Last Updated on 25 August 2025 by Dan Wilderness
Hello everyone! Here at the Financial Wilderness we’ve been of a long term opinion that getting cashback on your online shopping is well worth it when shopping online. With this in mind, we’ve previously reviewed both TopCashback and QuidCo here at the Wilderness (see links for the detail) – but today I’m doing a comparison of the two to review if TopCashback or QuidCo is the better option when shopping online.
(Please note: The Financial Wilderness may also receive a small payout if you make a purchase through a link on this site. It won’t affect the service you receive and we recommend only what we honestly believe to be the best available, not what gives us commission. You can read more about our affiliate policy on our disclaimers page.)
A quick guide to cashback websites
A quick explainer for those new to cashback. A cashback site provides a link to most online websites where you can shop. However, if you make a purchase after being referred from another website the shop will sometimes pay what is effectively a referral fee”for the sales lead they have provided to you.
If you route via a cashback website, the site will claim this referral fee on your behalf, take a small amount for themselves and pay you the rest.
This is effectively getting some money off when making a purchase you would make anyhow! It doesn’t affect the service you receive from the merchant in any way so there’s no real reason not to do it – the worst thing to happen is that you occasionally get failure to track the cashback and don’t get paid the money you were expecting.
TopCashback vs. QuidCo Comparison
Both TopCashback and QuidCo fundamentally do the same thing in terms of giving you a payout when they shop online.
However why we’re conducting this review today is each site in practice has differences – the payout rate, bonus earning opportunities, interface/ease of use and payout methods vary between the two.
So let’s get comparing!
Best Cashback Payout Rate
Let’s face it, the main thing most people will want from their cashback site is to maximise earning opportunities.
In practice, the rates of cashback can slightly vary between different cashback retailers. I am signed up with both so my usual approach is to go and run a comparison against the other.
In thinking about how I could keep this test as fair and representative as possible, I’ve started by taking a list of the 50 biggest UK retailers by volume. I’ve listed them as long as they met the following conditions:
- They were listed on both Topcashback and QuidCo
- The product offering was limited to a very small selection of products.
- There were no other onerous restrictions.
- Some of the retailers below had better cashback rates on very specific products. I have taken the rate available for all general purchases for an existing customer, to try and minimise impact of specific offers.
- Rates were applying the TopCashback Plus and QuidCo Premium opt-ins.
If they didn’t meet all three of these, I went to the next biggest in the list.
Finally, it goes to say these were correct at time of writing but are subject to change all the time.
| Retailer/Cashback Merchant | TopCashback | QuidCo |
| Argos | 1% | 0.5% |
| Marks and Spencer | 1% | 0.8% |
| ASOS | 2.22% | 3.2% |
| John Lewis | 1.05% | 0.8% |
| H+M | 1.11% | 0.8% |
| JD Sports | 2% | 1.6% |
| Boots | 4% | 5% |
| Currys | 1% | 0.8% |
| BooHoo | 4% | 4% |
| Matalan | 8% | 0.8% |
Whilst there were exceptions, this clearly favours TopCashback as generally paying higher cashback rates overall – although not by huge amounts.
TopCashback vs. QuidCo Cashback Rate Comparison Winner
TopCashback. It had the best rate in 7 of the 10 comparisons performed, and had a significantly better rate at Matalan. However, the lack complete winning shows there can still be benefit in checking multiple cashback sites.
I will also note that both cashback sites offer a cashback rate guarantee, where if beaten by another site you can send in evidence and they will match or guarantee the cashback.
TopCashback Vs. QuidCo Bonus Promotions Comparison
Both TopCashback and QuidCo tend to offer fairly frequent promotions where either an additional fixed £ amount is paid on a purchase or an enhanced cashback may be paid on a certain purchase.
These usually need to be opted in for before making a purchase. Both sites will tend to fairly prominently feature these on the front page of their websites, and also social media channels.
