your cashback, which you can redeem for cash, and buy those Robux you’ve been yearning for.
You never know when you will be shopping next, make sure you signup TopCashBack soon and get your cashback.
3. Swagbucks
Swagbucks, an American rewards and loyalty-program managed by Prodege, LLC, is one of the best Ebates alternatives. It was founded in 2008 and based in El Segundo, California.
In a nutshell, Swagbucks offers users rewards for completing various online tasks online like completing surveys, searching the web, watching videos, and shopping online. Each activity earns you a specific number of points (called SB or Swagbucks).
Shoppers may earn SBs when purchasing from over 1,000 retailers such as Tesco, Carphone Warehouse, Tui, Argos, Hotels.com, Starbucks, Currys PC World, and more.
All you need to do is to access the site of your choice via the Swagbucks website and make your purchase.
You'll earn 5 Swagbucks for every $1 spent. The Swagbucks website also offers exclusive deals and coupons to your favorite retailers.
Once you've racked up a number of points, you can redeem them for gift cards from various retailers including Walmart and Amazon, or you can convert them to hard cash via PayPal.
Want to learn more? Read more in our full Swagbucks review.
4. Wikibuy
Wikibuy is a price comparison website that's made to help you get the best prices when doing online searches for products. The platform works as a browser extension and mobile app.
Apart from assisting you in comparing prices among online retailers, Wikibuy also helps you find better coupon codes or better deals among multiple sellers.
If you're shopping online in Amazon or Walmart for example and have placed an item in your cart, Wikibuy automatically scours the web in search for a better price. It may also search for coupon codes for that particular purchase.
The site claims to have helped customers save over $50 million to date.
Apart from its universal product search, coupon codes, and price drop alerts, Wikibuy also offers cashback from top retailers. Examples of these are:
- 3% cashback from Microsoft,
- 9% cashback from JCPenney,
- 2% cashback from Walmart.
Once you've earned cashback credits, you can use them to purchase gift cards from popular stores on Wikibuy.
5. Ibotta
Ibotta, an American mobile technology, is a platform that allows users to earn cashback in online, in-store, and mobile app purchases with receipt submission, purchase verification, linked retailer loyalty accounts, and payments.
It is one of the best sites like Ebates, features over 300 participating stores, including Walmart, Amazon, Target, and Kroger.
The platform is available for most Android and iOS devices, and anyone can earn cashback by purchasing specific products and providing proof of purchase.
Ibotta offers shoppers various ways to earn cashback. The app displays “offers” you can purchase from various retailers. Once you've purchased the product, you need to snap a photo of your receipt to earn cashback from it.
You can also shop online on the Ibotta app itself without needing to snap a receipt as proof of purchase.
Each offer comes with a number of tasks you can complete to earn even more cash including participating in a poll, posting on your Facebook page, or writing a review or a comment about a product.
Once you've earned a total of $20, you can transfer your earnings to your PayPal account of cash it in for a gift card.
6. InboxDollars
InboxDollars is an online rewards club founded in 2000 which claims to have paid over $59 million in cash rewards to members for everyday online activities which includes playing games, taking surveys, reading emails, watching videos, and of course, shopping.
The site is very similar to Swagbucks.
Since 2000, the company has paid over $1.8 million in cashback rewards.
InboxDollars offers shopping deals in categories such as hotels & travel, department stores, supermarkets, payment plan retailers, auto insurance, health & beauty, and subscription box services.
When members purchase through the InboxDollars website, they can earn cashback at a rate of 1.5% to 15%, depending on the brand they're purchasing from.
For example, a $200 travel voucher could earn you $8 cashback.
InboxDollars has a cash-only system, so you can forego the hassle of having to convert points into gift cards or cash.
Users can claim their rewards via PayPal, check, or InboxDollars ePayment. You can read more about the site in our InboxDollars review.
7. ShopAtHome
Managed by the same company that owns popular rewards site Swagbucks, ShopAtHome is one of the best sites like Ebates. Just like other cashback platforms, ShopAtHome offers cashback when you shop through its website.
ShopAtHome has over 2,000 stores ranging from groceries, clothing, beauty, and more. Examples of cashback you can redeem include 6% cashback from Walgreens, 1% cashback from Walgreens, and 6% cashback from Target Optical.