TopCashback vs. QuidCo Bonus Promotions Comparison Winner
QuidCo. Purely anecdotal here but I found I was able to get a larger range of bonuses and promotions with QuidCo. Whilst both sites featured some good bonus rates for the day, I was able to get some really good themed offers from QuidCo where I’d have saved considerable money.
A good example of these was a World Book Day promotion, which gave a £10 credit when spending £50 or more with a wide range of UK booksellers. As you could combine this with other sale offers as well, this really did represent a considerable saving, and if you target it well, can actually improve on the lower cashback rates we saw above to create a better rate.
TopCashback Vs. QuidCo Interface Comparison
Both TopCashback and QuidCo tend to have very similar setups, with highlighted promotions and bonus rates featured on the main page.
Account details with a summary of your cashback and a search bar are at the top with both. Searching for a merchant with either brings down a drop to select the specific merchant.
Clicking into a specific merchant will take you a page that will show you percentage cashback to be paid out on specific items with relevant links to that retailer.
Both sites have good mobile apps that worth in similar ways.
TopCashback vs. QuidCo Cashback Rate Comparison Winner
Draw. Both TopCashback and QuidCo are very similar in layout and both work pretty well.
If you forced me to make a choice, I do find TopCashback’s layout a little cleaner and easier to follow but I think much of this comes down to personal preferences – they’re both pretty easy to follow.
TopCashback Vs. QuidCo Payout Comparison
For both cashback providers you have a variety of cashback options – you can simply withdraw your money as cash via a bank transfer or a PayPal transfer.
However, both feature the opportunity to withdraw your money as gift cards for various retailers. These usually come with an extra percentage top-up as part of your withdrawal, so are well worth taking as the approach if you can.
The retailers on offer have a core of similar high street names, but there’s a little bit of variety between the two. I’ve picked a sample of the extra payout rates from big names retailers to do a comparison between the payout rates on the two.
All rates correct at date of original writing of this article – I have also selected only retailers which are available on both in order to maximise our ability to compare.
| Retailer / Cashback Merchant | QuidCo | TopCashback |
| Number of Cashback Retailers | 55 | 85 |
| M&S | 5% | 6% |
| Tesco | 4% | 5% |
| Sainsbury’s | 4% | 4% |
| Amazon | 2.75% | 2% |
| Costa | 10% | 10% |
| Pizza Express | 10% | 10% |
| Argos | 6% | 6% |
| Dining Out Card | 15% | 15% |
TopCashback vs. QuidCo Cashback Payout Comparison Winner
TopCashback. Whilst in practice a number of rates were very similar, we saw slightly higher rates from TopCashback in the Supermarket sector in particular.
However in QuidCo’s favour here is the slightly higher percentage on a cashout with Amazon, which is always going to be popular choice as a cashout option.
Overall TopCashback vs. QuidCo Comparison Winner
TopCashback, but we still advocate signing up for both TopCashback and QuidCo
There’s not huge amount of differences between the two services, but if you were only signing up for one our testing has showed that on average TopCashback will give you a higher percentage of cashback at most retailers, and also has potential to give a higher payout ratio when removing giftcards.
However, because QuidCo tend to run very beneficial promotions on selected themes and can have higher cashback rates on particular brands, when suggest simply signing up for both, and giving both a quick check for their cashback rate before you make a purchase! Then link through the best one.
We’ve summarised the overall winners in our assessment below.
Summary of TopCashback vs. QuidCo Conclusion
| Category/Merchant | TopCashback | QuidCo |
| Cashback Rates | Winner | |
| Bonus Promotions | Winner | |
| Interface | Draw | Draw |
| Payout | Winner |
Where can I sign up for TopCashback or QuidCo?
You can sign up for TopCashback here and QuidCo here.
Signing up with either will net you a small bonus for using our links (and we’ll get a small payout as well, so thank you)
Any questions?
If you have any questions about TopCashback or QuidCo please do just leave us a comment in the notes below!
And if you’re looking to save more money, check out our guide to the best UK Loyalty Apps.
We’d also particular highlight AirTime Rewards as being worth a look, as this can be combined with TopCashback and QuidCo for extra benefit.
And that’s it!
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