Once you've earned cashback, you can redeem your earnings via PayPal, as a check, or exchange them for an Amazon gift card.
Apart from offering cashback, ShopAtHome also allows you to save through coupon codes. The company has partnered up with a variety of local Groupon deals, and you can earn cashback you spend on these outings.
You can also answer surveys to earn cashback.
Do note that you must make a minimum of $20 in order to request funds.
The payment takes about 30 days to go through. New subscribers may earn $10 upon signing up if they make a qualifying purchase over $25 within 60 days.
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8. BeFrugal
BeFrugal, one of the best sites like Ebates, is an online coupon and cashback website established in 2009. The platform allows you to earn cashback from your purchases in over 5,000 online sites, which include Shutterfly, Expedia, Target, Groupon, and Amazon.
Apart from their cashback offers, BeFrugal also offers deals and coupons to thousands of popular stores.
New members may earn a $10 signup bonus once they have earned $10 cashback from the platform.
There are three ways to use BeFrugal: by using the mobile app, installing the browser extension, or using the website.
Subscribers who purchase through the BeFrugal website can earn cashback that will be added to their BeFrugal account.
Installing the BeFrugal browser extension will automatically apply coupons and cashback to your online purchases, whether or not you make a purchase through the website.
Once you've earned cashback, you can redeem it via check, PayPal, or an eGift card from your favorite retailers.
9. Drop
Drop is a shopping rewards app that lets you earn points for shopping you already do. The easy-to-use interface and earning process makes it a popular choice for young consumers.
Once you've downloaded the app and signed up, you'll be prompted to link your credit or debit card. The platform works by lining up the purchases you make with your card – there's no need to select offers or log in every time you make a purchase.
After linking a card, you choose five of your favorite brands among the app's repertoire of retailers. Most of the brands available are prominent stores like Starbucks, Walmart, Uber, Trader Joe's, and Target.
Each purchase you make from these stores using your credit and debit card earns you points in return.
Once you make 5,000 points, you can begin redeeming gift cards from various retailers (5,000 points is equal to a $5 gift card).
For reference, you can get 2 points for ever $1 spent in Walmart, and 14 points for every $1 spent in Dunkin Donuts.
10. Dosh
Dosh is very much like Drop, and is also one of the most popular sites like Ebates. Dosh is a shopping rewards app that offers cashback with every purchase you make with your credit or debit card. Unlike Drop that rewards with points, Dosh rewards you with hard cash.
Like Drop, Dosh's selling point is its set it and forget it approach. The platform automatically sends your cashback without the need for scanning receipts, coupons, clicking on buttons, or typing in promo codes.
Just shop like you would normally and every purchase you make with your credit or debit card from participating brands earns you a specific cashback percentage. Dosh's average rate of return is between 2% to 3%, but some stores may offer up to 10% cashback.
Linking your card for the first time with the Dosh app earns you $5.
Any online purchase you make with participating online retailers using the card linked to the app earns you cashback that goes straight to your Dosh Wallet.
Dosh also offers in-store and travel cashbacks. Once you've earned a total of $25 in rewards, you can cash-out via a PayPal account or your bank account.
11. Paribus (Bonus)
As opposed to other cashback platforms, this free service from Capital One offers a different way of saving. Buying a product only to know a week later that is has dropped in price can be disappointing. This is where Paribus enters.
Knowing that retailers often have policies that offer refunds during price drops, Paribus offers to do the dirty work of claiming your money back.
This is unique in the cashback world, as Paribus helps you save money by backtracking your purchases instead of looking into your future buys.
Paribus does this by scanning your emails (it currently links with Yahoo, Gmail, or Microsoft email) and monitoring the stuff you purchase online (it monitors more than 25 online retailers such as Target, Walmart, and Amazon).
Once it discovers price drops, returns, and late deliveries – all of which are opportunities to get you a part of your money back, it notifies you or works on claiming a refund on your behalf.
Once the platform discovers a saving opportunity, it instantly takes action to get you a refund – reminding you to file refund requests or notifying you of late deliveries, price drops, and returns. There's no need to use a credit card for Paribus.
Regardless of how you paid, the platform keeps an eye on it.
What are your favorite sites like Rakuten rewards? Contact me if I missed any on the list.